Launched this summer, the service allows Facebook friends (and friends of friends) to match journeys they want to take with available seats in cars. It’s a safer, social media version of hitch-hiking, once popular in the last century.

Founder Drummond Gilbert sees this as a crusade against the 38 million empty car seats on Britain’s roads each day, but he’s keen not to guilt-trip students:

“We’re not telling people to stay at home with the lights off but we are opening their eyes to the benefits of travelling together.  A full car offers students an inexpensive way to get out and have fun, and in the green stakes its up there with taking the train.”

Drawing another lesson from social media, the site has an eBay-style rating system to help identify any bad drivers or unreliable passengers.

There is no charge for using the site and drivers and passengers are advised to agree to travel on a cost-sharing basis – according to the site this should not affect the driver’s car insurance.

I was interested in this topic as social media is growing in power and popularity, but insufficient research has yet been conducted to assess its value for businesses and provide guidelines for interaction.

I decided to apply my investigation to the airline industry because sales and promotion are already conducted online, so social media could be the next logical step. I also believe that the travel sector has an opportunity to add value to customer experience by providing a more comprehensive service through social networking sites.

Brand equity can be defined as a set of assets linked to a brand’s name and symbol that add value.

The emerging model of social media emphasises two-way ‘mutual’ communication, relying on audience interactivity and encouraging feedback. Social media gives power to consumers where they were once powerless.

I argue that corporate use of social media should be a public relations activity, with the support of customer services, as it requires expertise in building and maintaining relationships, and in providing consistent, targeted communication.

Provided that brands are open to flexibility as a result of listening to feedback, I believe that empowering consumers through interactivity should ultimately lead to increased brand equity.

Respondents' use of social media channels

My exploratory research involved in-depth individual interviews with eight airline business customers, followed by one group interview with eight leisure customers, aged 18-24 years. I wanted to compare the opinions of the two customer groups but ensured that all participants had sufficient and regular experience with social networking sites so they could discuss their responses to interacting with airlines via social media.

The findings demonstrated that interactivity can have a significantly positive impact on brand equity, indicating that social networking sites provide an excellent opportunity for all brands. Participants were especially open to online engagement if it would drive a more efficient and informative service, and if the brand would be interactive and open to suggestions from them.

Some participants were initially hesitant about the idea of allowing brands to contact them on social networking sites, but they all showed interest if they were able to have control of the interaction, and would not be bombarded by the brands.

The findings also indicated that the more control or influence consumers felt they had over a brand, the more brand equity was built.

My research concluded that interactivity has a significant impact on brand equity on social networking sites. Airline brands would benefit from interacting, but must not target customers with sales-driven messages. They must also be willing to change in response to customer engagement and feedback.

However, I would definitely recommend further research with a wider sample set and within alternative industries.

Photo by Kiki’s Photos on Flickr (Creative Commons licence)

The journey to space will be one of sensory overload. As you hurtle through the edges of the atmosphere, imagine the large windows showing the cobalt blue sky turning to mauve and indigo and finally to black. The rocket motor has now been switched off and all is quiet. But it’s not just quiet, it’s QUIET. The silence of space is as awe-inspiring as was the noise of the rocket just moments earlier. What’s really getting the senses screaming now though, is that the gravity which has dominated every movement you’ve made since the day you were born is not there anymore. There is no up and no down and you’re out of your seat experiencing the freedom that even your dreams underestimated.

Tourism as we know it is about to change and if you thought Virgin holidays, Virgin aeroplanes and the Virgin Pendolino train were the pinnacle of what the global conglomerate has to offer travellers, then you may be in for a surprise. This year Virgin Galactic will unveil the design of the world’s first commercial spaceship, bringing to life the notion of space tourism, a concept many thought only possible in science fiction.

Richard Branson is now about to take on the universe. In an exclusive interview for Behind the Spin, president of Virgin Galactic Will Whitehorn reveals the idea behind the new enterprise, the environmental implications of space tourism and the use of public relations.

So I ask Whitehorn, where did Richard Branson get this idea from and why would he spend so much money developing it?

