Arriva Scotland West signs up ‘model passengers’ for marketing campaign

Arriva Scotland West is putting a friendly face to its latestmarketing campaign by featuring local bus users as ‘modelpassengers’ on posters, timetables and other literature.

When the Renfrewshire based business embarked on an overhaul ofits customer information and marketing materials, the team thought:who better to ask than Barrhead’s photogenic bususers?

Arriva enlisted the help of contacts in the local community tosign up friends and neighbours for a photoshoot and wereoverwhelmed by the positive response from people who wanted to getinvolved.

Now the results of the photoshoot are in and a selection ofpictures have been posted on the buses with a thank-you to thosewho took part.

The photos showing local people on their day to day journeys arenow being incorporated into posters, timetables, leaflets and busdisplay vinyls for use across the region. They convey a realsense of community spirit and show the importance of buses inpeople’s lives.

Arriva Scotland West marketing manager Sharon Morrison said:“Arriva and its predecessors have served the people ofRenfrewshire for more than 90 years, and in some areas is the soleoperator offering communities a local, dependable busservice. So the decision to replace all photography with reallife snap shots of real local people was an obvious choice and wecould not be happier with the results “

Following the success of the initiative Arriva Scotland Westplans to include more local customers in photos in the future.

Ralph Roberts, director and general manager of Arriva ScotlandWest, said: “We would like to thank the kind people ofBarrhead for donating their time to assist in the photoshoot. Theshoot took four days to complete and all participants acted withthe utmost professionalism and showed great community spirit.

“We are a local bus company and we really wanted thismessage to come across in all our information leaflets and postersand the results, with real people making real journeys, arefantastic.”

Local resident, Jan McColl who helped sign up neighbours for thephotoshoot said: “I think the idea of Arriva putting localpeople on the cover of their timetables and posters is reallygood. I organised the models and was surprised by the amountof people who wanted to take part.”

Another model, Rita Connelly, said: “My husband Brian andI took part in the Arriva photoshoot – it was a greatlaugh. Lots of people have been telling us that they saw ourphoto on the bus.

“It was also a wee bit special for Brian and me, as wellas being locals we are also ex-employees too. We worked forthe bus company when it was Western. I was a clippie andBrian was a bus driver.”

Image caption: Denise and Emily happily makingtheir way to the local sports centre

See moreBarrhead people who feature in Arriva's literature