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Regional daily branded buses hit the streets

New buses wrapped in the branding of a regional daily have been launched across its patch.

The Sentinel, Stoke, has teamed up with the First Potteries bus company to design the new-look buses, which will be used on routes across North Staffordshire.

The buses are wrapped in two different designs, one of which features an optical illusion to make it look as though passengers are reading the newspaper while on board.

The Sentinel’s sport and nostalgia supplements are also promoted on the buses, one of which is pictured below.

Stoke bus 1

Editor-in-Chief Martin Tideswell said: “I can’t think of a better way to promote our trusted heritage brand than having key Sentinel platforms emblazoned on buses which will be carrying people on all major routes across North Staffordshire.

“The Sentinel buses are wonderfully eye-catching – promoting our popular brands such as The Green ‘Un and The Way We Were.

“They’re also a bit of fun and we’re sure people will enjoy seeing passengers ‘transformed’ when sitting on the vehicles and given other people’s bodies for the journey.”

Readers are being offered the chance to win £50 by sending the Sentinel Instagram photos of themselves with the buses, using the hashtag #Sentinelselfie.

Ady Culpin, spokesman for First Potteries, said: “We see this partnership as a great opportunity to work with an established proactive business in the local community.

“Both First Potteries and The Sentinel provide a service to local people, and by working together we can offer many great initiatives, support local events and raise the profile of public transport and local news in and around the Potteries and Staffordshire area.”

07-10-2015 Two Sentinel branded buses are now running around the city Pictured at the Adderley Green depot. Left to right, Martin Tideswell (Editor in Chief) Lyn Rowe (Media Development Director) and Nigel Eggleton (MD of First Midlands)

Pictured from left, Martin Tideswell, Sentinel editor-in-chief, Lyn Rowe, Sentinel media development director and Nigel Eggleton, managing director of First Midlands

9 comments

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  • October 23, 2015 at 7:17 am
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    I wonder whether pictures showing people sitting on unsold copies of the newspaper is sending out the right message?

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  • October 23, 2015 at 12:10 pm
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    The result looks like an explosion in a paint factory!

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  • October 23, 2015 at 12:51 pm
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    Is this one of the Local World Newspapers that are so local that the entire Production and IT services are completed out of India. #localandproud

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  • October 23, 2015 at 2:21 pm
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    It goes to show how backward looking the local newspaper industry is when it’s running a ‘local and proud’ campaign. People don’t still buy this nonsense do they? Total charade.

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  • October 23, 2015 at 2:56 pm
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    What a bunch of moaners – lighten up! It’s a bit of fun for goodness sake.

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  • October 23, 2015 at 3:18 pm
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    Give them a chance! It sounds like a good idea to me, especially if, as the copy suggests, it is a partnership, not simply a purchase of media.

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  • October 23, 2015 at 3:54 pm
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    Having those inside the bus reading the paper works brilliantly. And great pic too!

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  • October 26, 2015 at 9:08 am
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    There are those of us that still recoil when remembering the TV ad the Eastern Daily Press ran back in the late 1980s, which featured “readers” on a bus. I can certainly say it was a case of “once seen never forgotten”.
    I can clearly remember special viewings for staff at which people were turning to each other as if to say ” what the . . . .?”

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