1. HOW SOCIAL MEDIA ENABLED TfL TO
SUPPORT A GREAT GAMES AND KEEP
LONDON MOVING
Stuart Ross
Director of News, Transport for London
27 September, 2012
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2. INTRODUCTION AND CONTENTS
 Games Transport and Comms challenge
 Get Ahead of the Games campaign
 Use of Social Media:
 Ahead of the Games
 During the Games
 In legacy…
 Social media driving the news agenda
 Success and Legacy
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3. THE LONDON 2012 TRANSPORT
CHALLENGE
• Britain's 'largest peacetime
logistical exercise’
• Olympic Games equivalent to 26
simultaneous world
championships
• 9 million Olympic Games
spectators
• 2 million Paralympic Games
spectators
• Almost 300,000 athletes, media,
officials & other ‘Games Family’
members and workforce
• All spectators to take public
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4. GAMES TOOK PLACE IN HEART OF
LONDON
Wembley Arena
Wembley Stadium
Wimbledon OLYMPIC PARK
Olympic Stadium
CENTRAL ZONE
Aquatic Centre
Earls Court RIVER ZONE
Other Park venues
Lord’s Cricket Ground North Greenwich Arena
Hyde Park Greenwich Park
Horse Guards Parade The Royal Artillery Barracks
The Mall ExCeL
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5. DIFFERENT GROUPS / AUDIENCES
– COMMUNICATING AND TO
ENGAGE WITH
Games Family Spectators Tube users Bus users
Drivers Walkers and Mobility impaired Businesses
cyclists people
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6. ALL PARTNERS WORKING
TOGETHER TO MEET GAMES
TRANSPORT CHALLENGE
• Throughout, we had twin objectives:
• Deliver a great 2012 Games
• Keep London and the UK moving
• London 2012 Games transport strategy
had four main elements:
• Invest in public transport capacity, reliability and
accessibility
• Enhanced public transport – more and later
services
• Manage the road network effectively for all road
users
• Manage travel demand patterns to keep
London and the UK moving
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7. THE TRANSPORT DEMAND
CHALLENGE
An additional 3 million
public transport trips on the
busiest days of the Olympics
• Reductions in the volume of normal
travel, due to school holidays and
On a normal day, travel demand management, offset by
increases associated with Games
12 million public and cultural events
transport trips per • So congestion likely at hotspots at
day in London certain days, times and locations –
not across the entire network
• That’s why re-timing, re-routing and
changing the way people travelled
was so important
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8. IMPACT ‘AT CERTAIN TIMES AND IN
CERTAIN LOCATIONS’ – THE
HOTSPOTS
Roads Tube stations
70% 65%
Unaffected Unaffected
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9. GET AHEAD OF THE GAMES
CAMPAIGN
• ‘Get Ahead of the Games’
campaign to communicate
directly with Londoners,
commuters and people right
across the UK
• Information, tips and advice via
ads, posters, emails and a new
website, Twitter, YouTube and
Facebook channels
• To explain how those who live
and work in travel hotspots can:
• Reduce
• Reroute
• Retime
• Remode their journeys
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10. GAOTG CAMPAIGN PHASES
Olympic Games Paralympic
Jan-Mar Apr-Jun July Day 1 Games
Day 1
S t a g e 1: S t a g e 2: S t aPhase3: 3
S tgaeg e Stage
3: : 4:
Raise Explore Activate
awareness options options Transit-
Activate
Activat ion
options
e
options
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11. GAOTG HUB WEBSITE
@GAOTG
Twitter and
other social
media
channels
integrated with
campaign
website
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12. DETAILED INFORMATION ON
PUBLIC TRANSPORT HOTSPOTS…
Public transport
‘hotspots’
identified for
each day of
Olympic and
Paralympic
Games. Click for
more info and
travel advice
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13. …AND ON THE ROAD NETWORK
– PLAN AHEAD TO AVOID DELAYS
Road transport
hotspot areas
also identified
with ‘avoid’ and
‘expect delay’
message to
encourage
people to plan
ahead
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14. GAOTG SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS
 GAOTG Facebook Page:
 Simple presence to provide GAOTG news and info
 GAOTG YouTube channel:
 To amplify video content, ads and engage audience
 Boost PR campaign and provide easily accessible content
for media
 @GAOTG:
 Key campaign tool – distribution of messages, news and
campaign content
 Ahead of the Games – Continuous stream of information on
how to plan ahead and links to website, YouTube
 During the Games – information on key ‘hotspots’ to avoid
