First Bus Scotland has delivered a first for Glasgow by unveiling the world’s largest ‘model’ bus in the city’s famous George Square. The ‘bus-in-a-box’ experiential stunt was used as the launch pad for First Bus Scotland to announce the arrival of 75 new buses into the city.

The activation was designed, delivered and managed by creative brand and strategy agency MadeBrave, which was appointed in July as First Bus Scotland’s sole creative agency. The eye-catching, interactive ‘bus-in-a-box’ display aims to help the city’s largest bus operator engage with customers and get them on board the new buses, which include free WiFi and USB charging points.

The 16-foot structure was the focal point of a customer awareness day and the first stop for a far-reaching integrated creative marketing programme that runs for the next three months with the aim of changing people’s perception of bus travel in the city.

This latest activity follows the “kids go free” campaign that ran over the summer, with MadeBrave developing a creative campaign to promote the free travel initiative.

Andrew Jarvis, Managing Director for First Scotland, says: “MadeBrave has created an eye-catching campaign that will allow us to communicate to customers the significant investment that we’re making to bus services in Glasgow, and ultimately help us to attract more people on board our services.”

Andrew Dobbie, founder of MadeBrave, adds: “First Bus Scotland appointed MadeBrave to drive a change in customer behaviour and help the business shift its focus more on to the customer, through its creative communications. The bus-in-a-box initiative was designed to enable First Bus Scotland to have some fun with its customers and present the humble bus as a more playful ‘toy’, just like the ones we all had when we were kids.”

The second phase of the multichannel campaign sees a creative programme of activity delivered across outdoor, radio, print, digital and social channels, as well as on and in buses across First Bus Scotland’s fleet.

MadeBrave is an award-winning agency based in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London. It works with UK national and international brands across several sectors, including the BBC, Hard Rock Hotels, Naked Grouse, Jacobs Engineering, Vango and Distell. MadeBrave acquired content production agency Campfire in July 2018, creating the BornOriginal Group to further enhance its client service offering and help drive group turnover to a projected £2.3m for 2018.

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Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill recently helped Santander and Transport for London (TfL) launch the UK’s first sightseeing cycle tour of landmarks linked with pioneering and inspirational women from the past and present. Launched to celebrate this year’s centenary of the first women winning the right to vote in the UK, the free Tour de Force experience sees participants take Santander Cycles on a guided ride across London, where they will hear the stories of women from all walks of life whose amazing achievements have helped to shape the city, the nation and the world.

Among the many sights visited on the Tour De Force will be the new statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett (the first female statue in Parliament Square), the memorial for WW2 undercover operative Violette Szabo, and iconic buildings designed by female architects such as Zaha Hadid’s spectacular Serpentine Sackler Gallery.

The carefully crafted route begins at Kensington Gardens and ends at Waterloo Place at the statue of Florence Nightingale, with commentary on the landmarks visited provided by a professional tour guide. Participants will ride Santander Cycles which have been given a special make-over for the tour, using the suffragette movement’s iconic colours of purple, white and green and displaying #BehindEveryGreatCity in support of the Mayor of London’s year-long women’s suffrage centenary campaign.

Susan Allen, Head of Customer Interactions at Santander, said: “At Santander we are committed to championing gender equality and supporting women everywhere to realise their full potential. London is a city rightly famed for its fascinating history and rich culture, but many of the women who played a central role in shaping it are not as well-known as they should be. We wanted to shine a light on some of the women whose amazing achievements have helped to shape our society and blazed a trail for gender equality.”

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill said: “Santander’s Tour de Force is a brilliant way to find out more about some of the incredible women who have made waves across our history. I hope the Tour can help inspire women everywhere to become the leaders and innovators of tomorrow in their chosen field – whether it’s finance, science, politics, the arts or sport.”

Deputy Mayor for Transport and Deputy Chair, Transport for London, Heidi Alexander said: “In London there is history around every corner and, with an ever-expanding network of cycle lanes, it’s easier than ever to enjoy our capital by bike. From campaigning for their right to vote to winning Olympic medals, generations of women have made immense contributions to our city and their legacies deserve to be celebrated. It’s fantastic Santander are offering Londoners of all backgrounds the opportunity to come together to learn about some of the pioneering women who’ve shaped our city.”

The cycle experience will be running twice per day across three consecutive Sundays in August and September (26th August and 2nd and 9th September), welcoming everyone from cycling beginners to experienced riders (aged 18+).

