The document summarizes the re-branding of PTI Cymru Ltd to Traveline Cymru. There was confusion between the two brands, with PTI Cymru Ltd being more industry-facing and Traveline Cymru being customer-facing. The re-branding process included developing a new logo, website, stationery, and marketing materials featuring the Traveline Cymru brand. Research like focus groups provided positive feedback on the new brand. While challenging internally, the re-branding was deemed a success with customers and partners congratulating Traveline Cymru on the change.

1. Re-branding Exercise
Traveline Cymru
2009
Author:
Jo Foxall
MarketingManager,TravelineCymru
T:02920344593
E:jfoxall@travelinecymru.info

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Introduction
PTI Cymru Ltd was formed in 1999 and is a not-
for-profit business primarily funded by the Welsh
Assembly Government, whose core purpose is to
provide impartial travel information about all forms
of public transport in Wales.
The company does this under the brand name
Traveline Cymru, by collating information from local
authorities, bus, coach and train operators, and then
making this information available to the public via
a call centre, a journey planning and timetable
look-up website, a text messaging service and
a newly launched mobile internet service.

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PTI Cymru Ltd vs
Traveline Cymru
In 2008, after 9 years of operation it became
apparent that there was some confusion
surrounding the relevance of PTI Cymru Ltd next to
the Traveline Cymru brand. One pretty much was the
other but each had a separate identity – Traveline
being customer facing and PTI Cymru Ltd being
more of an industry linked brand.
Evidence of this confusion could be seen through
some local authorities, regional consortia and bus
operators promoting Traveline Cymru for public
transport information and some promoting
PTI Cymru Ltd.
This became a problem for us in terms of marketing
as it confused both internal and external customers
(both within the industry and the wider general
public). Employees of PTI Cymru Ltd did not see
themselves as on the same team as employees of
Traveline Cymru and vice versa. Industry partners
knew the company as PTI Cymru Ltd yet the wider
general public had no idea which was which and
indeed why it mattered anyway. The confusion
diluted our promotional messages, encouraged a
lack of understanding and trust, and also meant
that the company became its own competitor
in the market place.

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Industry Examples
This situation is seen elsewhere with brands such
as Ariel (parent brand Proctor & Gamble), Kenco
(parent brand Kraft Foods) and BMI Baby (parent
brand British Midland). Where this situation occurs,
the companies promote the public facing brand far
more than they do the ‘parent’ or ‘industry’ brand.

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Traveline Tim
In 2007 the decision was taken to change the
national Traveline telephone number from
0870 608 2 608 to 0871 200 22 33. At Traveline
Cymru we saw this as both a challenge and an
opportunity to raise the profile of the company.
We felt that a new concept, mascot or personality
was required to deliver the message of the number
change to people in Wales.
From this process, the Traveline Cymru mascot
Traveline Tim was created. And he and the number
change were officially launched by the Welsh
Assembly Government in Swansea in July 2007.
Early examples of Traveline Tim can be seen in
the logos and artwork shown.
Love him or hate him, Traveline Tim has become the
public face of Traveline Cymru and public transport
information in Wales. A marketing review carried out
in late 2008 established that the use of a mascot
or brand personality has a proven successful track
record in the market place demonstrated by brands
such as Churchill, 118 118, Kellogg’s and Lloyds TSB.

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The re-brand meant that Traveline Tim needed a
new look to fit in with the new brand image, so a
new 3D look Tim was developed. This new Tim was
far less ‘cartoon-like’ and far more credible and
his debut in his television advert for S4C was very
popular. See examples of our new Tim below:

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Former PTI Cymru
branding, Traveline Cymru
website & promotional
material
We took the decision to re-brand the entire company
to Traveline Cymru in order to remove confusion and
to strengthen and build the Traveline Cymru brand.
The Marketing Manager established a project to
include a re-design of the existing Traveline Cymru
logo, website and stationery and the changing of
all communications (email addresses, email footers
etc) to reflect the new brand. This would then be
communicated to all employees, stakeholders,
partners and customers through press releases,
newsletters, mail shots, emails, presentations
and events – no mean feat!
Original PTI Cymru Ltd letterhead Later version of the Traveline Cymru leaflet

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Process
The process the re-brand took was as follows:
Recognise the problem
We already knew there was a problem with the two
conflicting brands and the resulting confusion that
this caused.
Get stakeholder feedback
Stakeholders were asked if they felt that a re-brand
was necessary and relevant. The answer was a
resounding ‘yes’.
Obtain funding
There was funding available within the marketing
budget and the Marketing Manager deemed that
it was necessary to spend this on the re-branding to
ensure quality and integration of all future marketing
and communication.
Produce brief
A brief was developed by the Marketing Manager
highlighting requirements for all elements of the
brand, including website and stationery. We decided
that existing brand colours would be adhered to,
but the rest of the brand mark (or logo) would be
developed.