“In the mid 1990s we were looking at the technologies for the future of Virgin businesses and the technologies in the rail and aviation industry. The first project that we alighted on was by Bert Rutan, a worldwide expert at developing aircraft. He was building a plane for Virgin Atlantic which Steve Fossett flew around the world on one tank of fuel; the ‘Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer.’

“Whilst he was building that, we looked at a space project he was developing and decided to buy into the technology. All current space rockets are meant to push through the atmosphere then into the upper atmosphere and then on into space, but these have huge environmental impact and are energy inefficient. From this came the origins of Virgin Galactic where we were trying to develop a business that is not really just about space tourism and taking people into space, but about taking technology and low earth orbit satellite and other communications into space in the future.”

Instead of launching the spaceship from the ground, the Virgin Galactic spaceship hitches a ride up to around 50,000 feet attached to a specially-designed carrier aircraft, ‘the mother ship’. At altitude, the spaceship is released from the mother ship and ignites its hybrid rocket. The spaceship then begins a climb from 50,000 feet to over 360,000 feet. This climb takes about 90 seconds reaching over three times the speed of sound. When in space the ship changes shape so that when it returns back into the atmosphere it will have a shuttle cock effect that allows the space ship to drop back into the atmosphere letting it reform into a glider or a feathering device.

In other words, you can now travel into space using a fraction of the energy of normal spaceships. In fact, the commercial flight into space will have the same environmental impact as an economy ticket from London to New York, claims Whitehorn, whereas the existing shuttle has the impact equivalent to the entire population of New York and all its industry over one weekend.

But how are you going to influence people to spend so much money on the venture?

“If space tourism was the only reason for the project, we probably wouldn’t be doing it. Space tourism is the first available market. When we were researching this project and trying to justify it to Virgin’s investment committee we had to do so on the basis of finding a practical use for it. The easiest one to look for at first was that people would like to have the experience of going into space, so we could use them to help us develop the technology.

“So we are sharing with our launch customers the fact that they are pioneers and they are helping in the long term to fund this. They are helping in the sense that it justifies our investment of over $200m to make this project work. Clearly as part of that process we have had to find the market and sell the concept to people and we tell the customers and potential customers that they can be a part of something much bigger than space tourism, but the start of space technology as we now know it.

“This is a cheap way, without the environmental impacts, to travel to space. In the long-term low earth satellites and other forms of satellites such as weather monitoring satellites will be launched much more cheaply than they are today. The other spin-offs are scientific experiments in space. Current spaceships and the equipment used are not that reliable. This way, scientists can go up into space cheaply and with a low environmental impact using the new rockets.”

But then why does space matter? Why, given all of the problems that we have on the planet do we need to be in space?

“Everything now from communications to navigation and food production utterly relies on space and satellite technology. With a population of 6.5 billion people, we are using more resources than we can replace and since the launch of satellites and GPS systems, we can now plot exactly where vehicles are around the world, helping food production and distribution to become 7% more efficient over the last decade. We now know where produce is from one country to another so food isn’t spoiling in ports and wasting.

“Space satellites can accurately predict the weather so farmers can fertilise food at optimum efficiency and produce more to keep up with the growing global demands. If you are a company engaged now in commercial enterprise, you have the responsibility to think about how your technology can become the most efficient, using the resources available. So far, the earth has been free with regards to its resources but that is all about to change and if you don’t adjust to that, your business will fail. That is why Virgin has gone into the rail business producing Europe’s most fuel efficient and fastest train, the Pendolino.

“That is why we have been one of the launch customers for the new generation aircraft which is much more fuel efficient, and we have been developing a bio fuel for aviation. That is also why we have moved into the renewable energy sector and the solar sector. But Virgin isn’t like most organisations, we see ourselves as a branded venture capital organisation so we are investing in our own future and the future survivability of our business model.”

You can imagine that informing, creating understanding and changing the behaviour of the market is a huge public relations task. So far there has been a lot of hype about Virgin Galactic, and that it not surprising given the boldness of the concept. The next press event will be to unveil the design of the ship later this year. Following this, Virgin will unveil the actual aircraft carrier and the spaceship itself and will begin the flight testing. It will be at least 2010 before they carry commercial passengers into space. The pioneers, the first 1000 people to travel into space as tourists on the Virgin Galactic, can expect to pay around £107,000. Following the pioneers will be the voyagers and they will probably pay less than that.

