Cases 21.01.2026

HSL 48-hour contactless discount: Huge results with an intensive campaign

Marketing effectiveness Digital marketing Marketing communications

Can the exceptional situation caused by the system change be turned into a commercial success?
HSL‘s contactless payment campaign proved that it can. With a bold pricing risk and a short-term optimized intensity campaign, significant sales success was achieved, despite the very short campaign period and a very moderate media budget.

The starting points of the campaign and the challenges to be solved

HSL transferred its ticket sales services to a new back-end system. During the transition phase, some of the familiar purchase paths were out of use: tickets could not be purchased at sales or service points, and large ticket machines were permanently closed. Substitute similar sales outlets, e.g. They did not want to organize it as a pop-up for cost reasons.

Even though the HSL app, contactless payment and small single ticket machines were working normally, and it was possible to travel with the HSL card (value/season), the risk of a drop in ticket sales was obvious.

In this situation, HSL wanted to make it easier to buy a single ticket and encourage customers to use a viable alternative: contactless payment provided a single ticket at a reduced price for a limited time. In this way, the transition was also intended to be a positive experience for customers.

But the discount brought with it a new challenge: sales in euros would collapse if contactless tickets were not sold significantly more than before. Therefore, very tough business goals were defined for the four-day marketing measures and the 48-hour discount window:

• Doubling the number of sales of contactless tickets (+100%)
• Sales in euros ±0 (i.e. no decrease from the comparison period despite the price reduction)
• Increasing awareness of contactless payment as a payment method

The contactless payment option had only been introduced on all HSL means of transport a few months earlier, so in addition to the high sales targets, the campaign was hoped to increase awareness of the contactless payment option and lower the threshold for customers to try contactless payment on public transport.

Strategy

Insight #1:
In a four-day campaign, the choice of channel is not a matter of taste – it is mathematics

The campaign’s media budget was €12,000, so every euro had to work: not visibility for visibility, but measurable sales.

We made our channel choices based on the ROMI modelling carried out for HSL and focused on the channels that have been proven to support short-term sales the strongest in HSL’s campaigns: Meta’s channels and programmatic display.

ROMI was the highest of the acquired media channels in these channels: we were able to trust that every euro invested in the selected channels would bring at least three times more additional sales (ROMI over 3).

Insight #2:
The timing was a trump card and it was played

Coincidentally, the campaign coincided with the Car Free Day of the Mobility Week (September 22nd). This also opened up a natural opportunity to activate more passive public transport users: the reduced ticket price is a motivating reason to leave the car at home. The target group was defined as the HSL area, especially motorists, as well as those who are occasional and passive in HSL’s own data purchase segments.

The International Car-Free Day naturally tied the campaign to a topical phenomenon familiar to many and an attitude climate that favours public transport. On the other hand, it was also important for the campaign message to work independently, without any connection to the car-free day.

Solution

The creative solution was crystallized into a simple offer: a single ticket with contactless payment at a discounted price. The quick activation of the campaign was ensured with visual elements that communicated the sale.

There were many tactical elements that were important for the campaign (main message, sale and normal price, and campaign time), but they were successfully included in the campaign’s visual materials in a compact and easy-to-browse format. Meta’s post copy, on the other hand, was used to provide instructions on how to use contactless payment and to specify messages.

Buy a single ticket with contactless payment – on Monday and Tuesday you can get it at a super low price! Select zones and show your debit or credit card to the reader. The ticket will be saved on your payment card. ✅

The messages were paced into three phases so that interest would be aroused even before the discount window opened and purchases would be directed to campaign days.

• 20.–21.9.: teasing of the sales
• 22.9.: Mobility Week’s Car Day Off point of view
• 22.–23.9.: Sale in progress (main focus on prices and mechanism)

Based on ROMI data, the purchased media focused on Meta and programmatic display (targeted at the target group).

Own channels (hsl.fi, media release, newsletter, HSL’s organic social media) complemented the reach and ensured that the information was easy to find for those looking for it.

Results: the goals set for the campaign exceeded all expectations

The goal of the campaign was immediate measurable sales in both euros and the number of units. The goals set for the campaign exceeded all expectations, and almost three times as many contactless paying customers jumped on board HSL.

The number of contactless payment transactions was +177% higher than in the comparison period (target: +100%) and euro-denominated sales increased by +27% despite the price reduction (target: +-0).

The campaign reached more than one million people in the HSL area (2.4 million paid advertising impressions).

In addition, awareness of contactless payments increased among motorists by 26% → 29%.

HSL is delighted with the successful campaign: “The efficient implementation of the contactless payment campaign on a tight schedule helped us turn a challenging situation into a positive success. Directing ticket sales to contactless payment exceeded our targets, which ensured our customers’ smooth travel despite the underlying sales system change. Cooperation with Dagmar was smooth and productive,” says HSL’s Growth Hacker Mirva Ilmoniemi.