Via Rail Canada wants Canadians to know they can find new trains on its tracks, but not on its ads.

The crown corporation’s recently-launched campaign, called “Nobody Knows,” was designed by Cossette and Via Rail to inform the public about the 32 new train sets that are planned to be in operation in the corridor between Quebec City and Windsor by the end of 2025. But the signage campaign was designed without any pictures of the new trains, a decision that draws from the anecdotal insight that the brand found much of the public was unaware about Via Rail’s new trains.

The campaign’s goal is to use humour, as well as an eye-catching black-and-yellow design to send the simple message to travelers to check out the new trains. Via Rail says it saw significantly increased traffic to its website days after the campaign started. The OOH element acts as a teaser for an online campaign that shows off the new trains in more detail.

The campaign represents a friendlier and more personable tone for the brand, something that Via Rail chief communications and marketing officer Brigitte Dagnault says is less corporate and more authentic, without taking itself too seriously. It’s also designed to match what they see as a strength in the feedback they receive from customers, which is in the experience and helpful team in station and on board its trains.

“It’s fun, authentic and simple but not simplistic. We wanted to get closer to people to realize that we care for clients, and bring them closer to the brand,” Dagnault tells strategy.

“We really wanted the core brand campaign to have the same strengths that we see in [our] customer experience.”

Dagnault notes that the shift in tone represents an internal excitement around the company taking on a more modern vision under the direction of president Mario Péloquin, who was appointed to the role last summer.

Cossette art director Jessica Fecteau says the campaign is designed to reach a broader audience through its self-aware, humourous approach. She adds that coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Via Rail’s campaigns mostly focused on recapturing existing customers through the comfortable and aspirational elements of traveling. Fecteau notes that the campaign was designed to be more direct to reach the general public.

“We wanted to speak to more cultural elements, and we felt that humour was a better way to engage this audience and speak to a bigger range of people,” Fecteau says.

“It really stands outs, and the message remains, it’s very clear. You learn the news, and you remember it because you’re curious about the fact that there’s no photo of the train. So I think that’s also what’s driving people to the website to search photos of the new train.”

Fecteau adds that the simple campaign was also designed to respond to people’s short attention spans, so that it would capture people’s gaze quickly and cut through the noise with witty, honest humour so that the audience will retain its message.

Dagnault says the goal of the creative is to grow through acquiring new customers, and to “steal market shares from the car,” in trips that the brand feels “the train can win.” This includes weekend getaways, visiting friends and family or business trips. Dagnault adds that Via Rail is seeing more customers traveling with them for leisure reasons.

Touche! assisted as a media partner on the campaign to reach a target audience of drivers and public transit users. To do this, they sought out strategically chosen points of contact to reach this audience including buses, bus shelters, highway billboards and the metro.

The campaign first ran in Toronto and Ottawa from May 8 to June 4, and is now running in Montreal until the end of the month, through OOH and digital media.