First Great Western launches new website

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The new website for First Great Western launching on Friday 9th December will be the first UK train site to pioneer a cross digital platform that delivers relevant and dynamic content to its customers.

Developed with 20:20 Agency, the site has been built completely around the various customer types and the key tasks they are likely to carry out.

This means customers will only ever be a click or two away from getting exactly what they need from the site.

For Philip Edgerton, First Great Western’s Head of Marketing the most important aspect to get right was to deliver tailored content around a customer’s journey and lifestyle whilst enhancing the usability and experience of the site.

As Philip commented: “We are pioneering a site which inspires people to travel to amazing destinations.

“Half of our business is people taking the train for leisure and we want to embrace the travel experience whilst showcasing the great places you can visit with the First Great Western network.”

Also key for First Great Western was completely redeveloping the look and feel, as well as the written copy on the site, ensuring it spoke to people in plain English.

“It was important to break down any barriers for people using our site and that any perceived complication was taken away,” Philip added.

For 20:20 Agency COO Brian Taylor it was vital that the new First Great Western website would be able to act intelligently to understand human behaviour in a digital space and also allow users to interact and purchase tickets on any device.

As Brian says, “The site’s innovative use of a mega menu, the first by a train operator, will allow First Great Western to deliver relevant promotional content directly into the navigation based on user’s behaviour.”

The site is differentiating itself from other train operating companies by embracing a much more ‘human’ look and feel.

First Great Western were keen to strike a balance between the key objective of selling tickets balanced with a site which was striking and ultimately inspirational.

As Philip also says it was important that the new site was emotionally engaging for the end user; “Going forward the amount of rich content we are planning to develop will make the site a true travel portal offering tips and guides to cities.

“With specific offers and a much more engaging tone the site is an exciting new chapter for us.”

The website ties in with an overall objective for First Great Western to showcase train travel as a means of breaking free and for customers to create their own personal stories.

1 COMMENT

  1. I have rarely read such a collection of pompous, pretentious drivel, collected in such a small space. This is a ticket selling site for travel to the West of England and Wales, not trips on Spaceship One into near-Earth orbit. can I suggest you send the intellectually-challenged 15-year old work experience trainee who complied this collection of bilge back to the institution that mistakenly allowed them out to mock an unsuspecting public and employ a competent PR form to rewrite this nonsense in proper English. You can only get away with this sort of rubbish when your tracks extend to Tahiti, Bali and Katmandu.

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