JCDecaux could arguably claim to be Australia's most sustainable provider of advertising media. Their 7 point environmental management plan includes:
net zero electricity - using solar panels and low energy lighting
net zero water consumption - using captured water in cleaning processes
zero waste to landfill - reducing waste and promoting usage of recyclable materials
benchmarking fuel efficiency and emissions -
improving community engagement - providing free advertising media for a large number of charities, communities and arts organisations, as well as providing 'free' bicycle hire using the cyclocity bicycle rental system (soon to be implemented in Brisbane).
ensuring all their suppliers comply with the sustainability goals
ensuring a sustainable corporate culture
Now, as a cyclist and pedestrian, I am far from being a fan of billboards on footpaths, but it appears that the trade-off for the Brisbane City bike hire scheme does not include additional billboards. The scheme is estimated to be costing Brisbane City Council ratepayers $800,000 per year for the next 20 years. And cyclists could benefit from additional spending on cycling infrastructure.
I admit to being a big fan of the Paralympics. I find all these athletes inspirational.
If you missed Chris Scott taking gold in the individual pursuit (CP4) or Lindy Hou and pilot Toireasa Gallagher claiming bronze in the 1km blind and visually impaired time trial or indeed the game of the year between Brazil and Australia in the wheelchair basketball (a real cliffhanger in which Brazil led from the start and Australia won by one point in the last 5 seconds!) then it's time you tuned into the ABC.
And the added bonus is that the commentary is fantastic! I only hope that the commercial channels are watching so they can see and hear what good coverage is like.
In October, Sydney will host Metropolis 2008, a meeting of Government and NGO representatives to talk about the issues of the day, eg, transport, urban development, sustainability, climate change, etc, etc.
In Mayor Clover Moore's welcome she says,
Like other world cities, Sydney is grappling with the challenges posed by climate change and the opportunities these challenges offer to re-invent our cities in exciting and sustainable ways.
So it is interesting to note some of the optional tours being offered to delegates, eg, Harley Davidson tours, Jet boat, and sea plane tours. Obviously these are being offered to those delegates disinterested in climate change and sustainability.
And, while lip service is being paid to the use of public transport, it is interesting that public transport is not listed as a way to get around the various sites, eg, coach transfer to The Rocks, coach transfer to the Zoo, coach transfer to the Harbour Bridge, coach transfer to the Opera House. For heaven's sake, all these places are quite easy to access by public transport, walking and cycling! Fancy not recommending the ferry to get to the zoo, I mean, the views you get from the ferry alone are worth every cent even if you live in Sydney! And, God forbid, these exalted delegates might even get a chance to experience what it's like to catch a train, a bus, or a ferry in a city.
Why have this sort of talk fest if the people talking don't experience the day-to-day reality of living in a city?
During the Tour de France coverage on SBS we were constantly bombarded by 2 ads, one for a car and one for a bicycle. There are important marketing lessons to learn from watching these with regards to encouraging cycling, so sit back for the next minute and watch them again: Skoda Car Ad
Avanti Bicycle Ad
Now, ask yourself which ad engaged you more, and why.
They are both beautiful ads. But the reality is, car brands have long understood that the target audience is, well, people. Not cars. So you need to engage people in the brand experience. A successful car ad incorporates people experiencing something unique about the car. For Skoda this is about being "clever" and "simple".
Now for the avanti ad. Like most bicycle ads, there is not a person in sight. "You" are mentioned twice. Avanti, "the evolution continues", "going forward", but no mention of people. "I" am not engaged.
TV ads are expensive, so finding examples of bicycle TVCs is hard in Australia. Print, on the other hand is cheaper, so there are more examples. But, if you're like me, you tend not to engage at all in print ads. In newspapers and magazines you expect the ads to be on the left hand side of the page, so you really don't look at that page at all. You expect the ads to be more colourful than the stories, so your eyes gloss over the colour. Similarly with internet ads, you ignore the pop-ups, animations, banners and towers, because you know that's where the ads will be. Car brands understand all this, so often the print ads are simple, and often employ long copy in the hope that interested people will read it. But it's really about brand recognition and frequency. Bicycle ads are often limited to bicycle magazines, so playing on features is fine, afterall the people reading the magazine have already expressed their interest in bikes by reading the mag. Engaging people in the ad would be better though. Occasionally, bicycle ads are incorporated into mass media. The image below was used by Apollo in 2007 in Good Weekend magazines and Australian Cyclist, with the tagline "where will it take you?" The series of ads featured some nice scenic images, and incorporated people which is a big plus. In one of the ads, one of the cyclists was actually smiling! The tag line is brilliant, but wasted. "Where will it take you?" invites you on a flight of fancy journey, but the imagery is very mundane, typically a couple of cyclists on a bit of road somewhere. If a car brand had run this tagline, they would have thought about the emotional connection between where people are now and where they'd like to be, eg, from office drudgery to exploring the great outdoors, from boredom sitting in your car in a traffic jam to experiencing the freedom and enjoyment of movement, from watching le Tour on TV to participating on your own bike.