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Pitches stage
Agencies were invited to pitch their web
development ideas to the Marketing Team
and some key partner ‘experts’ in the marketing
field. From this, our agency partnership SpinDogs
& Celf Creative (later SpinDogs & limegreentangerine)
were chosen. The contract was awarded and
timescales were decided.
Development
The website was the first element of our brand
identity to be developed. The re-design of the logo,
Traveline Tim and the stationery was a natural
progression from this project. The re-brand was
done by the agency limegreentangerine.
Feedback from customers
During initial development stages of the website,
there was a link to a static image of what the new
site was going to look like on our old site. Visitors
were asked to comment and make suggestion –
feedback about the new site was very positive.
Following ‘go live’ of the new site, a ‘Tell Us What
You Think’ tab was added to the website and again
feedback was very favourable.
Finally we took the website on the road to a number
of different Bus Users Surgeries and asked members
of the general public to take part in monitored user
sessions. Everyone agreed that the development of
the website was much needed and a great success.

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Website
The first phase of development was the new
website look and feel and improvement to the
functionality of the site. Three agencies were asked
to pitch their ideas to the Marketing Team as well
as representatives from key partners such as Cardiff
Bus, First Cymru and Stagecoach in South Wales.
The agency who won the contract was a partnership
between Celf Creative (later limegreentangerine)
and SpinDogs.
The old website was functionally very good, but let
down by its amateur design, mish mash of content
and lack of editorial control within Traveline Cymru.
It was a site which had been designed based on
what ‘industry experts’ felt customers wanted, rather
than what customers had actually said they wanted.
Guided by the Traveline Cymru Marketing Team,
the approach to the re-design of the site was a
completely fresh new look, with plenty of white
space, lots of non cliché Welsh imagery and far
more customer interaction.
This coupled with a complete overhaul of the
content has resulted in the Traveline Cymru site
being considered one of the best Traveline sites
in the UK and receiving plenty of really positive
feedback from customers and stakeholders alike.
Original home page
Redesigned home page

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Comments from web users
“I think your new website is fantastic,
thank you for the change!”
“It looks wonderful and is very easy to use.
Well done!”
“Brilliant new site. Extremely useful, easy to use
and looks great. Hopefully leading the way for
improved Welsh public transport.”
“Much better, more user friendly.
Others have found they can use it now.”
**Original comments available on request.

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New Traveline Cymru Brand
Logo
The development of the website helped the
Marketing Manager understand how the new
Traveline Cymru brand should develop. So, the next
stage began with a new logo. We were looking for
something new and striking without losing the link
to the national Traveline brand.
We decided that the new logo required a new strap
line which represented that Traveline Cymru was
widening its remit to include other forms of travel
information such as walking, cycling and car sharing
and to expanding to be the only choice for travel
and transport information in Wales. The new strap
line was brainstormed internally and
‘Trouble Free Travel Info’ was decided upon.
The new logo retains the Traveline colours, telephone
number and web address but includes a high shine,
3D look to make it look more modern and stand-
out, appearing professional and competitive in the
commercial digital marketplace. Where the 3D
version is not suitable for replication (e.g printed on
bus stops), there are two and one colour versions
available.
Previous colour Traveline Logo
Previous mono Traveline Logo
Redesigned colour Traveline Logo
Redesigned mono Traveline Logo

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New Traveline Cymru Brand
Brand Guidelines
As part of the logo and brand development, strict
brand guidelines were produced for use by the
Traveline Cymru Marketing Team, any agency
conducting design work for us, any stakeholder or
partner wishing to use our artwork and branding.
These guidelines (available on request) explain how
the logo should be used, in what context, at what
size, what Pantone colours should be used etc.
They also identify how Traveline Cymru adverts
should be structured. This is to ensure that all
Traveline Cymru communications are of the
same high quality and standard.
Stationery
Next to be redesigned was the suite of stationery to
include letterheads, invoice paper, compliment slips
and business cards. This was a particularly important
exercise because this is the information received
by our stakeholders and it is important that they
understand who and what Traveline Cymru is.
Examples of old and new stationery are shown.
The old stationery was confused and tried to mix
the PTI Cymru Ltd branding with the Traveline
Cymru branding. This led to a change of logo colour
and loss of relevance. The new stationery is clearly
branded Traveline Cymru and stakeholders will now
understand that any correspondence received on
this stationery is relevant to the Traveline Cymru
services.
Original PTI Cymru Ltd letterhead
New Traveline Cymru letterhead

