Colin McAlinden, Head of Bus at Exterion Media, gives Richard Walter an insight into the constantly changing and evolving area of bus advertising
What is the chance that you haven’t experienced some form of advertising today? Even subconsciously. From the moment that you leave your house in the morning to the moment you switch off the TV at night you will have been targeted with posters on windows, bus shelters and big screen billboard ads. You can’t escape them in newspapers and magazines or on the radio and TV and maybe you will be handed a leaflet and product sample in a station or store.
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Chances are you will also have taken mental note of an image or phrase spotted on the side of a bus, train, tram or taxi. As a result there are times where you might be interested to know more about what is being advertised. A static advert is one you may only see the once and may have little significance to you, but buses are on the move across busy towns and communities. There is a good chance you will see one on your travels, whether it be sitting in a car behind the bus or whilst waiting at a bus stop or to cross the road. Over the years there have been some really powerful and memorable public transport advertising campaigns that have made a big impact – even if just for a brief period.
It can be a disposable and short life medium though. Movies, theatre productions and Xbox games have very short shelf lives and adverts are quickly replaced by new campaigns – each of which demands some form of memorable promotion. Likewise, popular brand names of fashion, food and drink products thrive on ever-changing product developments and the need for immediate high-profile publicity.
What Exterion Media is all about
Exterion Media is the culmination of decades of experience in transport advertising. It began as London Transport Advertising in 1980, changing and evolving through TDI to Viacom and CBS Outdoor before becoming Exterion Media. Colin McAlinden explains: “We operate in four other countries and are now the UK’s largest Out-of-Home (OOH) transport advertising company. Exterion Media is in a unique position in the OOH industry, with unparalleled access to, and understanding of, the commuter audiences and the environments in which they interact with advertising.”
The history of bus advertising
Ever since the days of the horse-drawn bus, advertising has featured. Side painted boards and posters were popular with both local and national businesses and bus companies were happy to carry them as a means of income generation. As the years passed, adverts became more colourful and prominent. By the seventies it was not unusual to see part or the whole of a bus being hand-painted with elaborate designs. The all-over bus was born and has evolved over the years, with wrap round vinyls now being widely used. There are complete wraps, contravision (which might cover the windows too), mega rear adverts and extended side ones.
I asked Colin why he thought that transport advertising (particularly on buses) remains such an effective medium today. “Bus advertising is a tried and tested format that has been in existence for over a hundred years,” he said.
“Buses have always played a significant role in infrastructure, designed to transport high volumes of people across the country. 22 million passengers travel on our network every day and buses go where people go, owning the high street and residential areas. This means that bus ads are able to deliver massive daily impact at scale throughout the UK.”
National campaigns
Large companies were not slow in recognising the potential in launching campaigns across the UK. You will see many of the same adverts on buses across the whole of the country. Exterion Media is involved in a large number of national advertising campaigns across a vast array of categories such as film/entertainment, fast-moving consumer goods, travel and fashion and beauty. “In the last two years we’ve worked with brands such as Sony, eBay, Pandora, Moncler and Coca Cola,” said Colin. “Some of these campaigns take advantage of our unmissable wrapped bus format.”
Whereas a lot of local businesses used to take advantage of the opportunity to take up advertising space, I wondered if the bulk of contracts were now with major chains and companies. Colin explained: “We certainly have a large number of contracts with major brands, although our range of contracts span far beyond this to small and medium-sized businesses throughout the UK. National brands take approximately 76% of sales and local brands the remaining 24%. We find that T-sides, S-sides, mega rears and fully wrapped buses are most popular with large, national brands and street liners, rears and internal ads are effective for local clients. Our client team, advertising agency team and specialist team give us access to unique contacts across the country.”
I asked if some local customers might require longer campaigns possibly on a smaller number of vehicles. Colin confirmed that local advertising plays a substantial role in the business. “There isn’t necessarily a correlation between the length of a campaign and number of vehicles used,” he pointed out. “It often depends on the company’s advertising objectives. We can use our specialist planning tools to help local advertisers plan more effective, tailored campaigns. These tools enable a campaign to be planned and run with optimum efficiency. They can run from as short as two weeks to as long as a year.”
Static ads vs digital space
Colin said: “As might be expected, the trends for advertising have changed over the years.
“OOH saw a decline of 12% in static revenues, however we delivered positive growth last year and were subsequently shortlisted for the Campaign Commercial Team of the Year for 2019. The role of traditional, static advertising space endures, delivering fame and high impact, especially on bus. Whilst there is still high demand for static displays, we have seen the appetite for digital space and digital OOH grow in recent times. Regardless of the format, we believe OOH is at its best when it is bold, delivers huge reach and drives brand value – this is something that advertising on buses can achieve every day.”
