Rebellion Bay Spiced Rum embarks on ‘world’s longest transit campaign’
Vok Beverages has launched a mobile outdoor campaign that sees billboards advertising Rebellion Bay Spiced Rum mounted to the back of Vespa scooters and driven 2,800km from far north Queensland to Sydney.
The stunt, which will see the scooters pass through 22 towns in 30 days, has been billed as ‘the world’s longest transit campaign’.
It was devised by Cummins Ross South Australia and executed by scooter ad firm Media-V.
This is about as silly as advertising gets. Two little bikes with trailers clogging up a busy highway. Hard to see how anyone would be pleased to see them on the road.
So that’s the name for this incredibly annoying form of advertising – a ‘transit campaign’? Well a cowpat by any other name still smells like sh*t. I can’t stand these ‘transit campaigns’. As if your roads are not congested enough without three cars or even bikes + trailers in a row, and especially when they all park in some prime location and steal that spot as well. Honestly, I would love to see these ‘transit campaigns’ outlawed, of course it will never happen, but they really do offend me.
@Lindsay – “Little Bikes”? dont know if you have ever riden a Vespa (clearly not) but they are able to sit on about 100K per hour comfortably. And i am guessing they will be faster than some of they grey nomads towing a caravan that insist on sitting on about 70K per hour.
@Jack – you do realise your on a Marketing and Advertising site? if it offends you so much i suggest you think of a new career. you ay not like every channel, but at some point you may have the consumer need to use them. Unless your one of those tossers that think TV is the answer for everything.
What a great channel “transit” advertising is to promote alcohol
The first thing I think of when I see these campaigns is “pollution”
Sorry ‘get a grip’ (9.29) I have owned and ridden a Vespa. But I would not want to travel on one doing 100 k per hour with an advertising trailer behind. It would be a danger to everyone at that speed. As I wrote, this is about as silly as advertising gets.
What have vespas and spiced rum got in common? Exactly.
Dear old Marshall McLuhan will be rolling in his grave over this stunt. If “the medium is the message”, why isn’t a brand of rum with a name like Rebellion Bay being hauled around by head-turning Harleys instead of these mincing little capuccino-sipping fly-swatters?
I mean, if you’re going to get thoroughly up the noses of well-intentioned motorists and violate the principles of environmental responsibility, at least be entertaining about it.
@Lindsay and @Jack –
Every form of Advertising creates pollution – TV Stations, Radio Stations, Outdoor Networks, Newspapers etc. Should we ban them all? In the overall scheme of things we’d be one of the greenest forms of advertising
As for riding at 100 km/h with a trailer on the back – we’re not shooting an episode of “Jackass”. Our OH&S policies are very strict and even if we could travel at that speed we wouldn’t.
Adrian, don’t let the nanny state naysayers stop the show. Some are all but demanding sandwich board walkers. Now, that would clog the highway!
(By the way, have you got a police escort through Bundaberg?)
Sorry Adrian (3.22) I never mentioned pollution and it was ‘get a grip’ who set the 100 k per hour speed. My point has been that this is about as silly as advertising gets. I have seen this type of advertising many times in city streets and every time people have been complaining about the bikes and trailers. They do nothing but get in the way and I can not think of one person who has had a kind word to say about them. I am not against advertising, but I doubt this form of advertising is a plus for the advertiser.
Adrian: how on earth do you count TV and radio advertising as creating pollution? And when did I mention pollution in the first place? it’s traffic congestion that I object to.
But as to adverts on TV Stations, Radio Stations and in Newspapers – they all subsidise the ‘free’ content. No ads, no TV or radio or newspapers.
So remind me, exactly what service do these ‘transit campaigns’ fund which would otherwise not be available?
Thanks Lindsay, it’s good to know you’ve seen them many times – exactly what our clients like to hear. Whether you like them or not is a personal opinion.
I do find it a bit of a stretch when you make a generalised statement such as ” every time people have been complaining about the bikes and trailers”. That’s a bit ambiguous for me.
Anyway, business is great so you may have to put up with us for a while yet.
@Jack How about broadcast vans, news cars, helicopters, huge amounts of electricity, paper mills, printing presses, etc. All I’m saying is comparatively we are quite clean.
Regardless of whether the scooters are “pollution” or not, my question (gripe?) is around the strategy; what connection does one long string of scooter run have with the proposition or the product?
How does the “world’s longest transit campaign” help the brand message?
Or if it’s about reach/exposure, surely runs around metro areas would satisfy?
Adrian (good to see you active here btw) your quote being the only one in the release seems to add a bit more weight to my suspicion that the agency or client was ticking the “media first” box mostly for the sake of it?
@Pascoe “Worlds Longest Transit Campaign” was only used for the Press release – not the campaign itself.
I don’t believe it was a case of “Media First”, more so our ability to reach these small country towns where outdoor is hard to secure.
I had many other quotes in the brief, all of which were brilliant observations and commentary but unfortunately these now reside on the cutting room floor!
Reading this thread I fail to understand why this is anything other than a pathetic stunt.
@Adrian – Ah, understood. While note as sensational, the media release should have led with one of the elements being reaching the small towns. THAT helps rationalise it in a much better way!
@Doughboy
Well said coming from a cloak of anonymity. So brave.
As a stunt this has been done before – on a much bigger scale. In 1999 Nescafe Espresso ran campaign with Captive media with 15 trucks leaving Sydney to Port Douglas and another 15 trucks leaving Sydney to Adelaide via Melbourne. Stunt was for the worlds largest and longest mobile billboard. Yes even then a colossal waste of resources and traffic nuisance – however at least they were first 🙂