The Problem
Since launching in 2015, Tyne and Wear Metro’s Pop Pay As You Go (PAYG) card had struggled to gain traction. Despite being promoted with strong price-focused messaging – savings of up to 55p on single tickets and 85p on day tickets – only around 7% of adults were using Pop PAYG.
The pandemic changed travel patterns dramatically. Many people were making fewer journeys, working from home, and returning to offices only part-time. Traditional season tickets no longer made sense for these passengers, yet they were still buying paper tickets rather than switching to the more convenient and cost-effective Pop PAYG option.
Metro needed to change customer behaviour, moving them away from paper tickets and towards Pop PAYG. But after years of price-led messaging, they needed a fresh approach that would resonate with post-pandemic travel habits.
The Intelligent Idea
We used Brainwave to identify the emotional barriers preventing uptake and the stimuli that could overcome them.
Working with Metro’s marketing team, we identified benefits beyond price that would appeal to the new reality of hybrid working:
Convenience: Pay as you go flexibility for irregular travel patterns
Safety: Reduced contact points – no need to visit ticket machines
Ease: Top up online from home
Value: Cheaper than cash tickets without the commitment of season tickets
The insight was simple: paper tickets were a relic of pre-pandemic travel habits. In the new world of flexible working, they were outdated, inconvenient, and unnecessary.
The Solution
We developed Say Goodbye to Paper Tickets—a campaign that literally showed paper tickets becoming obsolete.
The creative concept used striking origami images (an elephant, a swift, and a boat) crafted from redundant Metro tickets. Each origami creation came with its own related sub header, visually demonstrating that paper tickets belonged to the past while persuading customers to embrace the flexibility and savings of Pop PAYG.
The imagery was distinctive, memorable, and carried a clear message: paper tickets are obsolete—it’s time to move on.
The campaign ran across:
• On-system advertising
• Out of home (OOH)
• Door-drop
• Digital formats
All executions combined the compelling visual metaphor with price-led copy, encouraging customers to change their travelling habits from paper tickets to Pop PAYG cards.
The Results
The impact has been transformative:
Pop PAYG usage increased to 20% of all Metro journeys—that’s 1 in 5 customer journeys now using Pop PAYG, the highest usage since the card launched over 7 years ago.
520% increase in online purchases
Customer awareness rose to 75%—addressing what had always been a fundamental barrier to purchase.
In less than a year, we helped Metro nearly triple the adoption of a product that had languished for seven years. We did it not by shouting louder about price, but by reframing the conversation entirely – showing customers that their old habits were literally outdated, and giving them permission to embrace a better way to travel.
Sometimes the most intelligent idea isn’t about adding more information. It’s about showing people, as clearly as an origami elephant, that it’s time to leave the past behind.
The Happy Client
We are delighted with the results.
