Bond Street "temporary rebrand"

[MikeWh]

I went through Bond Street on Sunday evening, changing from Central to Elizabeth lines. Whilst the roundels and line diagrams have been changed on the tube platforms, both roundels and line diagrams on the wall opposite the platform were unchanged.

 

[Purple Train]

For the first time in my life I can see a reason to buy a can of spray paint and use it on something other than my car.

Black permanent marker should do the trick. I am already in the habit of rubbing out erroneous apostrophes on chalkboards (or maybe I shouldn't confess to that ) so it is seriously tempting me. My handwriting is a bit too scruffy though - definitely not remotely like Johnston!

 

[Turtle]

The use of the word defaced is eye rolling, it's been temporarily rebranded, not permanent,.

Whether you call it rebranding or defacing is to an extent immaterial. The name does not match the maps etc and can cause confusion to those not in the know.

 

[thomalex]

Corporation creep: why London’s Bond Street became Burberry Street - and caused outrage

Transport for London’s one-week deal with the fashion house is part of a wider trend towards our public spaces being branded and privatised

www.theguardian.com

The media have started to pick up on this debacle. Have we had a statement from TfL yet?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Sep 2023 ==

 

[Joe Paxton]

I guess the furore might end up making the point that TfL is a bit up the creek in terms of finances at present (though undoubtedly much the same can be said for numerous public bodies), hence resorting to stuff like this.

 

[TRAX]

I guess the furore might end up making the point that TfL is a bit up the creek in terms of finances at present (though undoubtedly much the same can be said for numerous public bodies), hence resorting to stuff like this.

What if this was the plan all along ?

 

[Joe Paxton]

What if this was the plan all along ?

I dare say something like that might have gone thorough the minds of those within TfL who were sceptical or critical of the plan upthread all along (of which in sure there were a good few).

I was particularly entertained by the distinct similarity with the 'Burberry by Bond Street' suggestion in the GLA Conservatives report of ten years ago (as pointed out in post #61 upthread)!

 

[popeter45]

Have we had a statement from TfL yet?

at this point wondering if contract for the deal has a "dont publicly talk badly of the deal" clause?
or at least are scared of closing the door on fruture brand deals

 

[Thirteen]

There's no chance TfL will stop any brand partnerships and indeed some are very successful like the agreement with Google where the validators have the Google Pay logo.

 

[Turtle]

There's no chance TfL will stop any brand partnerships and indeed some are very successful like the agreement with Google where the validators have the Google Pay logo.

Unfortunately you have a national government in conflict with the local government of the state capital resulting in drip feeding as little funding as possible.

 

[edwin_m]

There's no chance TfL will stop any brand partnerships and indeed some are very successful like the agreement with Google where the validators have the Google Pay logo.

I dont't think many people would object to that. It's just made the Google Pay logo the same size as the contactless symbol, which is the most important thing for most people and remains in prime position in the middle of the validator. The other payment system logos are lower down and smaller.

It's very different if a sponsorship deal obliterates essential wayfinding information such as a station name. That would perhaps be comparable to removing all the existing graphics on the validator and replacing it with a Burberry logo, so there was no way someone not in the know could work out it was a validator at all.

Have we had a statement from TfL yet?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Sep 2023 ==

at this point wondering if contract for the deal has a "dont publicly talk badly of the deal" clause?

Seems like all parties have hunkered down in their trenchcoats.

 

[Dent]

I dont't think many people would object to that. It's just made the Google Pay logo the same size as the contactless symbol, which is the most important thing for most people and remains in prime position in the middle of the validator. The other payment system logos are lower down and smaller.

That is another sponsorship deal which has been done in a badly thought out way which impairs the use the network. The system uses yellow readers and pink readers for different purposes, but the Google stickers obliterate the colour-coded part that is the main way to differentiate between the two sorts of reader.

