tap & go

out of home campaign for google pay

A Transport for london takeover, targeting tourists and busy commuters

London tourists (and commuters unfamiliar with the intricacies of the London Underground’s ticket barriers) often queue to buy paper tickets, causing bottlenecks during rush hours at busy stations. This was a problem for TfL, and an opportunity for Google. The brief was simple: create clear, attention-grabbing ads in high traffic stations to show people the G-Pay way, and smooth their commutes.

The ads highlighted the visual overlap between Google and TFL, using a clean, functional design with pops of Google’s brand colours applied to TfL’s classic Tube map ‘lines’. This design required snappy, effective copy to match, targeting on-the-go commuters with messaging highlighting the benefits of using G-Pay to tap through the gates. 

Once I’d communicated the key benefits through a set of ‘core’ ads highlighting speed, convenience and functionality (e.g. ‘No wait, same fare’, ‘Breeze through’), I produced bespoke, location-relevant copy for specific stations that referenced hyper-local landmarks and activities – for example, the ads at Victoria Station (in the heart of the West End’s theatre district) read ‘Showtime in no time’, with the pay-off line ‘Get to the theatre faster with G-Pay’.

The ads appeared at train and tube stations throughout London, with hundreds of placements at the bespoke station takeovers in Victoria, Stratford, Paddington, London Bridge and Liverpool Street.