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Travel hubs offer fantastic spaces for a full spectrum of promotional activity ranging from sampling to immersive experiential activations, says Andrew Bodwick of SpaceandPeople

Travel hubs, like airports and train stations, offer a fantastic platform for a full spectrum of promotional activity ranging from sampling to immersive experiential activations. There has been an evolution in these venues recently to be more than just pure transport hubs, but rather retail destinations which has increased dwell times and customer engagement. The potential of these venues is relatively untapped but when used strategically can garner impressive results.

The opportunities in airports, for example, are broad and with the detailed demographics available, brands can be extremely targeted in their approach. Airports offer significant dwell time (2.5 hours with 70 to 80 minutes on average in the departures terminal[1]) which provides brands with a captive, relaxed and receptive audience, typically with a high socio-demographic profile.

If the passengers are going away on holiday, the excitement level is already high with the prospect of having a break and people are therefore more happy and eager to speak to retail staff and brand ambassadors, as they see it as part of the holiday experience. Being in a positive mood leads to impulse decisions and people are more open to discovering new brands they may not have otherwise considered.

Airports also offer the opportunity to target large groups of each sex going on holiday, such as stag and hen weekends.  These groups tend to be of a young, tech-savvy demographic with a high disposable income and little, if any, domestic responsibility. Likewise, a high proportion of professional couples seek refuge from their daily lives with city breaks and getaways in foreign lands. Other identified passenger groups include baby boomers who no longer have dependants and are enjoying rediscovering life with a higher disposable income and less responsibilities.

The above demographic profiles obviously focus on leisure travellers, but many airports also have an equally high proportion of people travelling for business purposes.

Airports offer unique opportunities for experiential activity as it is one of the only environments where you can be sure where consumers will be at any particular time, predict how long they will be there and where they will go next. It enables brands to be very specific in their targeting; from sampling festive related products to people going on holiday to Lapland, to giving them some home comforts on their return from a long-haul flight from Australia or creating an experiential activation for business passengers for a technology product.

Many air travellers over-index on buying core tech products, motors and media, and they tend to be early adopters of technology and are often influential within their network of friends and colleagues. Brands can therefore ensure the awareness of a specific product is raised within a specific geographical area, on a pre-defined route or time (e.g. first flights to all London airports in the morning).

Aside from airports, train stations have proven to be excellent locations for experiential and face-to-face marketing activity.

They have historically been used as sampling pods due to their high, consistent footfall; however, the recent trend has been to incorporate sample distribution with an experiential element to consolidate the brand messaging.

Lucozade Zero, for example, complemented a major sampling campaign last year targeting high footfall locations such as London King’s Cross Station by collaborating with fashion retailer Missguided and opening a ‘Zero to Pay’ nail bar, offering Lucozade Zero-inspired complimentary nail art (see picture). This not only increased brand awareness and trial with their target audience but also generated a social media buzz that would not have been possible with just pure sampling. Similarly, belVita installed a giant radio within a number of train stations at the end of 2017, offering commuters a live music performance and a sample of their recently launched soft filled belVita biscuits.

Train stations also offer a platform for PR launches and one-off events. Recently, a number of film PR stunts have taken place at central London train stations including an interactive mural for the film mother! and a shoe shining service for the latest Kingsman movie. Stations can also lend themselves well to specific seasonal or event activations, from Valentine’s Day promotions by tourist boards to a giant Thomas and Friend’s chocolate train over the Easter Weekend and a huge festive hamper activation by Waitrose looking to reach people travelling home for Christmas.

The latest technology is also being employed by many brands, with Augmented Reality being hugely popular, especially for products and services that are not necessarily that easy to get engage potential customers with.

Travel hubs have evolved from being places which people go to in order to to go somewhere else to become places where people want to spend time. The different mindsets of people, depending on their journey purpose, destination and travel means, enable brands to adopt a very targeted approach. All of these factors combined mean that although travel hubs were not necessarily considered for anything other than sampling stations previously, they are now increasingly popular for larger and more complex experiential campaigns today.

Andrew Bodwick is Head of Brand Experience at SpaceandPeople. The SpaceandPeople Group is a leading international destination media specialist, present in the UK, Germany and India, representing over 350 UK venues with a weekly footfall of over 45 million. The Group markets, sells and administers space in high footfall venues (including shopping centres, garden centres, retail parks and travel hubs), matching brands, promoters and retailers to the venues and footfalls that are right for them.

[1] Why Airports? Primesight

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‘Natural beauty’ brand L’Occitane celebrated the launch of its new multi-sensorial flagship store on London’s Regent Street last week with a series of PR stunts and give-aways.

