Warwickshire Buses: SQUID
AGENCY
One Black Bear
YEAR
2024/2025
CATEGORY
Motion | Social | OOH
Over the past decade Warwickshire County Council has experienced a steady decline in the amount of young people, aged between 14-25 taking journey’s by bus. We were approached by WCC to turn this decline around through a clever digital marketing campaign.
With young people constantly scrolling through social media apps such as Instagram, Snapchat and in-game advertising, this became a central focus of the campaign - to create something bright and colourful that would stand out immediately on the feed, while having the playful charm of a character at the centre (like Duo the Owl in Duolingo or Yeti in Candy Crush). We also needed it to grab the attention of the youth with stand-out OOH on the streets and within bus stations.
Process
Taking the bus can be a cheaper mode of travel than taking a taxi or using other forms of public transport to get to your destination. We felt that this should be the driving force behind the campaign - to remind young people that it can cost a lot less to get the bus. The £2 fair cap means that children and students can travel for only £2 or less.
Playing on the common slang of ‘quid’, we took this and reinvented it into the words ‘squid’. With the help of the fantastic team at Studio Evo this witty wordplay was immortalised into the characters of Splisha and Splashey.
Rendered in 3D the campaign was truly given its sea legs, with a series of characters that would help us swim onto platform feeds and timelines. With fully customisable characters this allowed us to be fully flexible with the messaging of the campaign, adapting it to the various destinations and occasions that the bus can take you to - from college, to the nightclub, cinema, or even summer outings with there friends. Splisha and Splashey goes on that journey with you!
To bring our characters to life, I was given the very exciting task of animating them into various scenes posing with countless props. From the squids sitting on cinema chairs to them waiting at the bus stop with an array of shopping bags from there recent retail splurge, it became a fun project to work on as an animator. It gave me full creative control and room to experiment with new concepts. I created a series of social posts that were eye-catching and got across the key message in a way that was playfully quirky.
Outcome
The campaign was highly successful, leading to a 12% boost in bus travel by young people around Warwickshire. Due to the Squids popularity and demand, WCC asked us to renew the campaign for a following year, this time transporting them into Summer attire. Due to incremental bus fare increases, Splisha and Splashley have been joined by the addition of Hewitt adding to the fun of there Summer adventures (as seen in the most recent creative above).
CREATIVE TEAM
Jenny Ray, Tristan Vere-Hoose (Creative Directors), Kimberley Bishop (Design & Animation), Studio EVO (CGI, 3D), Amy Gouldson (Account Director), BBJK (Media).