The short film was very well received also in the marketing and tourism industry. ST won the Gold Award at the Edi, among others, the official quality award for commissioned productions of advertising, industrial and corporate films.

For the third time already, Roger Federer can be seen as the global brand ambassador for Switzerland Tourism (ST) in 2023, alongside comedian Trevor Noah. Federer was able to convince him to promote train travel in Switzerland together, but they both have to contend with a few challenges during the shoot, such as Swiss punctuality – or choosing the right platform – and the two of them accidentally board the panoramic train to Interlaken. The involuntary journey soon turns out to be a stroke of luck, however. Since you’re never on the wrong train in Switzerland, as told by the campaign message for the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland (GTToS). 

Switzerlands Tourism’s most successful campaign

The short film for the campaign was released worldwide on 30 March 2023 and targeted foreign guests. This turned out to be a huge success, as shown by the following key figures:

  • The sales figures for the Swiss Travel Pass, the public transport travel card for foreign visitors, are an important indicator of the success of the GTToS campaign with Roger Federer. With a 59% increase in the number of Swiss Travel Passes (STP) sold compared with the same period last year, a new record was set for rail travel tickets for international guests as part of a promotion.
  • By the end of 2023, ST had recorded 82 million views on YouTube. Although the short film about the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland had fewer views than the one with Anne Hathaway, the figures relating to the session duration, the recommendation rate and the number of likes are the best ST has ever had. This is all the more remarkable given that the video is almost four minutes long.
  • The number of YouTube subscribers increased by 74% thanks to the campaign.
  • The organic reach of the campaign on social media far exceeded expectations with over 45 million impressions. A new feature of the campaign was the platform-specific, customised storyline on TikTok. The content, conceptualised by the Zurich-based Wirz Group, drew attention to the topic of rail travel in a humorous way. This generated initial attention even before the launch, as this TikTokexample shows.
  • The campaign generated a total of 872 million marketing contacts.
  • Federer’s new short film generated 330 media reports worldwide, with a total of almost 286.5 million media contacts. This was also thanks to the significant attention during filming at Zurich main station. The concentration of notable figures generated a great deal of interest on site and led to numerous posts and articles, including in Swiss such as Schweizer Fernsehen SRF/10vor10,  Schweizer Fernsehen RTS/info, 20 Minuten, Blick and Le Matin, as well as foreign media such as Vogue India, Travel Weekly UK, tennisnet.com and many more. 

The short film was very well received in the marketing and tourism industry. ST won the Gold Award at the Edi, among others, the official quality award for commissioned productions of advertising, industrial and corporate films. At a European level, for example, ST won the Rail Tourism Award, which is presented by the European Travel Commission and Eurail.