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.
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.”
I wonder whether pictures showing people sitting on unsold copies of the newspaper is sending out the right message?
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No!
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The result looks like an explosion in a paint factory!
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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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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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What a bunch of moaners – lighten up! It’s a bit of fun for goodness sake.
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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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Having those inside the bus reading the paper works brilliantly. And great pic too!
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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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