The Man in the Blue and White Tram
CR Smith becomes first sponsor of Edinburgh Trams
Today we announced an exciting, innovative and groundbreaking sponsorship with Edinburgh Trams.
The sponsorship will mean 18 of the city’s trams will be liveried in distinctive CR Smith branding. Edinburgh Trams was identified as a unique promotional platform
to reach our Scottish customer base, with new dramatic advertising creative expected to be seen on multiple occasions by around 1.3M Edinburgh residents and annual Scottish visitors.
Eighteen individual designs will be rolled out from today (9 August) on the tram network, including From “Falkirk to Musselburgh”, “Glasgow to Peterhead” and “Dunfermline to Dundee”. The stunning artwork beautifully pairs iconic Scottish imagery that reflects not only the geographical spread of our customer base but also celebrates Scotland’s soul and personality.
Our first designs include a Musselburgh racehorse racing alongside a Falkirk Kelpie, the oldest stone bridge in the highlands at Carrbridge, arching over the Forth Rail Bridge and Glasgow’s cone crowned Duke of Wellington with the white and orange striped lighthouse at Peterhead.
Hopefully, the creative campaign will bring a smile to some, be a puzzle to work out for others and we are sure it will be interesting for all.
The tram wraps are the first stage in our new Scotland-wide marketing campaign, which is set to put our classic ‘Man in the Blue and White Van’ messaging, first used in the 1980s, back into the heart of our brand positioning. We will follow the premiere on Edinburgh Trams with a national roll-out, including the new artwork on a fleet of 50 new Mercedes vans and a planned television campaign later this year. Over 5.6M customer journeys were recorded on the tram network last year, passing through some of the highest footfall areas of the city, including Princes Street, which has a footfall regularly topping 1.4M per month during busy summer months and December.
Launched in 2014, the 14km tram route stretches from Edinburgh Airport to the City Centre, passing through some of the business areas in the capital including Haymarket, Princes Street and St Andrew Square.
Gerard Eadie, Executive Chairman of CR Smith says: “CR Smith has always believed in leading from the front. This is a first. No one else has sponsored the Edinburgh Trams and it instantly gives us massive visibility.
The Tram sponsorship provides us with an innovative, exciting and new medium to communicate to our market sector that the products and service CR Smith deliver is second to none. If you are in the market for our product and services then it has to be ‘The Man in the Blue and White Van’.
