COLLEEN ALBISTON

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER

DELOITTE CANADA

FOUNDING PARTNER, PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CATEGORY

Deloitte offers UP Express a wealth of consulting

expertise, including data analytics to help optimize the service and improve the guest experience. Travellers will also enjoy insightful

and unique content developed by Deloitte.

Why did you get involved in the UP project?

UP Express is on a mission to transform the way people travel between Toronto’s financial hub and Toronto Pearson International Airport, and elevate the way they experience Canada’s largest city. Deloitte, too, is on a transformational journey, as we get ready to move to our workplace of the future in 2016—our move to a single Deloitte location in the downtown core, blocks from Union Station.

As one of Canada’s largest and most diverse professional services firm, Deloitte is proud to be a Founding Partner. UP Express will be a declaration to the world and international travelers that Toronto is a world-class city.

Through our sponsorships, programs and investments, Deloitte looks for opportunities that create unique ways for us to express our brand. Together with UP Express, we plan to engage business and leisure travelers with unique and original content that informs and entertains.

Deloitte’s people and clients will also naturally benefit from the ease of travel between downtown Toronto and the airport. Similarly, UP Express will benefit from the reach and influence of the Deloitte brand to increase ridership.

We want Toronto to grow and thrive, and maintain its status as one of the best cities in which to live, work and play. I’d like to see an increasingly diverse city with expanded green space and a vibrant waterfront that is used for both leisure and commerce. Toronto will need a transportation system that reduces inner-city congestion and makes it easier for those who live here, work here and visit to get around.

How can companies work together to improve the customer experience?

Deloitte’s alliance with UP Express and the other partners is an example of iconic brands—with shared values—working together to create a superior customer experience. UP Express has created an opportunity to demonstrate partnership at its best.

For iconic brands, sponsorship is not about the money invested, it’s about delivering value to the audience that will be exposed to your brand. It’s about expressing your brand in a way that makes sense for the business. In Deloitte’s case, a byproduct of our business is the creation of thoughtful content, and this partnership provides an audience with which we can engage and share it.

As passengers travel between Toronto Pearson and the downtown core on UP Express, their experience will be immediately improved by technology offerings, amenities and infotainment—the result of each partner playing to their strengths. Whether they are logging onto the wireless network, changing currencies, working in a comfortable lounge or reading interesting content on a screen while they wait, passengers will have many opportunities to be informed, engaged and entertained.

What’s most important to you when you’re travelling?

As someone who travels a lot, I place a high value on reaching my ultimate destination with ease. Once I’m settled in, I like to be able to get out and experience my surroundings—ideally with my running shoes on.