Partnership Marketing: The Missing Link in Growing Bus Use
In this Better Transport Week guest blog, Robin Pointon from GO Travel Solutions explores a surprising “missing link” in boosting bus use—and why traditional marketing alone isn’t enough to get more people on board.
Across the UK, significant effort and funding have gone into improving bus services. Frequencies have increased, fares have been simplified, and ticketing has become more flexible. Yet one challenge persists: how do we persuade more people to actually use the bus?
Our experience delivering the Buses for You campaign in West Northamptonshire suggests the answer does not lie in transport alone. Instead, it sits at the intersection of place, partnership and purpose.
Too often, bus marketing is expected to do the heavy lifting by itself — explaining routes, fares and timetables in the hope that awareness will translate into behaviour change. But awareness, while necessary, is rarely sufficient. The demand to travel is virtually always a derived demand. People travel for work, leisure, health and other reasons. This is where partnership marketing can play an important role, through engaging with those already directly communicating to these different audiences.
Moving beyond transport-led messaging
Buses for You is being delivered across West Northamptonshire as part of the Bus Service Improvement Plan, led by West Northamptonshire Council, coordinated by GO Travel Solutions, and funded by the UK Government. From the outset, the campaign was designed around a simple principle: don’t sell the bus — sell what the bus enables you to do.
Rather than positioning bus travel as a standalone service, the campaign embeds it into experiences and journeys people already value — from theatre trips, football matches and days out, to everyday access to work, education and social connection in later life. This broader framing reflects how buses support both access to jobs and opportunities as well as quality of life, making collaboration with trusted local partners essential to the campaign’s success.
Partners as trusted voices
Over 22 partners have taken part, including theatres, sports clubs, cafés and visitor attractions. These partners have become advocates for bus travel within their own communications.
For example, theatres such as Royal & Derngate in Northampton supported the campaign by taking part in on-bus photography, including pantomime casts, helping to bring the messaging to life in a way that connected with local audiences. Sports clubs like Northampton Town FC and Northampton Saints used familiar faces — players and mascots — to normalise group travel by bus for fans. This matters because trust does not automatically sit with transport operators. It sits with places people already know and love.
Shared value, not sponsorship
Critically, while some elements of the partnerships are commissioned, the overall approach is grounded in shared outcomes rather than a purely transactional model.
Partners benefit from wider audience reach and alignment with sustainability goals, while the bus network benefits from marketing activity that also supports their own promotional efforts.
This approach reframes bus travel as part of a wider place narrative — supporting local economies, cultural venues and community life. It also allows messaging to flex throughout the year, aligning with seasonal events rather than relying on one-off bursts of activity.
Evidence that partnership works
The results indicate the strength of this approach. During the campaign:
- 806 per cent increase in group ticket sales in August 2025 compared to August 2024
- Over 130,000 passengers travelled using group tickets between July 2025 and March 2026
- 2.2 per cent increase in customer trips in September 2025, compared to September 2024.
In response to the campaign, Stagecoach Midlands commented that promoting the bus as part of a ‘great day out’ can support sustainable travel while linking communities to local attractions, education, employment and the wider economy.
What this means for the sector
The lesson for the wider bus industry is clear: growing bus use is not a transport-only challenge. It requires collaboration with those shaping how places are experienced — from arts and sport to hospitality and tourism.
Partnership marketing does take time. It requires relationship-building, shared planning and flexibility. But it enhances relevance to the everyday life of audiences.
If we want buses to be chosen more often, they must be visible where life happens — and endorsed by voices people already trust.
Robin Pointon is Managing Director at GO Travel Solutions.
GO Travel Solutions is hosting a free webinar on Tuesday 16 June from 1:30 to 2:30pm for local authority officers, bus operators, transport professionals, and BSIP delivery partners to explores how to maximise the uptake of bus services through audience-led, place-based and collaborative marketing.
