Book Your Comeback​​ with VIA Rail

A new campaign Book Your Comeback for VIA Rail Canada, Canada’s national passenger rail service has been released. 

Created by Cossette, in partnership with Media Agency Touché! and Digital Agency Tink, this campaign seeks to re-seduce and welcome back previous VIA Rail passengers who may have foregone the train in favour of their personal cars due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Inspired by movement, the centerpiece of the campaign is a 30s video directed by Canadian Director and Academy Award nominee Jeremy Comte. The spot was filmed at the VIA Rail train station in Ottawa, Ontario where the production team installed rain rigs to simulate stormy weather and symbolize the challenges we’ve experienced collectively. A phantom High-Speed camera (1,000 frames/s) was used to film the first half of the spot to deconstruct each micro moment and create a climate of tension. 40 actors, all reflecting Canada’s diversity, were cast for the spot. 

Working with Canadian photographer Norman Wong, Cossette sought to recreate the look and feel of a moving train, in keeping with the idea of movement,for it’s digital OOH and web banners. In addition to shooting scenes at Union Station and across the city of Toronto, the agency and its production partners also built true-to-life mannequins of the actors. The mannequins were then mounted on rails and photographed while moving at high-speed to create the desired movement effect.

“As this is our first campaign as part of our ridership recovery efforts, we felt we had to acknowledge what we’ve been through, but we also wanted to focus on the future and infuse positivity into our message,” said Louis Lévesque, Senior Director, Marketing Communication at VIA Rail Canada. “VIA Rail kept people moving throughout the pandemic and provided a safe environment for essential travel. However, as life slowly begins to resume, we’re happy to welcome back all our passengers so that they can once again enjoy the service they have come to know and love: a safe, accessible, comfortable and sustainable travel experience.”

“Movement is an intrinsic part of VIA Rail’s Love the way brand platform. Building on this feeling, we sought to create an impactful campaign that conveys emotions people could relate to. For those emotions to come across in an organic way, we focused on the quality of the craft and storytelling - choosing an approach that is more film than advertising,” said Gilles Legault, Creative Director at Cossette.