each day and real-time travel info and advice
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15. TfL SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNEL
SUMMARY
 TfL Facebook Page – News and information about TfL
and current campaigns
 TfL YouTube channel – Repository for campaign
videos, information films and ads
 TfL Twitter channels:
 @TfLOfficial: PR and news management
 @TfLTravelAlerts: Real-time Tube, DLR, London Overground
 @Centralline... Line-based channels for all TfL rail lines
 @TfLTrafficNews: Real-time road travel info
 @BarclaysCycle: News and info – eg suspended docking
stations – for Barclays Cycle and Superhighways
 @TfLTPH: Taxi and Private Hire – stakeholder comms
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16. TfL TWITTER CHANNEL SUMMARY
Plus
@aotulondon
@ltmuseum
@report_it
@tfl_jobs
@tfltph
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17. GAMES-TIME SOCIAL MEDIA
CHANNELS
COMMUTER
LONDONER
SPECTATOR
BUSINESS
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18. COORDINATION AND CROSS-
PROMOTION OF CHANNELS AND
CONTENT
TfL / BBC / Highways Agency Get Ahead of the Games
Get Ahead of the Games London 2012
••Help and advice on how to plan travel
Help and advice on how to plan travel
•Information, notice of disruption / during the games (background demand)
during the games (background demand) •Help and information on getting to the
planned works Games (spectator)
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19. PRE-GAMES – SOCIAL MEDIA (1)
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20. PRE-GAMES – SOCIAL MEDIA (2)
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21. PRE-GAMES – SOCIAL MEDIA (3)
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22. TfL GAMES-TIME COMMUNICATIONS
Games-time communications:
 Twice daily press notices (7am & 2pm)
 Daily Metro content (5am)
 Daily customer emails (2pm)
 Public transport users (approx. 2m
recipients)
 Roads users (approx. 1m recipients)
 Daily station posters (3.30pm)
 Daily business bulletin (5pm)
 Twice daily stakeholder bulletins (11am & 4pm)
 Regular Tweets (TfL & GAOTG)
 Ongoing online content and Journey Planner
updates
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23. DURING THE GAMES –
REAL-TIME TRAVEL INFO AND
ADVICE
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24. SOCIAL MEDIA DRIVING THE NEWS
AGENDA
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25. YAMMER FOR EMPLOYEE SOCIAL
COMMS
• A ‘sea of magenta’ so that staff, volunteers and
signs all easy to identify
• 3,500+ TfL office staff worked as Travel
Ambassadors (TAs) on transport network
• Equipped with iPads or iPhones to relay real-time
travel information to passengers
• TfL used social media site ‘Yammer’ to create
community for staff to share experiences and tips
• 11,309 messages posted by 2,104 members
• 7,243 relationships and 98% support for TAs
• Key search terms included:
• #celebspot
• #stratford
• #gla pods
• #first shift
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26. GAMES-TIME SOCIAL MEDIA
MANAGEMENT MODEL
London 2012
LU DLR LO
@London2012
Bus
2012 Transport
TfL Operational
Coordination
Control Centres
Centre Street
TfL Press TfL Customer
GAOTG ‘Hub’
Office Experience
@GAOTG @TfLOfficial @TfLTrafficNews
@BarclaysCycle @TfLTravelAlerts
@EmiratesAirLDN @Centralline
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27. GAMES SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS (1)
@GAOTG
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28. GAMES SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS (2)
Get Ahead of the Games
Total of 43,638 mentions
Understandably,
on Social Media between
Twitter dominates
Jan 1st-Sept 13th
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29. GAMES SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS (3)
@GAOTG
Average seven mentions Huge peak in Twitter
per hour Jan-Sept mentions at Games time
@TfLOfficial
More consistency for @TfLOfficial over the period
of Jan-Sept having already been established as a
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30. GAMES TRANSPORT SUCCESS
 Tube and DLR carried record numbers
– up 35% on normal summer levels
 Tuesday Aug 7 busiest in Tube history –
4.57m in one day
 Record Barclays Cycle Hire figures –
1m hires in July, 47k on 26 July
 West End Tube station footfall up by
average 7% year-on-year
 Around one third changed their travel
 Central London traffic down 15%
 Huge crowds for road events
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31. POST-GAMES – TfL / GAOTG SOCIAL
MEDIA CHANNELS IN LEGACY
 Get Ahead of the Games campaign ended
