Marketing and advertising professionals know the value of space. Yes, that’s right, purely and simply space. That’s because an empty space represents an opportunity for a piece of marketing, advertising, or sales content. This is how street furniture advertising and bike share advertising came to be in the first place. The value of space has also launched several other popular advertising and marketing strategies. For example, strategic positioning in grocery stores is partially about placing products in the eyeline of consumers, and gaining reputation based on shelf-placement. However, another aspect involved in strategic positioning in that same context is shelf-domination. The more products your brand releases and shelves in a store, the less room exists for a competitor’s product.
That being said, you may not be totally familiar with street furniture or bike sharing advertising, and all of the different ways that organizations are effectively utilizing it in the modern marketing era.
What is a Bike Share Service?
Before you can get into bike share advertising, you need to know what a bike sharing service is. A bike sharing service is a public service set up in a variety of metropolitan cities all across the world. Before ever entering the US, bike sharing services became popular, with varying success, in international cities. Notably, Sydney, Beijing, and many European cities.
The idea is relatively simple, if someone needs a bike, they pick one up from a shared bike rack. They ride that bike to wherever they’re traveling within the city limits, and are able to drop the bike back off at a similar rack near their destination. The goal of a bike sharing service is two-fold. The first and most obvious is to reduce the carbon footprint of cities, and to encourage consumers to stay off the streets and out of their cars.
Secondly, by implementing a bike-sharing service, minimalism is also encouraged, as fewer people need to own their own bikes, which reduces individual clutter, and in turn helps consumers save money.
These are the fundamental principles behind the creation and implementation of a bike sharing service.
Understanding Bike Share Advertising
With an understanding of the bike sharing service, we can start exploring bike share advertising. Bike share advertising makes use of the available space on, near, and around shared bike racks. Instead of simply leaving these bike racks blank, or branded with the name of the shared bike service, companies found a way to utilize the space on shared bike racks in order to create effective pieces of marketing. In turn, this opened up a whole new channel of marketing and advertising opportunities in a wide variety of cities making use of a shared bike service.
Strategic Bike Share Advertising
One of the reasons bike share advertising has been successful is because of its exposure to natural foot traffic. Even consumers who aren’t actively using the bike-sharing-service will pass by shared bike racks and take note of the advertising placed there.
Not only that, but bike share advertising can be extremely strategic for some brands who align their values with the typical values held by those biking in a metropolitan city. For instance, health brands, nutrition brands, fitness brands, and environmentally conscious brands all have a strong chance of connecting and resonating with consumers who regularly use a shared bike service.
Other forms of Street Furniture Advertising
Bike share advertising is just one of many types of street furniture advertising. As mentioned a little earlier, street furniture advertising operates on the principle that every empty space is a marketing opportunity.
Bus shelter advertising, urban panel advertising, and kiosk advertising are all other viable and popular forms of street furniture advertising regularly used by marketing and advertising professionals.
Creating Comprehensive and Engaging Marketing Campaigns
While bike share advertising and other forms of street furniture advertising can make effective campaigns, they should be folded into an overarching and comprehensive marketing strategy.
With the popularity of the digital marketplace and online advertising, marketing technology simply cannot be ignored as it continues to pave the way forward in these industries. Creating a multifaceted marketing strategy that encompasses street advertising tactics as well as digital marketing strategies will be the best way for any modern brand to remain relevant and competitive in their industry.
Wrapping up on Bike Share Advertising
With bike sharing services gaining popularity amongst consumers and city officials alike as an effective way to combat the growing climate crisis, bike share advertising continues to be a viable and effective strategy for marketing and advertising professionals across a wide spectrum of fields and industries.
If you’re looking for a form of street furniture advertising to fold into your overall marketing strategy, bike share advertising could be the perfect fit for your brand.
