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Publicity in Transport
Page 111
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THEpaper by Mr. W. Allan Irvine, the publicity superintendent of Glasgow Corporation's transport department, opens with a few general impressions on the subject of• transport publicity. He relates that, some months ago, the transport department of Glasgow sent out to all municipal transport undertakings a letter to ascertain what was being done elsewhere to stimulate the industry by publicity methods.
The replies showed, on the whole, that managers were not blind to the advantages accruing from the poster appeal or the press advertisement. Practically all are agreed that, nowadays, transportation has to be sold, and sold against keen competition by rail and road. The tone of some of the replies indicated, however, a rather lukewarm attitude. Mr. Irvine thinks that the policy of " Everything's all right" should not be applied to an industry as necessarily progressive and, at the same time, as vulnerable as that of transport. Almost without exception, the publicity work of the various undertakings is carried out by members of the traffic staff.
Buses and Trams the Best Media.
The author then relates how the publicity department at Glasgow came into being, and says that, in a city of Glasgow's size, where there is a population of more than 1,0004100 people within the city boundary and 1,500,000 in the area 'served by the municipal transport services, the buses and trams provide the best media for the display of publicity matter.
He thinks it will be generally agreed that there can never be any standard form of publicity suitable for all transport undertakings. Mr. Irvine has no faith in the hackneyed slogan : its effectiveness can never be gauged.
He deals with three groups of publicity :—(1) For revenue; (2) for safety ; and (3) for efficiency. Under the first heading he draws attention to the corporation's popular weekly feature, the " Where-to-go" bill, which is posted every Thursday night on all trams and buses and removed on the Sunday night, unless some event occurring in the following week is featured. This has proved an effective form of publicity and the transport revenue has benefited accordingly.
In an industrial city like Glasgow, people who travel twice or four times daily between their places of business and their homes, year in and year out, take a good deal of convincing that an extra run per day is good for their health but, says Mr. Irvine, it is surprising what the power of suggestion will accomplish in this direction. With this end in view, circular tours, using the ordinary tram and bus services, were advertised.
Unsatisfactory Road Accident Publicity.
Dealing with the second group—publicity for safety— Mr. Irvine says that the distressing total of road fatalities makes him doubt if the older generation will ever become traffic conscious. For years warnings have been issued and slogans invented, but the figures continue to mount year after year. Last year 114 deaths occurred in Glasgow as a result of street accidents. The author's opinion is that many of the \posters exhibited for the purpose of promoting greater safety in the streets are not in the least effective. He even thinks that the Highway Code fails to stimulate a deeper sense of responsibility in all road users.
In the third group, which covers publicity for efficiency, he repeats the statement that men in uniform are the real publicity agents of a transport undertaking. The goodwill of the travelling public, so vital to success, is gained or lost by the conduct of the men on the vehicles,