Other public relations activities will involve an ultimate reality TV show giving people the opportunity to travel to space. Alongside this, Virgin have a number of documentaries planned and will fully engage in the social media side of communications, including extensive coverage of the launch and developments of the ship to date on the popular YouTube website.

At the end of 2007 PR Week dedicated a supplement to ‘digital essays’ delving into the world of social media. The key point: that if you don’t know about this as a public relations practitioner then on your head be it. The chances of any public relations student reading this article and not knowing about social media is quite unlikely (are you flicking back to Facebook as you read this?).

But as students come up through the ranks do you hear enough good practice examples for this growing phenomenon? Without examples of social media working well and being used by organisations is it not at risk of becoming a public relations cliché or even seen, heaven forbid, as a fad?

General Motors, the largest automotive company in the world, can give us numerous examples of social media expertise. Back in 2005 GM began its social media education with the launch of two blogs, Fastlane and FYI, bringing with it the latest news and discussions about all things automotive. And last year GM Europe took a step toward social media interaction with the launch of an interactive newsroom getting the “online reporter” engaged. Three years on from the launch of the blogs it is GM’s 100^th anniversary celebration. Showing the next steps of their social media education and moving them into their new century is the launch of GM Next (www.gmnext.com).

Launched on 3 January 2008 the website is designed to create dialogue and conversation with all of GM’s stakeholders. Sounds like Grunig and Hunt’s two-way symmetric communications model has been achieved at last. But it is still early days. How much will the social media content be used? Will GM sustain it? And how will the top leaders of GM cope if results of the campaign take years to materialise?

A launch interview with the Holtz and Hobson For Immediate Release podcast showed that GM is trying to adjust to the changing world of communication at a time when the automotive industry is going through its own major transformation. Stagnant markets, climate change pressures and alternative fuel technology pose huge challenges for companies like GM and its competitors. GM Next is one way of adjusting to this changing environment.

The website itself includes tools such as blogs, wikis, forums, videos, photographs and podcasts around five key themes: design, tech, ideas, green, reach. All stakeholders can get involved and employees are being encouraged to take part in the discussions and reflect back on their involvement in historic GM events. Employee involvement was viewed as crucial to the success of this campaign so it was launched internally at the beginning of December 2007. Week one saw over 13,000 global visits.

The GM Next webspace allows all people with an interest in GM whether employee, customer, dealership owner or journalist to become engaged with the company which is now opening its doors to the outside world – something rarely done by such a large, traditional organisation. As well as GM’s own interactive space it also recognises it will have to play an active role in going out to other social media conversations. To build trust and reduce cynicism they know they need to be part of the bigger community and conversation.

GM plans to involve the right people internally from the beginning to ensure the new ideas from the global conversation get to the decision-makers. If this is the case and GM does listen then we are one step closer to effective two-way communication. To be taken seriously by all stakeholders and to be a new frontier in the communication of global organisations the dialogue is going to have be continuous, long after the 100 year celebrations are over. And even though this is indicated to be the plan for GM Next the lack of measurable results in the early stages could jeopardise management’s belief in it working. f they sustain it, if this truly is the new way that GM is going to communicate with its publics, then as public relations students we have arrived in the workplace at the right time.

If you are graduating or just beginning we are here at the first launches and the growing initial stages. With some time and experience under our belt we are going to be around to see companies such as GM reap the rewards (or not) for their efforts if they manage to maintain, sustain and truly believe in the potential values of this form of two-way symmetrical communication.

Photo credit: Zoe Lavender

The subject of horses on the roads is one that is almost guaranteed to cause disagreement. Whilst researching this feature, I came across a forum entitled ‘Horses: are they a danger?’ The argument was over thirty posts long, with numerous complaints from characters such as ‘White truck man’ and ‘pj123’; claiming horses should pay road tax or be banned from highways altogether.

An organisation that definitely does not share these views is the British Horse Society (BHS). For over twenty years they have been campaigning for recognition and safe conditions for riders on Britain’s roads. To ‘non-horsey’ people this may seem insignificant, but with over four million UK riders, and more than 25 million vehicles on the roads, the BHS’ work is vital.

