Act now Barclays, or the Boris Bike is here to stay

The Barclays Cycle Hire scheme in London is now four weeks old, but you wouldn’t know it from listening to the conversations of my fellow hobby cyclists, or observers on the street. No, instead, we say a happy four week birthday to “Boris Bikes.”

The attempt to brand the scheme Barclays Cycle Hire was always doomed to fail. It pursued only the most basic approach to sponsorship – slap a logo on anything that moves, slap a logo on anything that doesn’t move, and insert the name of of the sponsoring company on anything to do with the subject of the sponsorship.

This approach is failing for many reasons.

There are too many syllables

“How will you get there?” “I am going to use a Barclays Cycle Hire bike” – it doesn’t work, does it? The word ‘cycle’ has been universally replaced by ‘bike’ in conversational English. Most of us instinctively don’t like to use two syllables when one will do. Had they called the scheme “Barclays Bike Hire” there would have been a slightly better chance of the bikes being known as “Barclays Bikes” – but this compelling alliteration was thrown away.

The current branding expects users to say they are getting on “a Barclays Cycle Hire bike” – using two words which both mean ‘bike’ when referring to their trusty steed.

The branding is too intrusive

Barclays should be highly commended for getting the bikes on the road, but their logo is on EVERYTHING. Even the key you use to unlock the bikes from their stand contains one tiny microchip embedded in the middle of a chunky keyring whose size seems closely linked to the need to print upon it a Barclays logo large enough to be seen by passers by. People resent being turned in to walking adverts for Barclays, and some will take an impish delight in flatly refusing to utter the brand’s name.

Barclays brand is not consistent with those of the bikes

The bikes are quirky. They symbolise freedom, vigour, energy and exercise. They can also be rather fun – many of the official materials use cartoons to convey the message. Barclays brand is none of these things – it is austere, trusted, historic, global. Barclays are not fun. Boris’s personal brand is quirky, fun, energetic. He is personally closely associated with cycling already. A perfect fit.

This scheme isn’t operating in isolation

It joins a peer group replete with quirky short non-corporate names from the Velibs of Paris to the Bip! of Perpignan. It was always going to be seen through the prism of these schemes, with comparisons drawn.

“Scheme” is in itself a horrible word

Commuters get on bikes. Young offenders participate in schemes. I come back to my point that the public were not actually told what to call the physical bikes they would use after signing up. It was always about the “scheme.”

So what can Barclays and TFL do?

Give the bikes a new name. Quickly, before the ‘scheme’ opens to tourists and wider use. Put your branding on one side of the bike, and the bikes’ own timeless name on the other. Otherwise in years to come, when Boris’s mayoralty is a distant memory, some future administration will bow to the inevitable and we will all then be able to officially mount a Boris. Perish the thought.