Amtrak
Valley Flyer

case study

branding

advertising

social media

web development

branding a new train line with equal parts strategy and creative.

we love trains. we just do. so when given the chance to create a branding campaign for the train line with the coolest name on the tracks, the Valley Flyer, we watsons were all aboard. 

the Amtrak Valley Flyer train service operates in western mass along the knowledge corridor in the heart of new england — from the coast of connecticut in new haven — through the pioneer valley with stops in greenfield, holyoke, and northampton. 

with competing modes of transportation and new england destinations, our objectives were two-fold. build a brand from the ground up that would provide the valley flyer the showcase it required to fulfill the goals of the pilot program, and with brand in hand, create top-of-mind brand awareness that puts fannies in seats. working with stakeholders across municipalities, we created everything from a variable logo, to a visual platform, and an integrated media strategy.

while our primary targets were people traveling from western massachusetts to new haven and new york city, we also targeted new yorkers traveling outside of the city. as a result, our western mass channel strategy included display & native digital, paid social, search, terrestrial radio, print, and out-of-home. our new york media included display & native digital, social media, and search. we also partnered with time out new york to execute both a special digital takeover and content creation that highlighted top attractions and activities along the train line.

for digital display, we saw 220k unique impressions with an 11% click through rate. paid social had 760k unique impressions and an 18% click through rate. and with search, we had 2,930 impressions with a 29.8% click through on brand keywords; and a 5.8% click through on behavior keywords. the campaign was so successful it was renewed multiple times, most recently in 2024 – where we saw over 100,000 page engagements on social in the first month alone!