To raise awareness of the new opening and to drive traffic to the store, experiential marketing and staffing agency Ambient was commissioned to run a sampling campaign, featuring the brand’s bestselling hand cream, around London, including an attention-grabbing experiential activation at Tower of London. Consumers were also offered complimentary rides to the new store in L’Occitane-branded London taxi cabs.

Another activation ran near the new flagship store, where shoppers were given small golden keys – they were then invited to visit the new outlet and find out if their key unlocked a beauty hamper worth £250. The golden key activity ran for three days, starting on January 31st.

L’Occitane en Provence, usually referred to as L’Occitane, is an international manufacturer and retailer of cosmetics, toiletries and home products based in Provence, France. Products and made from local Provencal ingredients and materials ethically sourced from elsewhere in traditional ways and the company does not use animal testing. Many of its products are organic, while the company supports the traditional cultivation of scented and aromatic plants through partnerships.

The brand’s new London flagship store has been designed to provide customers with a unique, sensory experience.

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Blackjack Promotions, which specialises in airport staffing, travel retail and experiential marketing, has seen massive growth in demand for market research services during 2017, as clients focus on understanding how passengers use airports and their feelings about the service they receive.

In recent months, Blackjack has been awarded new contracts or had existing contracts extended with a number of airports, including Stansted, London Luton Airport and Dubai – the world’s busiest international passenger airport.

Fiona Tindall, Head of Domestic Retail at Blackjack Promotions, says: “Airports can be incredibly challenging locations to carry out face-to-face research. Travellers can be tired, distracted and stressed, while there may be restrictions on how and where staff can deliver marketing activities and what they can say to people, particularly when you’re working air-side, beyond the security barriers.”

Blackjack has a large database of experienced brand ambassadors who are security cleared to work ‘airside’, in the areas beyond the security gates and passport control.

Tindall adds: “It’s vital that brand ambassadors working within the airport environment understand how travellers think and how to approach them in a way that reduces stress levels, rather than adding to them. Staff need much higher levels of diplomacy and general customer service skills than they would need, say, in a traditional retail environment, public space or festival or event.”

At Stansted, Blackjack staff worked over the summer (the airport’s busiest period), monitoring the quality of user experience, including queue lengths, passenger traffic flow, congestion points and other issues relevant to the journey through the terminal. This is the second year running Blackjack has delivered face-to-face research services at Stansted.

At Luton, Blackjack was appointed in 2016 to provide field agents to support an airport quality survey programme. London Luton Airport (LLA) constantly monitors all aspects of the passenger experience and was also keen to understand how passengers feel about its redevelopment programme, launched in 2016. That contract has now been extended for three years.

At Dubai, Blackjack was appointed to deliver research services during 2016 to understand more about the passenger experience and how they could improve passenger satisfaction. The data delivered by this initial programme was so useful that Dubai has extended it to run until May 2018, and has also added a ‘mystery shopping’ function.

For Dubai, Blackjack had to source multilingual research staff to cover 32 passenger interaction points across four terminals, 365 days a year. Staff have to have airside access. They input questionnaire responses onto tablets and upload the data in real time for Dubai Airports to access.

Blackjack Promotions is a leading staffing solutions, travel retail and experiential specialist. A subsidiary of US company ABM Industries, a global provider of facilities management services, Blackjack is based at Heathrow, where it employs approximately 1,000 staff, in addition to its database of 8,000+ field staff. Blackjack is a member of the IPM agency.

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Team GB gymnast Nile Wilson, Britain’s Got Talent finalists Twist and Pulse and ballet star Alessia Lugoboni have teamed up with Lucozade Ribena Suntory and Transport for London to promote an offer for commuters of free journeys on the London Underground, using ‘contactless’ Lucozade Energy bottles.

From May 30 to June 2 at Oxford Circus Station during ‘Whoosh Hour’, Lucozade brand ambassadors will be handing out thousands of limited edition Lucozade Energy bottles with contactless chips, like the ones found in TfL’s Oyster Card, embedded in the base. Lucky recipients will be able to use the bottles like Oyster Cards for one free Underground journey.

Lucozade Energy also enlisted Wilson, Twist and Pulse and Lugoboni to help promote the activation with three films featuring them using their talents to get through the station to their tube trains. The contactless bottle give-away and the videos are in support of the brand’s ‘Find Your Flow’ campaign message. The Lugoboni film has been posted to YouTube.

Whoosh Hour is a fully integrated campaign with support from integrated agency The Big Kick, shopper marketing agency Valenstein & Fatt (formerly Grey Shopper), event agency TRO, media agency MediaCom and PR agency Frank PR.