The BHS, which celebrated its Diamond Jubilee last year, is a charity funded entirely by membership and donations. Therefore all their road safety campaigns must either be sponsored or very low cost. They have produced many car stickers to support these campaigns, with perhaps the most well known being ‘I Slow Down for Horses’. This simple slogan creates an exclusive ‘club’ of motorists who are proud to drive carefully when passing horses on the road and shows recognition of equine unpredictability.

Sheila Hardy, Senior Executive Safety of the BHS, spoke of the difficulties faced by riders on the roads: “With so many people moving out of the city, having little experience of ‘country ways’, our job is to educate and explain to them the dangers that horses can pose.” Sheila has been head of safety for eight years, and as a result is very aware of ignorance where horses are concerned. “It is important that motorists read the newly-revised Highway Code, which contains advice on how to drive safely past horses.”

The BHS have many leaflets to download from their website, as well as a poster re-launching the ‘Be Seen-Be Safe’ campaign which highlights the importance of horse and rider visibility. Sheila spoke of the campaign: “There are a large number of visitors to the BHS website and by downloading two or three posters each we feel they can be distributed across a wide area very quickly at little cost.” Fluorescent clothing, which is easy and cheap to obtain, should be worn by riders at all times, as it can give vehicle drivers an extra three seconds reaction time.

One of the main problems encountered by the BHS is the lack of police interest in road accidents where horses are concerned. Unless a human goes from the scene of the accident to hospital, the police have no compulsory accident reporting process. A horse can be killed, a car written off, and there is little that can be done. The BHS have lobbied for many years to try and change this, but the authorities are not interested, they view an accident with a horse in the same way as they would a vehicle hitting any other beast or bird. As a result the BHS have an accident report form that can be completed on-line via their website, enabling a record to be kept, and statistics to be compiled. In 2002 117 accidents were reported via the BHS website: 11 riders and 33 horses had been killed and many more seriously injured.

Although the police have little interest where horse-related road accidents are concerned, they do support many of the BHS’ campaigns. This is essential in ensuring that campaigns are effective and adds authority by using a respected institution that everyone recognises. The Department for Transport is also instrumental in BHS campaigns, helping to educate and advise many motorists about the importance of driving responsibly around horses and they have provided substantial funding over a period of years, to enable training to be carried out to both Riding & Road Safety Trainers and Examiners.

The BHS also run ‘The Riding and Road Safety Test’, which is taken by more than 4,000 riders each year, helping to minimise the risks involved when riding on the roads. This training programme has won three Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards, which honours those who have contributed at the highest level to help in reducing road casualties. The road safety test is also accredited by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority as part of the National Qualification Framework.

Bridleways and tracks are important in offering riders the opportunity to minimise the time they spend on the roads, and the BHS are currently asking people to sign an online petition asking the Government to give them a say in all new access and rights of way legislation.

I support the ‘I slow down for horses’ campaign. But since I’m likely to be on horseback, my life may depend on you heeding the message.

Photo credit: Carys Samuel

A volley of verbal abuse, near-death experiences, covered head to toe in dirt and this is without the British weather. No, I’m not talking about the referee of a Liverpool – Man Utd match. This is the average commute for a city cyclist.

Let’s take Plymouth as an example. Is cycling possible within an urban area?

The City Council wants its staff to ride their bikes into work and ditch their cars. What happens on the cold, wet and windy days? Is there an alternative in place for those cyclists to use public transport?

Sustrans, ‘the UK’s leading sustainable transport charity,’ maintains over 284 miles of the National Cycle Network in Devon with 105 miles being traffic free. The national route number 27 runs all the way from the Plymouth Barbican and Dockyard to Ilfracombe in the north of the county.

“People use our routes on their day-to-day journeys whether that’s going to work, going to the shops, going to school, or whatever it might be, so we’re always looking to improve networks into and around towns” says Adrian Roper, Sustrans’ South West Regional Director.

This means that when you’re in the city you’re no more than three miles away from a dedicated cycle track and much closer to the road cycle paths. There’s no excuse not to get on your bikes, if you pardon the pun, when the paths are so easily accessible to everyone. You may be thinking that you have to be fit to cope with the hills in the UK. I’m not going to lie to you, some fitness is required, but the more you cycle, the fitter you become.

