Behind Amtrak’s ‘chaotic brain rot’ social strategy

This story is the second in a series exploring how brands craft standout social media strategies. If you’d like to chat about how your brand is approaching social, Katie Hicks wants to hear about it. Reach out to her at [email protected].

If you recently became acquainted with Amtrak’s social media presence through a post reminiscent of old monster truck rally ads, you’re not alone.

The national passenger railroad is upgrading its trains, stations, and infrastructure and entering a “modern era of rail,” according to Jessica Davidson, VP of digital and brand management at Amtrak, so it was only natural for the brand to take a fresh approach to social media.

“We’re this storied brand, and we’re modernizing,” Davidson told us. “As we move forward to increase ridership, we recognize all the things that we do in our strategy need to break through.”

Last year, Amtrak set an all-time ridership record of 32.8 million, and Davidson said its sights are now set on attracting prospective younger riders as part of a goal to reach 66 million riders by 2040. So far, what seems to be getting zillennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha to stop scrolling (and perhaps consider taking the train) is content that Naleen Camara, senior social media specialist at Amtrak, calls “brain-rotty,” or posts that one might not expect from a legacy brand. Camara said the recent attention on the account, though, has been a long time coming.

“I like to think we’ve been funny for a while,” Camara told us. “People are really just starting to take notice.”

All aboard

One of the earliest instances of Amtrak playing around with humor, Camera said, was in 2023 when the brand posted what it described as conductor “fan art” inspired by anime and, in response to the social comments, proceeded to ask employees who the man could be for a social campaign.

“A lot of our fans were like, ‘Oh my God, that looks like this conductor on this train or this conductor in this station,’ so we were like, ‘Okay, let’s make a whole story out of it,’” Camara said.

It’s an approach that is indicative of the brand’s larger social strategy. “We’ve really tried to listen to our audience and really respond to what they resonate with,” she told us.

Overall, experimental content has been key to Amtrak’s online strategy, to the point where Camara’s internal team of three and agency partners at Little Buddy schedule regular brainstorms to develop “out-there content” and identify trends they could participate in.

“We really love utilizing sounds and songs online that you wouldn’t typically associate with a travel brand,” Camara said. “It’s fun, and it makes us more personable.”

Tapping into nostalgia has also been a winning strategy, Davidson said, as evidenced by its “traintacular” monster-truck video, which has amassed more than 500,000 likes across TikTok and Instagram. The intent behind the post, according to Davidson, was to reach audiences that may be open to train travel—and she’s already seen comments from people who said they’ve become inspired to give Amtrak a shot.

Since that video went live the last week of June, Davidson said Amtrak has gained more than 60,000 followers across social channels and has seen more than 500,000 shares on that post alone. Past content has also seen a boost as audiences have gone back into the account’s archives and engaged with prior posts, Camara said.

“It’s a testament to how consistent we have been with this,” she said.

Entertainment, but make it informative

While silly content can be fun to make, there are also broader brand communication needs to consider. Camara said Amtrak takes an “infotainment” approach to social media overall, balancing tips, tricks, and promotions for train travel with more “kooky and chaotic” content.

“We have a very large audience, and people respond to messages differently,” Davidson added. “Having that variety in content is really important for us.”

With the brand’s legacy in mind, Camara recognizes that sometimes a trend can be too wacky and will only participate if it makes sense for Amtrak. Another video, in which Amtrak asked viewers to share with someone who “needs to touch grass,” made sense as part of the brand’s “chaotic, brain-rot” content and ended up performing well, Camara said, even if there was a risk that the message could be seen as rude. The plan, she said, is to continue building on that series.

“It truly hits when you’re looking through the comment section and somebody’s telling you, ‘I had to double-check to make sure this was Amtrak,’ instead of some random person making this video on our behalf,” Camara said.

With Amtrak’s new NextGen Acela trains scheduled to enter service soon, Davidson said the brand is preparing an infotainment strategy to let people know about the new fleet in both a fun and informative way.

“We’re in a place where creativity is celebrated,” she said. “We’re willing to put ourselves out there.”