following Paralympics
 Website remains ‘in legacy’ until end 2012
 But don’t want to lose the 60k Twitter
followers who benefited from travel advice
 So @GAOTG sought to migrate them to
@TfL... channels and other operators
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32. THANKS FROM HAPPY
CUSTOMERS…
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33. TFL TWITTER CHANNEL
FOLLOWERS
Social Media Feed Followers Notes
@tflofficial 45,600
@tfltravelalerts 14,900
Total of all line feeds 51,875 14 lines including LO,
DLR, Trams
@tfltrafficnews 19,300
@tflbusalerts 2,279 Not promoted yet
@EmiratesAirLDN 1,375 Not promoted yet
@barclayscycle 6,942
@tfloyster 2,231 Not promoted yet –
customer service
@tfltph 1,902 Stakeholder feed
TfL Facebook 4,153 Not promoted yet
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34. LESSONS LEARNED AND LEGACY
 Social media an essential part of TfL / GAOTG campaign, news and
information tool – ahead of and during the Games
 YouTube ideal for ‘rich’ campaign content, promoted via web, email and
all social media channels
 Twitter an essential real-time information and news management tool –
monitoring is vital
 Social media management model with effective operational links vital to
verify facts and quickly dispel myth and rumour
 Employee social community built through Yammer encouraged staff to
build and share experiences, tips and information
 Ensure you have ‘rules of engagement’ in place – how will you respond to
incidents, requests for info… or abuse
 Even via social media, customers prefer real-time information delivered
by humans and with humour!
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35. Questions
@stuartross73
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36. SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS
INVOLVEMENT WITH THE
OLYMPICS AND PARALYMPICS
Craig Spence Director of Communications
International Paralympic Committee
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37. OBJECTIVES
• Half a million visits to
paralympic.org
• Raise the profile of 45
IPC Ones to Watch
• Dovetail with wider
media strategy
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38. PARALYMPIC.ORG
Activity included:
 TV Channel
 780 hours of live sport
 5 channels
 SMART player
 24 hours a day
 News Service
 20 writers
 50 stories a day
 Sport previews, reviews
and features
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39. CIPRsm

40. Activity included:
 Uploaded 1,000 hours of
video on demand
including Ceremonies
 24 hour a day operation
 All meta-tagged and
linked to Facebook fan
pages and tweeted to
athletes
 Playlists created
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41. FACEBOOK
Activity included:
 3 IPC fan pages and 45
athlete pages
 Stories from
paralympic.org
 Status updates
 Photos – Pic of the day
 Watch me live!
 Videos on demand
 Press Cuttings
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42. SAMSUNG BLOGGERS
Activity included:
 45 athletes blogging from
behind the scenes
 650 videos uploaded in
11 days
 Content linked to all
social channels starting
with fan pages
 Opening and Closing
Ceremony ‘exclusives’
 Share with broadcasters
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43. @PARALYMPIC
Activity included:
 No blueprint
 Ones to Watch
authorised pre-Games
 Links to stories, photo
galleries, VoDs
 Tweets to athletes about
live coverage
 Media statements
 Inspiring lines!
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44. RESULTS
 paralympic.org
 1.9 million visits
 250,000 live views of Closing Ceremony
 Top 5 – UK, USA, Germany, Poland, Canada
 Facebook
 3 IPC fan pages grew 125%
 Athlete pages up by 1,300% on average
 Jonnie Peacock – up 3,258%
 Jason Smyth – up 2,174%
 82.1 million views from 24 million users
 Top 5 – USA, Italy, France, UK and Canada
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45. RESULTS
 Twitter
 @ paralympic up 50%
 1.5 million ‘Paralympic’ tweets
 Jonnie Peacock up 1,305%
 Hannah Cockcroft up 381%
 You Tube
 9.9 million views of Video on Demand
 550,000 views of Closing Ceremony
 300,000 views of Samsung Bloggers
 Google+ 49,000 Flickr 56,000
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46. Questions
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47. Next Social Summer Sessions:
Thursday 11 October – Will 4G just be more of the same, or
actually change behaviours? – Ben Scott-Robinson, Executive
Creative Director of EMEA for Joule Worldwide, WPP's mobile agency
Tuesday 23 October – Media Relations Modernised – Adam
Parker, chief executive of RealWire
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