To persuade people to take the train rather than booking a flight or jumping in their cars, Mother London commissioned Craig David to write a soulful ballad for mother nature, entitled Better Days. According to the agency, the song “associated taking the train with a brighter, greener and better future”.

Impressively, the track carries its Trainline brand associations very lightly, focusing largely on the love story element (although Craig David does squeeze in a chorus line about travelling by train).

The song is accompanied by an animated video starring a cartoon version of the musician, who embarks on a train journey that only becomes more surreal as the film progresses. What starts innocently enough at a city station becomes an epic trip underwater, across the plains and even into the stars, where Craig David is met by, obviously, a space whale.

As well as the film, the ad campaign saw the musician sit down with social media’s favourite trainspotter, Francis Bourgeois, to chat about the power of music and train travel.

Credits:
Trainline: I Came By Train
Category: Music-Brand Partnership
Entrant: Mother London
Client: Trainline
VP Brand: Jo McClintock
Head of Brand and Creative: Natalie Marques
Senior Brand Manager: Gideon Jinadu
Global Head of Content and Creative: Mariel Reed
Creative Lead: Leo Mackillop
Senior Communications Manager: Kate Howarth
Senior Marketing Manager: Jess Wilde
Social Media Manager: Imogen Shaw
Content Manager: Holly Rutter
Creative Agency & Strategy: Mother
Creative Director: Larry Seftel
Creatives: James Sellick, Lottie Sole
Head of Design: Ben McNaughton
Business Lead: Jo Goldberg
Mothers: Ollie Felts, Daisy Bairamian
Lead Mother: Sophie Holt
Nanny :Sabine Nguyen
Strategy Director: Omar El-Gamal
Strategist: Anna Jenkins
Producer: Nat Curren
Producer: Sarah Allen
PR: Tom Wong
Production Studio: Stink Films
Executive Producer: Jeremy Smith
Animation Studio: Golden Wolf
Executive Creative Director: Ingi Erlingsson
Managing Director: Dotti Sinnott
Executive Producer: Tan Jones
Creative Director: Ewen Stenhouse
Head of Production: Heidi Stephenson
Art Direction: Dan Burgess
Animation Lead: Stephanie Mercier
Producers: Larissa Miranda, Heidi Stephenson
Production Manager: Lucy Caetano
Production Assistants: Alex Young, Luna Gosling
Storyboard: Stephanie Mercier, Lea Rey-Mauzaize, Esther Cheung, Johnny Cardoso, Markus Gansel, Rebecca Oddy, Ian Chan
Design: Cesar St Martin, Johnny Cardoso, Helena Loundjani, Julian Roels, Maciej Sidorowicz, Simon Demaret, Surendra Rajawat, Tiago Calliari, Ravenel Rieck, Eric Cousin, David Manigault
Animation: Thomas Eide, Eliot Lockwood, Matthew Armitage, Rory Bryne, Natalia Bedrossian, Mila Obelleiro, Reed Wiles, Ian Chan, Theodor Colin, Billy Mpetha, Mrunal Khairnar
FX Animation: Tim Whiting, Kensei Thomas
3D: Tom Purrington, David Calvet, Pierre Clenet
Compositing: Ian Pinder, John Wilkinson, Michael Muller, Stefan Ahmad, Pierre Morin, Karl Fekete, Jo Baaklini, Mathieu Durand
Additional Animation: Club Camping, Rudo
Clean Up: Pudoctupus
Talent Director: Henry Purrington
Digital agency: Byte/Dept®
Lead Creative Planner: Sasha Jackson
Creative Planner: Sophie Lock
Creative Director: Bel Moretti
Head of Design: Liam Thomas
Account Planner: Molly Patrick
Business Director: Melanie Hughes
Lead Senior Producer: Tara Oliver
Production Executive: Viridian Kerr
Production: Rich Power Films
Head of Paid Social: Charlotte Scorer