Lucozade Ribena Suntory is putting a considerable marketing budget behind the various offshoots of the umbrella Lucozade brand at the moment. A week ago, it launched a new campaign for Lucozade Sport featuring an on-pack promo offering consumers the chance to win more prizes the more active they are, including fitness trackers, gym memberships, tickets to events such as the FA Cup Final, England football matches, the Tour de France, an Adele concert and holidays to Australia, the US and the Middle East.

At the beginning of April, Lucozade Zero and fashion retailer Missguided announced a collaboration, ‘Zero To Pay’, which was brought to life through on-pack promotion and experiential marketing. The on-pack promotion offered consumers a range of discounts which could be unlocked through codes on mini cans of Lucozade Zero. Targeting city centres, train stations and shopping centres, a sampling campaign offered bespoke miniature cans featuring unique Missguided discount codes. The activity was bolstered at high footfall locations with a ‘Zero to Pay’ nail bar, offering Lucozade Zero-inspired complimentary nail art.

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In its biggest ever UK responsible drinking campaign, Budweiser has launched a partnership with Uber to offer free rides to all its new users throughout December – helping people plan ahead for their Christmas journeys home.

People who sign up to Uber for the first time can get up to £15 off their first journey.

The partnership is part of a wider 360° activation that draws a hard line on drink driving and encourages people to pre-plan their journeys home this Christmas.

The campaign also features the UK television debut of Budweiser’s famous and unorthodox Helen Mirren ad, which featured in the Super Bowl this year. The national TVC stars the Oscar-winning British actress in a 60-second advert, delivering a straight-talking, uncensored and powerful responsible drinking message to UK viewers in a way that only Helen Mirren can – making no excuses for drink drivers.

Budweiser and Uber have also partnered with the Department for Transport, in support of their THINK! Christmas drink driving campaign.

Budweiser’s ad launched across Sky channels and in cinema from 1^st to 31^st December 2016, as well as digital platforms including Snapchat and Facebook from 5^th December. Budweiser will also be launching over 3,500 OOH advertising sites across the UK to support the advert.

As a special gift to the nation, Budweiser and Uber will also be revealing an additional element to the campaign in the final countdown to Christmas, aimed specifically at reducing drink driving on Christmas Eve.

Steph Okell, Marketing Manager, Budweiser UK, says: “Despite all the reasons not to, people are still drinking and driving. This Christmas Budweiser is communicating in a bold, new way to put a stop to that. Our Helen Mirren advert addresses the issue of drink driving in a straight-talking, unconventional tone: a wake-up call to start as many conversations as possible and get people to plan their journey home during the biggest party season of the year.”

Okell adds: “As an iconic global beer brand, Budweiser is using its gravitas in the fight against drink driving and we’re proud to partner with Uber to offer people a free ride and ensure they get home safely this Christmas.

Jo Bertram, Regional General Manager of Uber in the UK, observes: “There’s no excuse for drink driving and with new options like Uber people can now get a safe, reliable and affordable ride home at the tap of a button. Through this campaign with Budweiser we’re looking forward to helping more people get home safely this Christmas.”

To get the offer, new users simply have to download the Uber app and enter BUD2016 in to the ‘promotions’ function.

For more information, and full terms and conditions, visit www.budweiser.co.uk or the Budweiser UK Facebook page.

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Great Western Railway (GWR) has partnered with NME to celebrate the start of this year’s festival season with the curation of Spotify playlists, guides and recommendations for festivalgoers.

The campaign, called #TracksOnTheTrack and negotiated by MEC, features track recommendations from four of NME’s journalists: Dan Stubbs, Sam Moore, Luke Morgan Britton and David Renshaw.

Top Lifestyle bloggers have also contributed their views on what are the top acts to see in the flesh this year. The playlists are available at www.gwr.com/tracksonthetrack

#TracksOnTheTrack targets those people who use GWR’s services to attend festivals. GWR provides rail services to Glastonbury, Reading Festival, Wilderness as well as Lovebox and Wireless to those travelling from the West Country.

It marks the first time that GWR has partnered with a music publication for the festival season, and the playlists will be available until the end of October.

Dan Panes, GWR’s Head of External Communications, said ”We are incredibly privileged to have some of the World’s most renowned music festivals on our network, and what better way to travel to them than by train, listening to recommendations from the music industry’s leading voices.”

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Dr. Oetker Ristorante, the UK’s leading thin and crispy frozen pizza brand, is launching a £3m integrated support campaign including its biggest ever sampling drive.

