Transport for Wales
Woven through Wales
Challenge
Transport for Wales (TfW) wanted to create a long-term brand platform that would help it become Wales’ favourite way to travel.
The challenge was to develop an idea that felt emotionally resonant, culturally rooted and distinctly Welsh, while breaking away from transport category conventions. It needed to work across rail and bus services, connect with a wide range of audiences and support both brand-building and tactical sales activity.
The platform also needed the flexibility to unite multiple campaigns under a single creative idea that could strengthen brand perception, increase preference and encourage more frequent journeys.
Solution
We developed Woven through Wales, a new brand platform built around a simple truth: Transport for Wales is already woven into everyday life across Wales, connecting people to places, routines and moments that matter.
The platform was brought to life through a distinctive visual world inspired by Welsh craft, combining knitted landscapes, woven textures and patchwork environments with real transport imagery. Creative territories were tested with audiences and refined before launch.
At the heart of the campaign was a series of warm and humorous TV commercials featuring puppet characters travelling through the woven world. The films combined location shooting across Wales, practical puppetry and visual effects to create a distinctive and memorable brand experience.
Importantly, the platform was designed as an ongoing response system rather than a one-off campaign. While hero assets were produced through premium film production, AI-generated imagery enables the woven aesthetic to be recreated quickly and cost-effectively for activation campaigns. This allows the platform to flex across destinations, routes and messages while maintaining a consistent brand identity.
The campaign was rolled out across TV, cinema, audio, social, out-of-home, press and digital channels. Working alongside Golley Slater Media, we also developed Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO) templates to generate hundreds of tailored destination and price-led creative variations.
Results
The result is a distinctive long-term creative platform that gives TfW a consistent yet flexible brand system capable of supporting multiple audiences, transport modes, regions and languages while remaining unmistakably Welsh.
Creative testing through System1 demonstrated strong effectiveness, with both TV commercials performing above industry benchmarks for emotional engagement and long-term brand-building potential. The ‘Dad’ TVC achieved a score of 4.6 out of 5, significantly exceeding the category benchmark of 3.2.
Early campaign tracking has also shown strong impact. After four weeks in market, one in three people in Wales recalled seeing the campaign, while between 49% and 56% of audiences rated it highly for memorability, standout and its ability to position TfW as a modern, forward-looking brand.
Designed to run over the next three to five years, Woven through Wales provides TfW with a scalable platform that can build familiarity, strengthen brand connection and support commercial growth over time.
