Conserve Nova Scotia has launched advertisements to promote a pair of hybrid city buses in Halifax.
The two buses joined the Halifax Regional Municipality’s public transit system in March, decked out in wrap-around ads touting their energy-saving benefits. The creative, which was developed by Halifax agency Trampoline Branding, features a clear blue sky interspersed with white clouds, along with the copy, “A cleaner, greener community.”
Conserve Nova Scotia’s longtime tag line, “It starts with me,” also appears on the bus wraps.
“[The creative] is basically indicating to people that these are hybrid buses and that these buses can use 30% less fuel than a standard bus,” said Josh McLean, program administration officer for Conserve Nova Scotia, a provincial government agency that focuses on energy efficiency.
In addition to the bus wraps, the campaign includes a series of posters inside the hybrid buses. The interior bus creative blends tongue-in-cheek headlines such as, “Your carbon footprint just became a carbon pinky toe” and “The greenest thing you’ll ever accomplish by sitting on your butt” with facts about the buses’ energy consumption.
“We approached the interior [creative] keeping in mind that the people we were talking to had already made the decision to ride the bus, so we figured we had licence to have a little fun with it,” said Brad Dykema, creative director at Trampoline Branding. “We wanted to thank them for riding the hybrid bus and also point out that it’s one of the easiest green decisions they could make in their life.”
Conserve Nova Scotia has also launched a microsite, GetOnBoardHRM.ca dedicated to the hybrid buses. The site features a prominent “Green Counter” which keeps a running tally of the kilograms of greenhouse gases saved since the buses went into service.
