“Swisstainable on the move” was ST’s biggest 360-degree campaign to date on the topic of sustainability and generated a total of 324 million contacts.

On 31 May 2023, the new Swisstainable locomotive set off shortly after eleven o’clock and pulled into platform 12 at Zurich main station to the sound of celebratory music for its inauguration. Much to the surprise of the invited guests from the tourism industry and the media, entertainer and ambassador for Switzerland Tourism (ST) Michelle Hunziker – who had of course travelled from Italy by train for the inauguration – waved at them from the driver’s cab.

The Swisstainable locomotive was part of a 360-degree campaign by ST and SBB, the main aim of which was to raise awareness of the Swisstainable movement among the Swiss population. At the same time, ST wanted to awaken a desire to travel by train during the 2023 summer holidays and win local tourism service providers over to the Swisstainable programme.

Total of 324 million contacts reached

“Swisstainable on the move” was ST’s biggest sustainability campaign to date. It included campaigns on social media and other digital channels, a poster campaign, paid contributions in print media, advertising as part of the “SRF Meteo” programme, contributions via ST and SBB’s own online and offline channels, an immersive experience at Zurich main station, the inauguration of a locomotive, as well as traditional media work. This 360-degree campaign was then rounded off by specially tailored hotel packages.

The measures had a real impact: The train campaign generated a total of 324 million contacts. The brand lift study commissioned specifically for this purpose revealed that awareness of Swisstainable increased by 14% as a result, well exceeding the target value of 3%.

3,300 hotel overnight stays generated with hotel packages, rise in the number of Swisstainable establishments

For the campaign, 37 hotels that are part of the Swisstainable programme put together attractive accommodation packages. For the first 2,400 bookings, the outbound and return journey by train was free of charge. This generated a total of 3,300 hotel overnight stays. There were also 42 RailAway leisure offers, with each offering a 20% discount on travel and admission. In addition to ST and SBB, the campaign was also financially supported by the public transport industry and Zurich Insurance.  

ST’s additional goal of using the campaign to attract more tourism providers to the Swisstainable sustainability programme was also successful. While the number of participating businesses after last year’s “Veggie Day” was 1,200, ST was able to register over 2,400 partner businesses after “Swisstainable on the move” at the end of December 2023.

High news value thanks to the sustainability survey and Michelle Hunziker

With the aim of to awakening an interest in the topic of sustainability in tourism among the leading Swiss media, ST conducted a representative survey via market research institute Appinio in April 2023. As part of this, people from ST’s most important markets – Switzerland, Germany, France and the UK – were surveyed. In the survey, 43% of all domestic interviewees stated that they were spending their summer holidays at home. However, only just under half of them (45%) wanted to take the train in order to do so. The survey results confirmed that there was still a lot of potential for train travel during the holidays and that the timing of the “Swisstainable on the move” train campaign was right.

ST CEO Martin Nydegger presented the survey results, and Véronique Stephan, Head of Passenger Services Markets, explained the sustainability commitment of SBB at a joint media briefing. To make the media story visually attractive, the briefing was followed by the ceremonial inauguration of the Swisstainable locomotive. Together with joint “godparents” Martin Nydegger and Véronique Stephan, Michelle Hunziker christened the locomotive, in typical Swisstainable green, with water from Lake Zurich, Lake Geneva and Lake Maggiore.

Hunziker immediately won over the 100 or so invited guests and media representatives on the platform with her hearty laugh. “Travelling by train is much more comfortable than flying,” the ST ambassador notes. After the ceremony, all three godparents were on hand to answer questions from the media and, together with the invited guests, visited the immersive experience in Zurich main station’s concourse.

In total, ST’s media work in Switzerland generated around 15 million media contacts – with articles in the main edition of the Tagesschau  and in Swiss daily newspapers Blick, 24heures and 20minuti/tio.ch, among others.

Swisstainable
The sustainability programme “Swisstainable” was developed in 2021 by Switzerland Tourism (ST) in collaboration with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. From the industry for the industry – that was the approach. The core objective here is to support tourism providers in implementing sustainability in their day-to-day operations. With Swisstainable, the tourism industry is making an important contribution to fulfilling the 17 UN sustainability goals that the federal government wants to achieve by 2030.