Go North East – Summer Modal Shift Campaign

Summer is peak season for the great British day out - beaches, parks, city centres, exhibitions, the works. It should also be peak season for Go North East. Instead, most of those journeys still happen by car, out of pure habit, even when the bus is sat right there, cheaper and less hassle. With 29 new electric buses and 23 new diesel buses freshly added to the fleet, and two years of ‘Get Your Bum on Board’ behind them, this was the moment to stop asking people to consider the bus and start giving them a reason to actually want it.

So we didn't sell the bus. We sold the day out - and let the bus gatecrash it in the most unmissable way possible. Enter the people you'd least expect to see waiting at a bus stop, going full commitment to whatever their day had planned. A Roman centurion, in full kit, shield and all, hopping on to ‘go see the wall’. A father and son who had clearly not stopped to think through the logistics of boarding a bus in full inflatable dinosaur costumes, off to the dinosaur exhibition in town. A gang of students, beach gear on, inflatables under arm, piling on board like the bus was just an extension of the beach itself. Nobody blinked. That was rather the point. It's silly, it's big, and it's exactly the kind of thing that makes people put the car keys down and check the timetable instead. Underneath the spectacle sat a serious message about value, convenience and sustainability - but we let the centurion do the talking. The campaign ran across TV and VOD (30″ and 10″ cuts), a 30″ cinema commercial, digital and static OOH, social and digital display - so however people were planning their day, the bus turned up uninvited.

The campaign launched at the end of July 2026 and is currently live. A full results report will follow once the campaign has run its course.