 

[Dstock7080]

Internal recognition of the change appeared today:

This September, luxury fashion brand Burberry planned a series of takeovers to celebrate the art of discovery and exploration in cities worldwide. To kick this off here in London, we partnered with Burberry to transform Bond Street into Burberry Street! ​

This partnership coincided with London Fashion Week, which runs from Friday 15 September to Tuesday 19 September.

Our Customers
The station featured knight blue, a colour debuted by Chief Creative Officer, as one of Burberry’s new brand signifiers. Bond Street is one of London’s most iconic shopping destinations and home to Burberry’s flagship store.
Customer Director said:

“It’s very fitting that our first takeover on the Elizabeth line is with a luxury brand who shares our commitment to high quality and great design.
We are delighted to be celebrating London Fashion Week and the re-opening of the new Burberry store with this stylish takeover of Bond Street station. This will help bring more surprise and delight moments to our customers, as well as generate revenue for us to reinvest across London." 

 

[Peter Sarf]

y_O

This September, luxury fashion brand Burberry planned a series of takeovers to celebrate the art of discovery and exploration in cities worldwide. To kick this off here in London, we partnered with Burberry to transform Bond Street into Burberry Street! ​

This partnership coincided with London Fashion Week, which runs from Friday 15 September to Tuesday 19 September.

Our Customers
The station featured knight blue, a colour debuted by Chief Creative Officer, as one of Burberry’s new brand signifiers. Bond Street is one of London’s most iconic shopping destinations and home to Burberry’s flagship store.
Customer Director said:

“It’s very fitting that our first takeover on the Elizabeth line is with a luxury brand who shares our commitment to high quality and great design.
We are delighted to be celebrating London Fashion Week and the re-opening of the new Burberry store with this stylish takeover of Bond Street station. This will help bring more surprise and delight moments to our customers, as well as generate revenue for us to reinvest across London." 

Oh love the darlings. Living in their twee little dream world where passengers don't exist except to serve as an audience. One step up from Tagging.

Thanks to @Dstock7080 for posting. I am having trouble quoting and also editing.

 

[DavyCrocket]

The irony of this being in the same week as Real Time Information day whatever that actually is.

 

[MikeWh]

That is another sponsorship deal which has been done in a badly thought out way which impairs the use the network. The system uses yellow readers and pink readers for different purposes, but the Google stickers obliterate the colour-coded part that is the main way to differentiate between the two sorts of reader.

No pink readers should be included in the google pay stickering. A couple have been reported since it started and they were both fixed almost immediately.

 

[NSE]

I think some people are coming across as miserable sods.

I’d have to disagree. I openly admit I find railway enthusiasts to be stuffy, picky and often ‘miserable sods’ but I’m very much with the majority here that I think this is wrong. I’ve used metro systems in Korea and Japan to name a few and the English translations were vital for me. In all honesty, they were just as important when I was in Los Angeles but as the staff spoke English, asking for help was a lot easier. If I turned up to Seoul and found my station branded as ‘K-Pop Central’ and not Hongdae, I’d have been knackered.

For me, whilst I have no interest in station sponsorship, I do appreciate that TFL need funding. You could absolutely have backed some roundels in Burberry Print, gone for something like ‘Bond Street by Burberry’, or added some QR codes to the walls to get involved with ‘#Burberrygoesbondstreet’ or whatever you want. Thinking about it, TFL did a collaboration with Arsenal and Adidas for some TFL pattern Arsenal kit. They could have done some Burberry x TFL uniforms, worn them for the week and flogged them after for more money.

 

[Peter Sarf]

I’d have to disagree. I openly admit I find railway enthusiasts to be stuffy, picky and often ‘miserable sods’ but I’m very much with the majority here that I think this is wrong. I’ve used metro systems in Korea and Japan to name a few and the English translations were vital for me. In all honesty, they were just as important when I was in Los Angeles but as the staff spoke English, asking for help was a lot easier. If I turned up to Seoul and found my station branded as ‘K-Pop Central’ and not Hongdae, I’d have been knackered.

