Yay! London finally got what many other European capitals have a couple of weeks ago…. a public bike rental programme…. although maybe we should consider it the largest piece of corporate branding in London….
If Paris has the Velib’, Barcelona the Bicing and Luxembourg the Vél’oh! it was about time that London took advantage of the biking trend to impose a cheap and healthy transport alternative…. the “Barclays Cycle Hire“. As if it were a football team, championship or a gig venue the transport programme has a co-branded name part of the bank’s marketing strategy. This is nothing new as the Parisian Velib for example was a JCDecaux (advertising giant) initiative whose contract was meant to last 10 years….
The best is yet to come…. London’s new dedicated cycle lanes (2 already open and 10 more yet to come before the Olympics) are called “Barclays Cycle Superhighways” and guess what colour they’re painted?…. Barclays blue!!! Truly ingenious. Maybe we should have categorized this post as a campaign … and not an image/whim.