Colin appreciates that there will be changes in the coming years. “The growth of digital OOH formats is inevitable and the new creative capabilities they offer to advertisers when used alongside static is remarkable. OOH continues to receive investment from brands and businesses, despite the rise of social media advertising. In 2017, Google became the first brand to embrace our new digital bus format. The buses are compatible with geo-targeting and the responsive displays are capable of altering their content dependent upon specific shops or landmarks within the buses’ vicinity. This enables brands to conduct targeted, location-based campaigns.”
I asked Colin if there has been an increasing demand for all over wraps and mega rear ads instead of (or as well as) traditional side ads. He agreed that this was the case: “Our mega rears and wrapped buses are a very popular product, and certainly appear to have increased in popularity over the years. Speaking with our clients, they love the ability to wrap a bus and recognise that buses are an iconic form of transport in many regions. The average length of a contract can be quite short depending on the type of product being advertised.”
The process for applying vinyls
When organising a standard style of adverts for a national campaign, I wondered if any consideration with the design had to be given to variations of bus body styles to ensure that the advert worked generically. Colin explained that templates are used as all bus companies require various sizes and shapes. These templates are submitted to a designer who can create the design and campaign to fit in the appropriate spaces allocated and agreed by the franchise operator as to where vinyl can and can’t be applied.
Colin described the process involved from design to fitting of the vinyls: “The process begins when the sales department sells the format and media space. The contract is then signed for the campaign, which will last between two weeks and a year. Once the booking is taken, we then need to know which region the customer would like the campaign to run. Once this has been established, we inform the delivery manager as to the number of buses we require for that region. The delivery manager will then identify the type of buses that need to be allocated and indicates to production which bus template to use. Production will then send the templates to the agency/client/designer to create the artwork. The artwork is supplied back to production and we pass this on to the printer. The printer then creates a proof – the client checks the proof and once approved, the printer prints the artwork and delivers the vinyl panels to the warehouse for the fixer to collect. Finally, the fixer will attach the vinyl wrap onto the bus at the depot, completing the process.”
Popular in London
In London, a very popular practice in recent years has been to use New Routemasters with their impressive design and transparent staircases for unique (in most cases) designs. These might be for existing national campaigns but tend to be different to ads applied on other types of buses. Some of the results have been quite stunning and memorable and have made the streets of London very colourful.
The majority of campaigns are used on a number of vehicles enabling the ads to be seen on a variety of routes and locations. Colin feels that the use of these buses works extremely well.
He said: “New Routemasters are most popular for brand launches or product launches, especially among fashion brands. We have recently announced our 1,000th wrapped New Routemaster bus which held advertising from eBay, marking our partnership with 92 brands and over 100 campaigns launched on these buses since 2014.”
Application of all over vinyls
Contravision on buses throughout the UK continues to be widely applied. Colin said: “We’ve found that the demand for contravision has increased. The use of mega rear ads is also popular, especially for advertisers looking to produce standout campaigns in specific regions. This is because mega rear adverts are an effective format for engaging people travelling by car.”
With moving digital quality pictures becoming more prominent on bus shelters, tube station escalators etc, I asked Colin what he sees as the future for bus advertising and what new and developing methods of campaigns that we might see. Colin recognises that bus networks are a significant part of every town and city across the UK and are an integral part of the country’s infrastructure.
“Advertising mediums across these networks have proved themselves effective for over one hundred years and with constant innovation in advertising formats, the future will always be bright for bus advertising. As we move further into the digital space, we’re seeing exciting advancements in bus advertising capabilities across the UK. I’d expect to see more brands taking advantage of our digital buses and their geo-targeting capabilities going forward.”
Given the decline in shop sales and closure of many high street outlets I asked Colin if this could lead to a reduction in the use of advertising, or if it might be balanced by the increase of advertising from the likes of eBay and online shopping. Colin is confident that successful retail brands will always look to drive consumers online and in-store in order to thrive. He points out that “Large online brands such as eBay and GiffGaff have no retail presence but rely on OOH advertising to build and raise awareness for their brands. Whilst the decline of the high street may have a direct impact on retailers, through our recent Commuter Commerce research, we know that a huge number of consumers are purchasing online whilst commuting. In fact, 70% of these commuters take action online towards a brand as a direct result of OOH advertising. As online shopping becomes increasingly popular, OOH advertising is not simply used for brand awareness but also becomes a point of sale.”
Colin concludes: “Advertising will continue to be a medium that brands can use to drive action towards products both online and in-store.”
The bus and advert connection
It remains to be seen how consistently new, fresh, inventive and appealing future advertising campaigns may be. Also as bus exterior design changes it is possible that the way in which adverts are applied might need to adapt.
However, it is certain that the bus, in whatever form and design it might take in future, will continue to be a very important and powerful method for getting products noticed on the move.
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