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Do you know that feeling of arriving at or leaving a destination and wishing that someone was waiting to meet you or fervently waving you off? SNCF does and, with the help of DDB Paris, has posed a series of expositions in Paris' Gare de L'Est to surprise and delight travellers.

SNCF is renowned for being a trainline with a sense of humour, thanks to April Fool's Day efforts such as using Homer Simpson's voice to make platform announcements and the fake announcement of the launch of a train tunnel from Europe to America. Now the various interventions are all specific to the individual consumer that they target, building on the brand's 'further than you imagined' tagline.

Sylvie looks on in awe while a heavy metal band perform just for her, toddlers Jade and Jenna and their parents are enthralled by a parade of clowns, Fabien is mobbed by a gang of girls before his departure and Aurelien watches ninjas and kung fu warriors battle it out to claim him as their master. Perhaps most surreal of all is a farewell serenade for Gabrielle by a man clad in white playing a moving piano with one of the most appalling spray tans documented on YouTube.

A series of films capturing the activity are running on SNCF's YouTube Channel and all have gathered around 25,000 views in the few days since they were first posted, with footage of the highlights gathering over 200,000 views in just a few days. Similarly, the Facebook component of the campaign has gathered over 10,000 likes.

While we are familiar with flash mobs in the style of Improv Everywhere SNCF's activity benefits from precise targetting that sees one person at the centre of the activity with a surrounding group of bemused onlookers. And we have to applaud the careful selection process that means that none of the peope selected looked anything other than delighted at being the focus of attention.