Barclays Cycle Hire – on the right track?
29th July
The Guardian has been somewhat annoyed by the dominance of Barclays branding in their sponsorship of London’s free to hire bikes and new cycle lane “superhighways”. Their full reasons are here. But in a nutshell their concern is that the cycle lanes, in Barclays blue, represent a gigantic amount of branding physically speaking (potentially 100k plus of London’s tarmac). This, they argue, demeans our capital, sells the road from beneath us, and is the thin end of a wedge in which brands privately co-opt public space, which they can then police as laws unto themselves.
What do you think? Personally, I see it as realpolitik – the roads need to be a particular colour to be clearly demarcated from regular traffic. Blue’s as good a colour as any other, and quite cheerful. So why not get some cash to support the scheme? As for the bikes, again £25million means the branding has not come cheap, but the support has probably made the scheme possible. If anything, I would argue that Barclays has missed a trick by branding the bikes so blandly. Calling them “Barclays Cycle Hire” suggests they could have peddled harder in the ideas department. The bikes have been criticised elsewhere for the dominance of the Barclays sponsorship, but to my eyes they just appear to have had some unimaginative logos slapped on them. If the design had been a little more joyous – say blue bikes sporting white fluffy clouds and a more discreet logo, I think they might have looked less dully corporate and more things which caught the spirit.
However, I think The Guardian’s point is broader – they appear opposed to corporate branding (especially in Tory blue), regardless of the execution. While it’s sad Paris can do the same job without needing a bank to pay for it (and as such their bikes look far cooler), I see the Barclays sponsorship as a creative opportunity missed rather than two fingers waved at Londoners. Does working in an agency mean I have lost perspective and have gone to the dark side? Or is the principle of branded sponsorship not inherently wrong?
1 Comment
CH
July 29, 2010 9:59 am
Paris received the Vélib’ scheme at no cost to the taxpayer – but only because they agreed for JC Decaux to place thousands of advertising boards all over the city. In contrast, Barclays logos on bikes are much less intrusive.
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