Heathrow Express
Reclaiming purple. Reinstating pride. Redefining premium.
The Context
In 2024, we worked with Heathrow Express (HEx) to help them launch a refreshed, premium brand expression.
This came about after the Elizabeth line became a core competitor for HEx when it launched in 2022.
From a customer’s perspective, the Elizabeth line ticks a lot of boxes. It’s easy and affordable – offering transportation to and from any tube station in London to Heathrow airport.
It has clout and intrigue, a new, spacious tube line voted the best architectural asset in London. On the other side, Heathrow Express remains the fastest way from Central London to Heathrow Airport, an advantage over the Elizabeth line.
Since 1998, Heathrow Express has welcomed over 100 million passengers to enjoy their 15-minute, every 15-minutes direct service. They were the first train company to launch eTickets, as well as a fully functioning ticket app, allowing flyers to travel to their destinations with ease and efficiency.
And they made London Paddington the first railway station in the UK to include Flight Information Display Screens for added convenience.
The Opportunity
So, how do we go about repositioning an established brand against its new competitor?
The answer was to motivate Heathrow Express to stand up and defend its territory. And the most emotive way of doing that was to reinstall pride in what made HEx special in the first place – the only dedicated and elevated travel experience connecting London to Heathrow Airport. A service designed with the flying traveller in mind, for a hassle-free travel experience.
Elevating Brand Identity
Starting with the role of purple. Despite confusion over the colour purple with other airport transport providers, Heathrow has always been a purple brand and synonymous with a premium experience. Any thoughts of diluting or moving the HEx experience away from this were quickly sidelined in favour of an approach to ‘reclaim the purple’.
Not only would HEx Purple become more energised, but it would expand to become a spectrum of purples all built around the core purple at the heart of any Heathrow brand experience, culminating in a set of dynamic purple gradients that would pulse across every brand touchpoint.
The design principle to ‘elevate’ also informed our approach to typography. A custom typeface, called HEx, enabled extended characters to be embedded within the typeface. Creating greater visual impact for emotive campaign messaging, further bringing to life a more expressive brand built around key service features such a speed, space and seamless travel.
A simple kit-of-parts that will enable Heathrow Express to be more visually expressive, connect with customers and elevate that seamless travel experience.
Ryan Miller, Design Director at The TeamThe HEx experience has always been a premium one – it's spacious, comfortable, smooth and speedy. If you need to get to and from the airport directly, you know you can rely on HEx to get you there on time. HEx has been doing a lot of things right for a long time, so this was very much a process of re-energizing all that was good and elevating it in a way that was more expressive and emotive for passengers
Redefining a Tone of Voice
It was important for us to understand the brand strategy to help define a set of tone of voice principles to complement a new refreshed presence in market. Insight had driven our strategists to a clear conclusion that HEx was the only train travel that could provide an elevated travel experience connecting London to Heathrow Airport.
And the key USP of time had driven The Team to define three core experience pillars reflecting that travellers on the Heathrow Express could:
- enhance their time, enjoying plenty of luggage space, on board entertainment, comfy seats and the option to travel in Business First.
- reduce their time with dependable train services every 15 minutes. 15 minutes direct travel and option of a Fast Track.
- secure their time with HEx is guided by a dedicated team before, after and during the experience”.
- HEx ultimately was and is an experience, rather than a means to an end. Driven by four core values of efficiency, comfort, convenience and joy, we installed three key tone of voice principles – expressive, approachable and clear. These principles guide all of HEx’s communications, both internally and externally.
Venetia Taylor, Copywriter at The TeamI worked closely with the designers to understand specific graphic design terminology, and how to express the visual language within my copy. With our mission and audience front of mind, my aim as a copywriter was to be engaging, concise and impactful, to best communicate the refreshed HEx brand
The Result
As a result of a newly formed toolkit, including a clearly defined tone of voice, HEx was able to create a reaffirmed sense of pride for an established, premium brand.
The refreshed HEx brand:
- Is more visually expressive, enabling deeper connection with customers and an elevated, seamless travel experience
- Leads with a lively, energetic, fresh and upbeat tone of voice with emphasis on key dynamic words.
We can increase your brand's impact
We are The Team of experts.
During our forty years of doing what we love, we’ve developed brands for The Beatles and the NHS and looked after employees at BP and Heathrow, to name just a few.
When you work with us, our consultants, strategists, writers, designers and project managers become a part of your team.
We create trust and deliver exceptional results, taking your brand to new levels of success.
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