Effective Passenger-transport Publicity devised at small cost
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Some Ways in Which, with a Little Ingenuity, the Merits of Road Travel can be Brought to the Public Notice
PUBLICITY is one of the greatest needs of the road passenger-transport industry and is a subject worthy of closer investigation than it at present receives. There are many methods of bringing the merits of roadtravel to the notice of the public and some of them involve little expense— ingenuity or an ability to capitalize an apparently irrelevant event being the main requirement.
An inexpensive way of calling the attention of a large number of people to a service is to provide neat timetable boards at points along the route. A printed time-table can be made, at little or no extra cost, into an attractive pamphlet drawing attention to one of the many special uses to which the service can be put.
New Uses for Bus Services.
Different editions of the time-table can suggest various reasons for travel. One may give short descriptions of rambles starting from points on the route, whilst another might emphasize the convenience of the buses for travelling to and from the theatre. The uses of the service which publicity of this kind is given should be those not at present widely appreciated by the public, and efforts might well be made to induce passengers to travel at " light " periods of the day.
Whenever any new service or facility is being brought into operation, the local newspaper should be given the opportunity of publishing the information, and thus it will be brought to the notice of many potential patrons. Arrangements can be made for other items of general interest to be published in the paper. For example,
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numerous readers would be interested to learn that a certain day's traffic constituted a record, or of the manner in which holiday traffic was handled.
Local newspaper advertising is inexpensive and can be effective. A new displayed advertisement should be arranged for each issue. Friday, incidentally, is, perhaps, the best " pulling " day for transport announcements, because then many people are wondering whether to go out during the week-end.
During the summer a striking series of advertisements can be made out of local beauty spots. A picture of each place, a short description and details of the bus service to it will he of great assistance to possible visitors. During the winter months various aspects of the bus organization, with emphasis placed upon safety measures, provide effective subjects for advertisements.
Poster advertising, if undertaken wisely, can also help a good deal. It is advisable to have a number of different posters hand-painted by a commercial artist. A useful method of securing publicity during the holiday months of July and August is to rent an empty shop in the centre of the town and display in the window posters and time-tables of suitable services.
The shop itself may be kept open for a few weeks as a "holiday bureau," which, if widely advertised, will attract inquiries as to ways and means for travelling to holiday resorts. The cost of this scheme need not be large.
For all forms of advertising, a.good original slogan'is most valuable and one should be selected that applies to the advertiser's own undertaking. This could well be used in conjunction with the national slogan, "The Roads Are Yours—Use Them."
In the early days of .road transport the personal element was an important factor, but with the increase in the number of big bus companies, it is, to some extent, dying out It is, however, still necessary and can be cultivated, even in the case of large undertakings. One way of maintaining it is to employ the same vehicles, drivers and conductors on each route, so far as possible..
Naming Outstanding Services.
Then, again, the naming of notable services is a useful personal touch; "the Heather Express, say, for a longdistance trip to a moorsidg resort, or " The Welsh Coast Express," or some similar name. In just the same way, individual coaches can be given names instead of numbers.
Additional interest can be created by persuading the Mayor to christen a new coach named after his town, in a little public ceremony on market day, afterwards taking the councillors for a short trip and laying the coach open for public inspection (with an ample supply of time-tables and literature available). Such an event as this will, of course, be reported fully in the kcal Press.