For me, whilst I have no interest in station sponsorship, I do appreciate that TFL need funding. You could absolutely have backed some roundels in Burberry Print, gone for something like ‘Bond Street by Burberry’, or added some QR codes to the walls to get involved with ‘#Burberrygoesbondstreet’ or whatever you want. Thinking about it, TFL did a collaboration with Arsenal and Adidas for some TFL pattern Arsenal kit. They could have done some Burberry x TFL uniforms, worn them for the week and flogged them after for more money.

They could also just put up plain and simple adverts in specific locations - like all the tube stations have across the track from the platform. Oh no wait they snookered themselves with platform edge doors. I would not put it past some bright spark to remove the platform edge doors !..

 

[Howardh]

Just bonkers.If they REALLY needed the money, why not Bond St and underneath the roundel "Sponsored by ...." and then at least we know which station we're at. Might just start another thread!

 

[Turtle]

Just bonkers.If they REALLY needed the money, why not Bond St and underneath the roundel "Sponsored by ...." and then at least we know which station we're at. Might just start another thread!

Possibly TfL wouldn't have collected as much sponsorship money. In his YouTube video yesterday Jago Hazzard mentioned a figure of at least 1/2 million, possibly more.

 

[NSE]

They could also just put up plain and simple adverts in specific locations - like all the tube stations have across the track from the platform. Oh no wait they snookered themselves with platform edge doors. I would not put it past some bright spark to remove the platform edge doors !..

I wouldn’t be surprised to see adverts pop in that space above the PEDs, those nice softly white lit panels. Not in the direct sight line, but certainly a saleable asset!

 

[Thirteen]

Just bonkers.If they REALLY needed the money, why not Bond St and underneath the roundel "Sponsored by ...." and then at least we know which station we're at. Might just start another thread!

The PlayStation campaign was very clever and indeed given how much TfL can get from these sorts of partnership, they aren't going to stop doing them.

 

[ThameslinkUser]

Possibly TfL wouldn't have collected as much sponsorship money. In his YouTube video yesterday Jago Hazzard mentioned a figure of at least 1/2 million, possibly more.

It was £200k.

https://tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/burberry-x-tfl-agreement.docx

2. Sponsorship Costs means


Sponsorship rights: £200,000 plus VAT payable as follows:

Full payment to be provided within 60 days of station takeover end date.

Production costs: The above cost does not include production, installation and removal costs, which will be paid for by the Sponsor. The production, installation and removal will be managed by 3rd party company, overseen by the Authority and at the Authority’s responsibility. All costs will be shared directly with the Sponsor, the Authority will charge no additional fees for production.

For context, Picardilly Circus brought in 250k, and the Sony PS5 roundels at Oxford Circus brought in 280k.

 

[Purple Train]

£200,000 for messing around with a load of tourists and indeed non-tourists in the most ham-fisted and unfriendly way possible? Value indeed...

I dread to think what the payment would have been if TfL had dared to leave some helpful information at the station.

 

[TRAX]

It was £200k.

It doesn’t even cover the cost of a single bus hahaha

 

[Peter Sarf]

It doesn’t even cover the cost of a single bus hahaha

That makes me think. How many busses would need to be plastered in adverts to raise £200k ?hh.

 

[Thirteen]

It adds up though, if you have several campaigns a year plus ongoing ones like Google Pay then it's more than a million pounds just from brand partnerships and that's just temporary ones, things like Satander Cycles and the IFS Cable Car bring in the dosh as well.

 

[JordR]

I'm surprised £200k was considered sufficient. That's a 0.003% contribution to TfL's annual budget. Even if it all went to the bottom line, which it doesn't.

Once you've internally (I'm hoping all the resource was internal) accounted for commercial, legal and PR time, plus supervising the branding and de-branding at the station itself I can't imagine there's going to be much of that £200k left.

So unless it's being primarily done for purported reputational benefit, the commercial benefit seems so negligible as to not be worth it.