News

South West Trains, owned and operated by the Stagecoach Group, announced today the appointment of Emperor as its new digital agency, following a four-way pitch.

Emperor, a Design Week Top 25 agency, will work alongside South West Trains to redevelop its website and provide ongoing digital consultancy and marketing services to support its website strategy.

Lucy Thornton, Head of Marketing at South West Trains said: “Improving the online experience and creating a more customer-centric site is extremely important to us and we are looking forward to unveiling our dynamic new site in early summer 2009”.

Key features of the new website, which will be available to the 185 million passengers who use South West Trains services each year will include:

• Personalised area for regular travellers with mobile updates on service information and interruptions and offers and incentives
• Dynamic and interactive journey planning tools
• Mobile access for users to see real-time train running information

Ruth Hoskins of Emperor said: “We are very excited about working with South West Trains to revamp its website and create a rich and rewarding user experience for its customers”.

ENDS

For further information, please contact: Lucy Thornton, Head of Marketing, South West Trains

Ruth Hoskins, Client Partner, Emperor
Tel: 020 729 9090
email: ruth.hoskins@emperordesign.co.uk

Notes to editors

South West Trains

South West Trains is owned by Stagecoach Group, which will run the region's franchise up until 2017. The South West Trains network covers an area to the South West of London, taking in 13 counties, with its main terminus at London Waterloo, with 185 million passenger journeys a year.

Emperor Design Consultants Limited

Emperor is a design and communications agency established in 1996 with 75 full time employees based in central London, Edinburgh and Birmingham. Emperor’s fast growing digital division provides digital services to a range of clients in the UK and around the world.