On Strategy Showcase W+K and Trainline on turning your greatest weakness into opportunity
Mar 15, 2026
Nick Docherty, Chief Strategy Officer at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, a strategic creative thinker. Jo McClintock, VP Brand & Marketing at Trainline, who shifted the company from ticketing to owning journeys. They explore rail market complexity, emotional fallout from disruptions, flipping disruption into advantage with predictive data and Travel Forecast, and aligning product and marketing around a journey-led proposition.
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Turn Disruption Into Strategic Advantage
- Trainline reframed disruption from a weakness into a strategic opportunity by owning the journey beyond ticketing.
- Nick Docherty recommended using Trainline's data to anticipate, inform, and give passengers agency during disruptions, turning frustration into loyalty.
Fix Certainty And Agency To Reduce Rail Rage
- Two emotional drivers cause rail rage: lack of certainty and lack of agency.
- By illuminating what's happening and giving tools to fix or claim compensation, Trainline reduces blame and calms passengers.
Predict Disruptions With Machine Learning
- Use machine learning on historical rail patterns to predict disruptions more accurately than industry feeds.
- Jo McClintock described building a travel forecast, reroute options, and Delay Repay features powered by ML predictions.