“One of the things we do try and do, is to make sure that we do provide routes that are as flat as possible and that’s the reason we often use old railway lines and tow paths,” says Roper.

As we all know, trying to move around a city at rush hour is pointless, every journey takes twice as long, using a lot more fuel and making everyone stressed. It’s no wonder there are more cases of road rage year on year. So why aren’t people using the two wheeled alternative? Feeling the breeze on your face, seeing the landscape from a different view and getting fitter in the process… If you’re a pessimist this could easily turn to feeling the icy wind on your fingers, breathing in smog from the congestion and getting hot and sweaty for something that you don’t enjoy.

Most people wax lyrical over how good cycling and public transport are for the environment. But do they know the real hazards of riding a bike? Firstly, in a bike helmet, everybody looks stupid and there are no exceptions to this, no matter who you are. Then you have the kids, giving you their advice on how to ride properly, deliberately trying to annoy you. Car drivers, annoyed at the thought of you getting anywhere faster than them, block your path, stopping you darting past. Tired muscles screaming to stop. Then in winter, the howling gales, showers and mud-covered roads.

Devon averages out to be the 8^th highest county in England. This means there are a lot of hills to contend with. The highest point in Plymouth is higher than anywhere in the whole of Essex. It isn’t any wonder the car looks to be the better option.

It’s other traffic that causes the biggest problem for cyclists. In much the same way that motorcyclists have to constantly look out for cars, a cyclist’s journey is no less full of danger. Cars will beep if you pull away from the lights early. This isn’t just a matter of being cheeky though, it’s a matter of survival. There are cyclists everyday who have to put up with drivers coming too close, being clipped and being knocked off. That’s why cyclists take the jump start at traffic lights. It’s scary having a one and a half tonne car bearing down on you. The bus lanes provide some sanctuary from other vehicles, but obviously when a bus passes you less than a metre away, it’s much worse.

Roundabouts are particularly frightful as any learner driver could tell you. I have often been forced to skid to a stop, when drivers just haven’t seen me coming, leading to many expletives.

“Car drivers just don’t seem to see cyclists. I wear a bright yellow top, I have a bright helmet and lights on and do the best I can to be seen, but nobody seems to notice. Lights and visible clothing is a must,” says Tom Gruitt a regular cycling commuter.

The city council are fully aware that not all of the cycle lanes in, out and around Plymouth link up.

“Routes maybe on road, off road, advisable side routes, any road that’s got a low traffic speed; it doesn’t have to have any infrastructure on it to be cited as a suitable cycle route,” says Suzanne Keith, Road Safety Officer at Plymouth City Council.

There are hubs around Plymouth, with the aim of integrating different forms of sustainable transport.

“Integrated transport is something that we would encourage and interchanges like the George Junction are designed to help people travel by more than one sustainable mode. For example, at the George there are cycle lockers and showers which cyclists can use,” says Suzanne Keith.

There has always been this problem of where to store bikes; there are currently two separate locations of lockers, with another planned for Bretonside. There are also over 10 stand locations in the city centre for locking a bike to and a new one on Charles St. even though cycling is prohibited in the pedestrianised areas.

The council does have a cycling strategy which it has been working on fulfilling, from 2006 to 2011. The plan has many aims, but the most important is: “To maximise the role of cycling as a transport mode, in order to reduce the number of private cars, ease congestion, and to help improve air quality and aid accessibility”.

Don’t think that it’s just the council making these decisions. They regularly ask cyclists about existing routes and improvements that need to be made. This is all with the aim of making Plymouth more user-friendly to bike riders. This is in conjunction with regular meetings with the cycle forum.

Plymouth is fully geared up for new cyclists to start taking to the roads and the hills are nothing but a small annoyance. The only problem left now, is for the rest of the country to move into line and all road users to become more aware of the other people on the road. This applies to motorists, pedestrians and cyclists alike. When a motorist sees a cyclist at rush hour speeding past, there’s no need to cause an accident. Car drivers shouldn’t be jealous, they need ride to work as well, so they know the feeling of getting somewhere on time.

