Self-initiated concept · our own brief, our own brand
The long read
A night train that runs along the bottom of all 48 pages of one weekend paper, from Amsterdam to Milan.
The brief
The problem
A 13-hour train loses to a 90-minute flight on every comparison chart. “Sustainable” is a reason to feel bad, not a reason to book.
The insight
The people most likely to take a night train are the people who still read a whole weekend paper. Both are about spending time well, not saving it.
The idea
One weekend edition carries the whole journey. Every page footer is a strip of the route at the time you would be there: page 1 leaves at 20:02, the centre spread is the middle of the night, the back page arrives in Milan.
How it works
Footers are a surface nobody owns, so we own all of them. Flip the paper fast and the train moves like a flipbook. The back page is the only “ad”: you finished the paper and the train is still going. Its tear-off strip is a numbered booking code, one per copy.
What we would make
- 48 footers
A continuous route strip with time, place and one line per page, sky changing from dusk to night to dawn. - The back page
A full-page arrival ad with a numbered tear-off code for a berth. - Platform clocks
The same strip printed under station clocks the week before the edition.
What we would measure
- Redemptions of the tear-off codes (one per copy, so exact)
- Flip-through videos and earned press about the edition
- Bookings for the new route vs. the previous route launch
- Share of bookers who say they have never taken a night train