So what? Who cares? Why does it matter?
If we want to get more people to cycle, and especially if you want to encourage commuter cycling, it is very important that we understand the trigger factors. The "thing" that will make people think "I could ride to work". And it starts with bike brands, just like car brands, differentiating themselves from each other in the minds of consumers. For commuter bike brands, the trigger needs to be an emotional connection with current car commuters, or dissatisfied public transport users.
Quite a large turnout for Climate Change Minister Penny Wong and her entourage of police at the Petersham RSL last night. Indeed, so many people arrived that the hall was filled to capacity and some were turned away.
Dr Ben McNeil, Senior research fellow at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, gave a brief and rather unscientific discussion of what climate change is (I still shudder at his explanation of sea levels rising due to "hot water expanding"), but nobody cared because nobody was really listening. Everyone just wanted to ask Penny Wong questions.
And eventually Penny Wong made her speech. As usual she actually told us very little, but hit all the right trigger words for the audience,eg, "balanced approach", "considering the options", "equity considerations", etc etc. But once again nobody cared, because people were only there to ask questions.
And then it arrived. Question time. 21 people out of a crowd of hundreds got the opportunity to ask a question. The Light Rail lobby was there to ask for Federal support to get the light rail (ie, tram) extended to the inner west where it might actually do some good. The controversial population control question got asked, but not really answered. The sensible question about why we are considering a system that has pretty much failed miserably all over the world is being introduced here was asked, and not really answered. The only real surprise of the evening was that a question got slipped in about petrol pricing and dear Penny pretty much confirmed that petrol would not be included in any Emissions Trading Scheme.
So, feeling pretty disappointed in the whole circus, we headed out and collided with cycling friends. And, ofcourse, the discussion gravitated to cycling infrastructure and advocacy. Given the total disillusionment of many cyclists in the area with Bicycle NSW, it has been suggested that the local BUGs join forces to form their own organisation to promote cycling. This is already happening in a small way, eg, The National Roads and Cyclists Association, with the tagline "helping cyclists". There is also a group of the same name on facebook that you can join. So the night wasn't a total waste of time afterall.
2 years ago I wrote a post on postie bikes when we noted that when posties changed from human powered bicycles to petrol motorbikes the payloads decreased from 140kg to 130kg, and, unsurprisingly, posties got fatter.
Well it appears there may be a bit of a rethink happening over at Australia Post. Tricycles to fit the bill for posties. Using power-assisted tricycles, postie payloads could be pushed back up to 150kg. But it appears that the rationale for this does not revolve around issues of the environment, payloads, or even the health and welfare of workers. No. The issue appears to be that it has become difficult to fill postie vacancies because of the requirement that they need a motorbike licence.
I've been thinking about the limited press response to the Government's Green Paper on a Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme which is why I've been looking over media stories like this one below: Going nowhere fast in car fuel efficiency
In research for the Garnaut Climate Change Review, Melbourne University's Dr Paul Mees has used Australian Bureau of Statistics figures to show that fuel efficiency has remained practically unchanged since 1963.
In 1963 the average Australian car used 11.4 litres of petrol to travel 100 kilometres. Today, the new Ford G series boasts, in its promotional material, of its "exceptional fuel efficiency", ie, 10.11L/100km.
I know I've done this before, but let me summarise for you the fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions for various types of cars:
Vehicle
Fuel Efficiency (L/100km)
CO2 emissions (tonnes per 10,000km)
Toyota Prius (hybrid)
4.4
1.3
Electric Car
1.3
Mercedes Smart Car
4.7
1.4
VW Polo
5.01
1.5
FG Falcon
10.11
3
Right now, in Australia, there is no real difference in greenhouse gas emissions between choosing a hybrid car, an electric car, or small petrol or diesel car. Any suggestions to the contrary are just greenwashing. If you want to reduce air pollution, noise pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, the only option available is to get people out of cars!
If you missed the wonderful documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" while it was screening in Australia, don't despair, it is now available on youtube (broken up into 11 parts)!
