Benefits:

• High-impact and visual
• Extremely mobile
• Cheaper than an ad van or lorry
• Small carbon footprint

Top Tips: General:

• Turnaround times and lead times for booking do vary depending on the season etc this can range from three days to three weeks. Allow as much time as possible for your advance planning and Advans UK would be happy to option adbikes for you if you are fairly sure the campaign is going to go ahead.
• When engaging ad bike companies, verify if the price of their service includes the hire of the bikes, cyclist and insurance, as some only quote for the hire of the bike. Advans UK include and manages all of these areas in their quote as this will minimise your overall planning time.
• Send your riders into areas of high footfall - it is often a better use of their time rather than completing large circuits on major roads. Provide the ad bike company with a map clearly identifying where you want the bike to stop for periods of time to maximise exposure. You can mark the route on a paper map or plot the exact journey on using online mapping software like Google Maps
• Advans UK allow their cyclists to wear your branded t-shirts. Check with them before you book and make sure that you provide them with several t-shirts of different sizes
• Permits may be required by certain boroughs to hand out leaflets, if you ask Advans UK they will check their database of councils for you and let you know if one is required and the processing times.
• Try to make sure there is someone on call throughout the campaign (even at weekends) in case of any issues arising on the day
• Consider using strong visuals and a clear call to action. The bikes will be moving most of the time so people need to be able to read or recognise the visuals: simple, high impact visuals work best

• It can be tricky to monitor the impact and effectiveness of an ad bike in promoting your activity. Simply including ‘ad bikes’ in your research questionnaires as a way that audiences heard about the associated activity won’t always work as not everyone understands what an ad bike is. Consider how you refer to ad bikes in your evaluation questions. Consider saying ‘mobile billboard’ or ‘pedal-powered advert’, or even including a small picture of the ad bike next to the question
• The adbikes work in all weathers, the only time that they will not work is in high winds above 30mph due to health and safety and te bikes will make up the time later. If it rains/snows the adbikes will follow the footfall to areas like the entrance of shopping centres, stations retail parks etc so they are always near the action
• Ask the cyclist to take photographs on the day so that you can better understand how many people have been exposed to your marketing. Advans UK always provide this as part of the service
• And finally, carry out random spot-checks to see how people are interacting with the adbike

Intended Outcomes:

• To raise the profile of a store, product or service in areas with high concentration of target audiences
• To provide marketing and audience development opportunities for clients
• To encourage sign-ups to websites with the aim of signposting captured audiences on to further information
• To collect audience data for future marketing activity and to test the effectiveness of the approach

How does the booking process work:

• The adbike concept is proposed to, and signed-off by, the client
• The client sends an email to Advans UK with the required dates, times and locations Advans UK will send a quote back to client
• A contract/agreement with Advans UK was signed and payment was processed
• Artwork specifications are then sent to the client, the ready artwork is needed 7 days prior to the campaign start date.
• The client then provides Advans UK with a route or a few key locations or post codes that they would like to target that including areas of high footfall.
• Branded clothing and marketing material to hand out can be sent to the Advans UK office 5 days prior to the campaign or to the store to pick up on the campaign start date.

Top Tips: Audience Engagement:

• Using adbikes as a successful audience engagement tool is dependant upon a number of key factors; key messages, calls to action and location
• Riders are employed based on their ability to cycle for long periods of time and not for their marketing/engagement skills. Some riders, however, are happy to hand out marketing materials on your behalf. If your rider is willing to engage people, ensure that they are provided with an information pack so that they can talk confidently about your campaign
• Consider how you can use the ad bikes in different ways: signpost to a website address, hand out leaflets and marketing materials, play music or audio messages or even use the 6 sheet board as a back drop for people to have their photographs taken against
• Take advantage of social media – create ‘hashtags’ for the campaign on Twitter for example, so you can find out who has seen the bikes and whether it has generated interest
• You might also consider including Quick Response codes (QR Codes) on your ad bike posters; these are increasingly being used as an alternative solution to signposting people with mobile phones and QR readers to online content