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When we think about advertising on buses, we're likely to think first about panels on the exterior of vehicles. And for really high impact there are all sorts of wraps, some covering the entire bus.
But with a little imagination, bus advertising can get a lot of notice without going to all that expense.
As in so many areas of alternative media, it's about figuring out a clever way to get across the message that will get people to look twice, and hopefully to smile if it's really clever.
Case in point: a campaign now running on buses in London for T-Mobile. The mobile phone company’s agency, Saatchi & Saatchi London, was faced with the challenge of utilizing awkward T-shaped panels on the city’s double-decker buses.
It was no small challenge. The panel runs almost the length of the bus in the space between the first and second levels, then drops down near the front of the vehicle to form the vertical portion of the T.
“The brief was to use the dreaded bus T-side space to dramatize the T-Mobile pay-as-you-go offer,” says Howard Green, a copywriter on the project.
The other challenge was to come up with something that fit with the theme of the campaign, which was promoting a deal in which customers who bought £10 worth of minutes on their pre-paid phone plans got another £10 in calls gratis
The Saatchi & Saatchi crew kicked around ideas, and here's what they came up with.
The drop-down area, which as it happens is right behind where the driver sits, features a picture of a second driver, so looking at the bus one sees two drivers, hands on the wheel, steering the bus.
Above the faux driver, in bold letters, are these words: “See Double.”
The rest of the copy, which appears near the rear of the bus, explains the offer: "Top up £10 and get £10 free this weekend." Below are texting instructions and the T-Mobile logo.
The campaign, which is on 10 double-deckers through the end of March, has been picked up and written about in numerous marketing blogs and in Campaign magazine, and it made it to the second round of a CBS Outdoor competition honoring the best creative use of the T-side panels.
The campaign recalls one in Amsterdam last year for an insurance company in which the back of the bus was made to look like the front, including the image of a driver with his head turned as if the bus were in reverse. The effect was to give the impression to drivers behind it that the bus was headed right at them. The message: Watch out, there's lots of crazy drivers out there.
But the tagline delivered the real message: “Just call us.”