The marketing campaign includes TV, digital (including a 2,000 pizza giveaway on Facebook) and sampling at six UK train stations.

The campaign aims to drive reappraisal of frozen pizza and educate consumers about the positive freshness messages associated with frozen food. Dr. Oetker Ristorante will remain at the forefront of the category’s drive to promote frozen by amplifying the brand’s fresh pizzeria taste messaging.

The nationwide sampling activity takes place between February and March with 70,000 free Dr. Oetker Ristorante pizzas being given away to commuters at London Paddington, London Waterloo, London Victoria, Leeds, Birmingham Grand Central and Manchester Piccadilly.

Dr. Oetker says insight suggests that many people who leave work at the end of the day have still not planned their evening meal at that time, allowing the brand the opportunity to interrupt a normal commute and offer a convenient solution to their evening meal.

The activity aims to position Dr. Oetker Ristorante as a perfect choice for an after-work meal occasion.

The promotion will support the brand’s key message for 2016 that nine out of 10 consumers agree that Ristorante has the best at-home pizzeria taste – a consumer opinion that was uncovered during the brand’s recent Fresh Pizzeria Taste Challenge campaign.

Jan McKee, Head of Marketing at Dr. Oetker UK, says: “Dr. Oetker Ristorante is in a position to add to the wider category’s promotion of the ‘freshness of frozen’ through amplifying the brand’s fresh pizzeria taste messaging. By promoting this message and demonstrating the benefits of frozen food in a compelling way, we can showcase the unbeatable quality of our product and give consumers more reason than ever to choose Dr. Oetker Ristorante.”

McKee adds: “The major sampling activity will encourage trial of the Dr. Oetker Ristorante range by placing our product in the hands of consumers. With confidence in the quality of our pizza and the freshness message, we expect the campaign to boost frequency and penetration in the category.”

Agencies which worked on the campaign include integrated agency LIFE, shopper marketing agency Decide and PR firm Brazen.

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Fairtrade green tea brand Clipper Teas is running a ‘New Year Revolutions’ integrated campaign with outdoor and transport advertising and a ‘money back’ promotion to encourage consumers to ‘turn over a new leaf’ in 2016.

Clipper Teas, owned by Wessanen UK, wants to attract both new green tea ‘considerers’ and existing green tea drinkers to the brand.

The two-pronged campaign will feature a heavyweight outdoor and transport campaign together with a playful online video shot using hidden cameras inside ClipperTeas’ very own ‘Truthful Green Tea Shop’.

Throughout January, consumers will be able to trial Clipper’s range of green tea packs with the reassurance of a ‘tastes great or your money bank’ promotional guarantee. The brand’s extensive promotional activity aims to ensure that new green tea drinkers become Clipper Teas drinkers this January.

The outdoor campaign will reach 90% of adults across London and the South East during January. The YouTube video, which light-heartedly questions some of the processes and ethics behind other green teas, will be shared extensively via bloggers and social media. Clipper Teas expects over 1 million people to watch the video during 2016.

The planned activity aims to attract new green tea ‘considerers’ as well as existing green tea drinkers to the Clipper Teas brand, capitalising on the annual sales uplift that is typically seen within the green tea market in the first month of the year.

Green tea has long been ClipperTeas heartland. 2015 saw the company add another 100,000 new green tea consumers and grow its total green tea penetration by 15%, according to Kantar Worldpanel figures.

“The green tea market has seen considerable growth over the past three years as healthy living continues to rise up the consumer agenda. But consumer concern over bitter-tasting green tea still remains,” said Rebecca Vercoe, Clipper Teas brand controller at Wessanen UK. “We’re looking to address this by introducing an even wider audience to the distinctively light and fresh, Clipper green tea taste profile.”

A recent Clipper Teas research study found that the single biggest barrier to green tea adoption was the perception that consumers were not going to like the taste. The company’s acquisition campaign looks to challenge this with a range of creative activations focused on taste.

Vercoe explains: “We believe that the more natural the tea, the more natural the taste. Clipper uses only young leaves and works closely with experienced growing partners to delicately process these, with nothing artificial added along the way. This means light, delicate and refreshing tea, with no bitter after-taste. The last thing we want is for new green tea drinkers to buy a green tea and then be put off forever, either because it doesn’t deliver on taste or it has a nasty after-taste due to poor processing, artificial flavourings or fortification.”

The new outdoor campaign has been created by Big Fish. The Truthful Green Tea Shop was conceived, produced and filmed by Exposure.

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