Photo credit: David Young, Sustrans

The bicycle is a very simple invention with only two wheels, a strong frame and pedals for movement. It was named the best ever invention in a poll by BBC Radio 4 listeners, beating firm favourites such as radio and the personal computer. But when we think about this, in many of our family homes today it seems the bicycle’s day has been and gone. How many families do you know that would trade in their fancy laptops and shiny new mobiles phones in favour of this two-wheeled ‘relic’?

Why should families cycle when they have plenty of options to get from A to B? Apart from the obvious one of keeping us healthy, opening us up to amazing scenery and being great fun, it seems to also have beneficial factors for family life. Sustrans aims to promote these factors in a bid to get us (‘us’ being the population who’ve neglected our bikes) back on the saddle.

Sustrans is a UK charity funded by the government and the private sector. Their purpose is to encourage cycling as a healthy transport alternative using a practical, fun approach. Their ideas are imaginative, undoubtedly positive and particularly aimed at families to get them engaging in activities together which don’t involve the Xbox or DVD player.

This all sounds very promising, but promoting this Victorian creation against cars is more of a challenge. After all, they are competing with the big budget marketing campaigns of family cars such as the Citroen ‘Transformers’ advertisement and celebrity endorsements (‘Vava Voom’, anyone?).

It makes it even more of a challenge that a car is an essential part of life within the modern family unit. Sustrans is not proposing we completely abandon the car or use the bicycle for all of our long, strenuous journeys. It does however promote bicycle use within our daily lives wherever possible, as the idea of avoiding busy roads and opting for the more sociable scenic route almost creates a ‘social utopia.’

We have been constantly reminded that the ‘perfect’ family life doesn’t exist anymore – the Bisto family having been axed because families don’t sit around together at meal times. The truth seems to be that fewer and fewer organisations see using ‘family life’ as a selling point or a realistic approach when promoting since it doesn’t seem to reflect today’s society.

Sustrans uses a variety of techniques to demonstrate the idea of building relationships within the family unit. After all, a family that plays together stays together.

Gill Harrison of the Sustrans Press Office says: “our marketing materials use aspirational images – sometimes not even involving bikes, trying to show “ordinary” people enjoying walking and cycling and not in full lyrca.”

Sustrans realised that its messages needed to be put across in a way that would appeal to the average family – not only just the cycling fanatics (after all they are not a charity just for cyclists).

When messages are expressed through a familiar and trustworthy source, people will give you their time and listen. Bearing this in mind, Sustrans didn’t want cyclists to be their spokespeople. Instead Alistair McGowan, Wayne Hemmingway and most recently Loraine Kelly were asked to front their campaigns because of their ‘likeability’ factor.

Sustrans were pleased with Kelly as she fronted one of the charity’s biggest campaigns to date, Connect 2. “I wanted someone with popular appeal and asked for Lorraine, we were delighted that she accepted”, Harrison recalls. “She is a keen walker and cycled as a young reporter. She also did a couple of press interviews for us and we were really pleased with her involvement and obvious understanding of the issues. She was also very good at putting across a potentially complicated message in an easy to understand style.”

To enter family life and make a difference, it seems hiring well-known role models is a very good start. Cause-related marketing is another approach being tried.

Sustrans has worked with Kellogg’s with families collecting tokens from cereal packs and sending away for a free cyclometer. Kellogg’s even advertised the ‘Cycle10 Challenge’ on packs of its cereal. The company, which has previously received admirable feedback over their ‘walkometer’ giveaway, encouraged its loyal family customers to cycle together for 10miles per week and be in with a chance of winning a new bike for their efforts.

By teaming up, both companies received the positive results they desired. Kellogg’s maintained its image as a leading breakfast brand, putting their words into practice and looking after their consumers’ health. Sustrans benefited from reaching Kellogg’s customers.

Carrying on from using the theme of everyday life, they encourage not only the ‘fun weekend’ cycling aspect to the consumers (who are predominantly adults) but aim to bring it into children’s day to day lives.

With the news stories about obesity being a ‘ticking time bomb’ with children’s increasingly worsening diets, Sustrans takes the message to children where they can be most readily influenced – at their school.

‘Bike It!’ works daily in hundreds of schools. The officers use a fun range of activities to encourage cycling with fun competitions including ‘Bikes with Bling’, whereby the children accessorise their bike using recyclable materials such as cans and tin foil. This practical, personal method generally appeals to the children rather than relying on the factual approach.

