More than 1.25 million passengers travel on SBB’s trains every day. And approximately 90% of all tickets are purchased using self-service. Every single one of these purchases is an opportunity to display targeted advertising to commuters and those travelling for leisure: on the screens on ticket machines, in the webshop at SBB.ch or via SBB Mobile. But customers also encounter these messages when searching for information and inspiration – for example, at SBB.ch, on the homepage of the SBB WiFi free Internet in railway stations and in the SBB newsletter.

A wide digital product range.

SBB provides its advertising partners with a variety of digital touchpoints options – before, during and after their customers’ journeys. This starts with the inspiration and information in the monthly SBB newsletter, which has more than 1.9 million subscribers. This is an opportunity for advertising in SBB’s trusted editorial environment, with an average open rate of 27%. Of course, the advertisements can also be displayed in different languages. Timetable and information searches and ticket sales on SBB.ch or via SBB Mobile offer 3.5 and 10 million opportunities to make contact each week. In the context of timetables, messages can be displayed by point of departure and/or destination, by 1st or 2nd class, and by the age, gender or location of the passenger. And in SBB Mobile, geo-targeting is possible too. Advertisements can also be displayed on the home screens of the 1,400 SBB ticket machines – network-wide or specifically at particular railway stations or within particular networks. Lastly, the log-in pages for SBB Wi-Fi and PostBus Wi-Fi also offer hundreds of thousands more opportunities to make contact each week, as soon as the customer logs on to the free Internet at a train station. Targeting at particular railway stations or several railway stations is also possible here. In coordination with current campaigns, the individual touchpoints can be combined with each other – completely in line with the desired intensity of the advertising and the budget available.

Individual targeting opportunities.

Through the combination of CRM data (such as age, location and destination or gender) and geo-localisation (via SBB Wi-Fi or GPS), SBB provides many opportunities for targeting specific target groups across the entire travel chain. Even if characteristics that would enable the customer to be identified are naturally excluded, scatter losses can be significantly reduced in this way.

Just a few examples:

• Elisabeth, 72, is looking for the best rail link for her walking trip to Grisons with her friends. An advertisement for a spa resort in Grisons is displayed.
• Max, 19, is going to a football final in Basel. During the train ride from Bern to Basel, he is shown an advertisement for a brand of crisps on SBB Mobile.
• Sonja, 35, regularly uses SBB Wi-Fi at Zurich main station. She sees an advertisement for a women’s clothing store near the railway station, which is advertising a summer discount. There are many other possible customer journeys. 

SBB’s Digital Advertising Team is always on hand to give its advertising partners individual advice on how to create the perfect mix of channels for each target group.