Seventy per cent of Voyages-sncf.com users believed the site sold only train tickets. The brief was to change that without abandoning what made the brand familiar. The solution: find real French village signs that, when read aloud, sound like world destinations. Plant them in their natural habitats. Photograph them straight. Add the price. “Heureusement on ne vous propose pas que le train.”
Nouillorc. Losse-en-Gelaisse. St-Gapour. Quancoune. Mique-aux-Noces. Pouquette. Each sign existed. Each was found, not invented. The campaign launched in three waves from March 2006 — online, then outdoor and gare, then press. A second wave followed in June 2007 with new signs and a user-generated site, destination-tauquiot.fr, which invited the public to submit their own. One million unique visitors and 130,000 contributions in six weeks. The campaign was revived by OUI.sncf in 2020 during COVID, when the original posters went viral again.
Elected favourite advertisement of the French public 2006. Top 10 Ipsos Palmarès de la Pub 2006.