By encouraging children to include a healthy regime into their daily school journey, parents are increasingly aware that Sustrans is offering something positive to their child. The mums who love to hear about their kid’s day have been known to become involved within the biking activities.

In terms of results, ‘Bike It!’ has been one of Sustrans’ projects which has met its aims. According to Gill Harrison: “The project began around four years ago and can be measured by the expansion of the number of our ‘Bike It!’ officers. We started with just four and the team has now expanded to 25, working with hundreds of schools. It’s also increasing the levels of cycling – by June 2006 an average of 10% of pupils in ‘Bike It!’ schools, ten times the national average.”

Sustrans.org.uk states that over 75% of the UK’s population lives within two miles of a cycle route – maybe we should follow the Dutch and the Danish and hop on the bike more regularly. We have already switched the thermostat to 20 degrees and taken out our recycling so maybe it’s time we went backwards instead of constantly forwards in transport terms and not only improved our health but our social lives too.

Transit advertising is one the fastest-growing phenomena in the outdoor media industry. Brands such as Police, Smint cool mints, T-mobile and The Guardian have placed advertising on buses, trains and taxis at the heart of their communications strategy.

Today, transit media represents more than one-third of all outdoor expenditure in the UK. Transit media is normally categorised under the umbrella of outdoor advertising. Sales of advertising in public transit facilities and vehicles is a nearly $1 billion industry generating approximately $500 million annually to transit agencies.

In 2007, the top 5 brands in UK that used transit media were: Unilever UK, Vodafone, Orange, British Sky Broadcasting and O2. In 2007, advertising on transit media increased by 35% to £82m, more than one-third of all outdoor expenditure.

Within the whole, it is possible to distinguish several types of transit media such as trucks, cabs, buses, trains and planes. Transit media become a compelling option for companies planning media selection due to its combination of high frequency, exposure, geographic selectivity and low cost. Transit advertising allows advertisers to get a high exposure in front of a vast audience even at critical times as at rush hours. Due to the fact that the media itself is moving – by definition – this type of communication targets different groups of consumers depending on the route it follows

Using data collected from May to September 2007, from a sample of 30 people living in two different London areas – peripheral and central – this exploratory study (which formed part of a Masters level dissertation at London Metropolitan University) tries to answer the question whether it is effective for companies to exploit transit media such as buses and cabs to support their campaigns.

The findings confirmed that transit media showed a high level of recognition and recall, which were two measures used to evaluate the media effectiveness. Moreover, the study attempted to define the relationship between the level of consumers’ involvement and attitudes towards transit media and the level of recall and recognition of the advertisements placed on them.

Findings showed that consumers are quite involved with buses and cabs as advertising media and their level of recall and recognition is influenced by judging the media as simple artefacts. Furthermore, by examining consumers’ attitudes towards buses and cabs as advertising media and the level of recall and recognition of adverts placed on them, it was clear that the more positive attitudes consumers have towards the media, the higher is the level of recall and recognition.

Another measure used to test the effectiveness of buses and cabs was the consumers’ level of exposure to that type of media. It was evident that the level of exposure to transit media is high (29 million consumers per day), but people who live in areas that are more peripheral are less exposed to bus and cab advertisements.

Finally, the research also analysed the influence that some factors could have on the level of consumers’ attention towards adverts placed on both transit media. Findings showed that:

• Consumers are attracted by vivid and warm colours, rather then dull and cool ones;
• Consumers pay attention to different bus and cab advertising formats. The catchiest is the “all-wrapped” format;
• Advertisement meaningfulness and advertisement attractiveness are another two significant factors that impact on consumers’ attention.

In light of such results, all communicators should be aware of the effectiveness of buses and cabs as transit media in order to:

• Define new dynamics for primary and secondary media selection;
• Identify more effective ways to advertise on buses and cabs by exploiting the favourable consumers’ attitudes and involvement;
• Focus more accurately on advertisement features (colours, information, and graphic);
• Take into account that companies that use a geographical segmentation and those that introduce new products in the market can especially exploit them due to their high frequency.

Photo credit: Nicola de Liso