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New Traveline Cymru Brand
Literature
The final print elements to be developed were the
Traveline Cymru and Traveline.txt leaflets. We had
fairly been criticized in the past because all elements
of the brand didn’t match up. That was why it
was important that our new leaflets reflected the
branding on the website and in the stationery.
The new Traveline Cymru and Traveline.txt leaflets
both follow the new themes laid out by the strict new
brand guidelines. The leaflets use clear typography,
plain English and again plenty of white space.
The leaflets also feature an updated version of
Traveline Tim which shows him in his new 3D form.
The new leaflets are distributed to tourist
information centres, bus and rail stations, local
authorities, bus and rail operators, universities,
colleges and hospitals as well as many more of
our key partners to ensure that they are made
available to the general public when they need
the information.
Early version of Traveline Cymru
general information leaflet
Later version of Traveline Cymru
general information leaflet
New version of Traveline Cymru
general information leaflet

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Original Traveline.txt leaflet
New Traveline.txt leaflet

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New Traveline Cymru Brand
Other Elements
With the print and website element of the brand
development completed, our next job was to look
at the hearts and minds of our internal and external
customers.
Internal Customers
At the beginning of the project, employees at
Traveline Cymru were given a briefing by the
Marketing Manager to inform them of the re-brand.
Their help was also enlisted to ensure that any
printed materials referring to PTI Cymru Ltd
were taken out of circulation.
Once the re-brand was complete, all email addresses
had to be changed to @travelinecymru.info and
all staff using the telephone had to answer
“Good Morning / Afternoon Traveline Cymru…”.
As slip-ups could be made, an incentive
(or dis-incentive!) of a ‘swear tin’ was put in the
office and everyone caught referring to PTI Cymru
Ltd was asked to put a 10p fine in the tin, the
proceeds of which went to charity.
This exercise was particularly successful and
understanding the confusion first hand, employees
at Traveline Cymru fully embraced the re-brand.

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External Customers
Our call centre, website and text customers all
know the service as Traveline Cymru, so it was our
stakeholders and partners we needed to target
to inform of the change from PTI Cymru Ltd to
Traveline Cymru. These partners included public
transport operators, local authorities, Welsh Assembly
Government, regional consortia, suppliers etc.
This was communicated through emails, via
newsletter and the new ‘Members Area’ of the
new website and through visiting stakeholders and
attending events. Traveline Cymru employees were
also asked to request that partners referring to PTI
Cymru Ltd or using PTI Cymru Ltd email addresses
would be asked to change to Traveline Cymru.
This was a slightly more difficult exercise and is
more on-going, but with the help of some of our key
partners, fewer and fewer people are referring to
PTI Cymru Ltd.
Student bus stop campaign

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Costings
The costs for the project were broken down as
follows:
Element Cost
Brand Development: £2,190
Design of 3D Tims: £360
Print: £2,356
Website: £13,233
Focus Groups: £80
Total: £18,219

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Lessons Learned
The brand development process was a lengthy one
and had its problems. The main problem was people
(both Traveline employees and partners) continuing
to use old PTI Cymru Ltd / Traveline Cymru branded
material as they felt it was a waste not to. This was
dangerous as it compromised the consistency of the
message that Traveline Cymru was re-branding and
also made the process far more drawn out than it
needed to be.
If we were to complete this exercise again, a
far wider and more intense ‘hearts and minds’
programme needs to be carried out explaining to
all parties the importance of ceasing to use old
material, to ensure that every employee
and stakeholder is on board with the process.
‘New leaf’ door drop, streetliner, bus back 48 sheet campaign

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Conclusion
The re-brand of Traveline Cymru was a necessary
part of our development as a business into a more
proactive, customer focussed organisation but the
process is by no means complete. The process has
been a resounding success so far with customers,
stakeholders and partners alike congratulating us
on a job well done and asking why it hadn’t been
done sooner!
We continue to develop the brand through our
integrated, coherent marketing campaigns, the
building of robust relationships with partners,
promotion of the brand through events
and conferences, and continued consistent
communications with our internal and external
customers.
The plan for 2010 and beyond is to develop the
back-end of the Traveline system which powers
the website and the information available from
the call centre. This will improve and increase the
information available to the travelling public. The
new system will include the ability to provide fares,
information on forms of travel such as park and ride,
cycling and car sharing and will also allow for greater
personalisation of the journey by the user.
This coupled with the development of the Traveline
Cymru brand will improve information available
to the travelling public in Wales, will assist people
making the switch from the private car to public
transport and other alternative modes and will make
Traveline Cymru the first choice, one stop shop for
travel information in Wales.