Submitted by YKONEAgency IPI Score 84/100

SBB CFF FFS x YKONE: Always On

Influencer Marketing

A 14-creator influencer program repositioned Swiss train travel as an everyday and emotionally resonant choice, delivering 12.3M impressions and 190K interactions.

4.6MTotal reach
12.3MTotal impressions
190KTotal interactions

About the campaign

SBB CFF FFS, Switzerland's national railway company, wanted to move train travel beyond its functional, utilitarian reputation and position it as something woven into Swiss daily life and leisure, with sustainability as a recurring theme.

Recognising that no single message or creator can credibly speak to every travel occasion in a multilingual country, YKONE structured 2024 as an always-on programme divided into four thematic strands: a leisure strand framing train rides as spontaneous personal experiences, a commuter strand highlighting flexible passes, a Swisstainable series pairing creators with eco-certified tourism partners on immersive train journeys, and a GA Pass Trial in which creators documented real-world use of SBB's subscription pass. The agency handled casting, booking, creative direction, and reporting for 14 local Swiss creators selected for regional and linguistic relevance, each addressing one or more strands rather than carrying every brand message at once, with SBB playing enabler of personal Swiss stories rather than protagonist.

Across the year the roster published 593 posts on Instagram and TikTok, and YKONE reports 12.3 million impressions, 4.6 million reach, and 190,000 interactions at a 4.1 percent engagement rate, performance the agency attributes to local, occasion-specific storytelling; figures are self-reported and no brand-tracking or ticket-sales data was disclosed.

Case in 60 seconds

SBB CFF FFS, Switzerland's national railway company, needed to shift public perception of train travel away from a purely functional image toward something woven into Swiss daily life and leisure, with sustainability as a recurring theme.

Train travel already touches many distinct life moments, from spontaneous weekend trips to daily commutes, but no single message or creator can credibly speak to all of them; local cultural and linguistic specificity matters for a multilingual national brand.

Structure a full calendar year as an always-on influencer program with four thematic strands, each tied to a different travel occasion, and cast 14 local Swiss creators to give content genuine regional and linguistic relevance.

YKONE managed casting, booking, creative direction, and reporting for 14 Swiss creators who published 593 posts across Instagram and TikTok across four strands: a leisure strand, a commuter strand focused on flexible passes, a Swisstainable series pairing creators with eco-certified tourism partners, and a GA Pass Trial in which creators documented real-world use of SBB's subscription pass.

The program delivered 12.3M impressions, 4.6M reach, and 190K interactions across 593 posts, all figures self-reported by YKONE with no independent verification or brand-tracking data available.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Swiss audiences across multiple language regions, segmented by travel occasion: leisure travellers seeking spontaneous experiences, regular commuters considering flexible passes, and sustainability-conscious travellers drawn to eco-certified tourism. The multilingual, multi-region nature of Switzerland made local creator matching a practical requirement.
Train travel in Switzerland carries a functional, utilitarian reputation. The brief asked YKONE to reframe it as emotionally resonant and naturally embedded in Swiss daily life, competing for mindshare against the car and other transport modes rather than simply communicating timetable efficiency.
A national rail operator must address very different audience needs simultaneously, from the habitual commuter to the occasional leisure traveller, without producing generic messaging that resonates with no one. Maintaining creative quality and relevance across 14 creators and four strands presented a material coordination challenge.
SBB acted as an enabler of personal Swiss stories rather than the protagonist. Creators framed their own journeys, with SBB's network and products as the infrastructure that made those experiences possible, including the GA Pass as a tangible product proof point.
Personal, occasion-specific storytelling from local creators tends to generate more credible audience response than broad aspirational content from high-reach pan-European accounts. The GA Pass Trial strand extended this by grounding creator content in observable product use rather than brand sentiment alone.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Instagram posts and stories (primary channel)
  • TikTok video content (secondary channel)
  • 593 pieces of creator-produced content across both platforms

Partners

  • YKONE (lead agency, self-reported; casting, booking, creative direction, campaign management, reporting)
  • Eco-certified Swiss tourism partners (Swisstainable series, names not disclosed)

Participation mechanic

  • Leisure strand: creators framed train rides as emotional and spontaneous personal experiences
  • Commuter strand: creators highlighted SBB's flexible travel pass options
  • Swisstainable series: creators paired with eco-certified tourism partners for immersive train journeys, with sustainability as the explicit narrative thread
  • GA Pass Trial: creators documented genuine real-world use of SBB's subscription pass over a defined trial period

Creator role

  • 14 local Swiss creators selected for regional and linguistic relevance
  • Creators produced all content personally, grounded in their own travel experiences
  • Each creator addressed one or more thematic strands rather than carrying all brand messages
  • At least one TikTok-active creator included; remainder primarily Instagram-based

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
Total impressions12.3MReach/awareness
Total reach4.6MReach/awareness
Total interactions190KEngagement

Why YKONE's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Occasion segmentation sustains always-on programs. Dividing a 12-month program into four thematic strands, each tied to a specific travel context (leisure, commuting, sustainability, product trial), kept individual pieces of content contextually relevant and reduced creative fatigue across a long run. This structure also allowed different creators to speak credibly to different audience needs without being asked to carry all brand messages simultaneously.

  2. 2

    Local creator selection is a practical, not cosmetic, requirement for multilingual national brands. Matching creator geography and language to audience region gave SBB's content linguistic and cultural specificity that pan-European or high-reach international accounts would have difficulty replicating across Switzerland's distinct language communities.

  3. 3

    Product proof grounds influencer content in observable experience. The GA Pass Trial strand asked creators to document genuine use of SBB's subscription pass rather than produce aspirational content. Based on the available evidence, this kind of trial-based activation tends to generate more credible audience response than purely sentiment-driven posts.

  4. 4

    High volume output need not dilute engagement, given the right structure. Producing 593 posts from 14 creators over 12 months is a demanding volume, and the reported interaction totals suggest quality was maintained at scale, though the absence of per-creator or per-strand engagement data makes it impossible to identify which elements drove performance and which may have underperformed.

  5. 5

    Thematic strand design distributes creative responsibility. By assigning creators to specific strands rather than asking each to address all campaign objectives, YKONE reduced the burden on individual creators and increased the likelihood that each post felt authentic to its subject matter.

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