Barclays & TFL's ‘Ride With Pride’ Transport Trio Wrap + #PrideHeroes Campaign

Barclays, headline sponsor of ‘Pride in London 2015’, linked with Transport for London (TfL) to wrap a trio of flagship vehicles – a new Routemaster double decker bus, an iconic London black cab and a Docklands Light Railway (DLR) train – in the famous rainbow livery:

These rainbow liveried vehicles were designed to celebrate the event in general and specifically the 10th anniversary of TFL’s LGBT+ staff network group ‘OUTbound’.

‘The trio of rainbow themed projects this year celebrates London’s diversity,’ comments chairperson of TFL’s LGBT staff group Martyn Loukes.

‘We’re extremely grateful that Barclays has paid for the train to be wrapped in our iconic design. This is another great example of two organisations working together to celebrate LGBT staff and customers.’

‘The financial sector continues to make great strides in embracing diversity and what better way to celebrate this than with a Pride-themed train running between London’s two financial centres, Canary Wharf and the City,’ comments Barclays’ Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion Mark Mclane.

‘We’re delighted to be helping Londoners support Ride with Pride. We are delighted to have this iconic artwork on our trains. It has taken a great deal of collaboration with our operator, KeolisAmey Docklands to get it done but it is well worth the effort,’ adds DLR Director Rory O’Neill.

The train will run in service on the Canary Wharf to Stratford route from 22 June until later this year and its wrap is just one strand of Barclay’s social, digital, outdoor, PR and experiential #PrideHeroes campaign.

This marketing initiative, which runs across TFL’s network – such as on its escalator screens,

and other ad channels and spaces, heavily features the bank’s employees sharing their experiences of working in an environment that is inclusive and engaging for everyone (as well as a set of volunteers and members of the public who have been nominated as #PrideHeroes).

‘Heroes’ is the theme of the 2015 event and the festival celebrates both celebrities and unsung heroes who have contributed to LGBT causes over the years, be they celebrity or unsung heroes (both personal and historic, factual or fictional, alive or dead).

Pride ran a major social media push to get people to nominate their own heroes – asking them to post their nominations on Twitter using the hashtag #PrideHeroes.

‘#PrideHeroes will celebrate both the well-known and the unsung heroes who have won equality over the years, or provided individuals with inspiration and support at times of most need,’ outlines Pride London chairman Michael Salter.

‘From today, Londoners and visitors to the city will see a selection of #PrideHeroes across not only the London Underground Tube stations and buses, but now also on a special #RideWithPride DLR train, thanks to TfL and Barclays.’

The nominees were featured in a set of online spots – from more famous faces such as Peter Tatchell,

to personal heroes such as Dan (an employee at another Pride In London sponsor Starbucks.

The full list of nominated #PrideHeroes is hosted online at www.prideinlondon.org/heroes (where people can also make their own nominations).

The financial brand, as it did during last year’s #FreedomTo campaign, continues to use its Pride activation to promote its Pingit mobile app – which enables people to use the payment app to donate money to the LGBT cause and buy food and drink at the week-long event.

Barclays activation assets continued to feature the slogan ‘Ping for Pride’ to promote Pingit, and will allow anyone with a bank account, including non-Barclays customers, to donate money to Pride in London using their phone or via Twitter.

The service is not restricted to Barclays customers, rather the Pingit app can be used by anyone with a UK bank account.

Comment

This year’s ‘Pride in London’, the annual festival championing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) community, ran from 21 to 28 June and marked the second consecutive year in which Barclays is the event’s headline partner.

In 2014 more than 750,000 people attended the Pride festival

with 30,000 joining the annual parade (one the capital’s biggest one-day events).

Back in April Barclays (which is also recognised as a ‘Star Performer’ by Stonewall for consistently demonstrating exemplary practice to support lesbian, gay and bisexual staff) announced that it had renewed its Pride in London headline sponsorship to support LGBT community.

‘Pride in London is a highlight of the LGBT calendar in the UK and a key element in our own programme of activities in support of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and we are delighted to be supporting as headline sponsor for the second year running,’ comments BarclayCard cheif executive and Barcl;ay’s LGBT lead Val Soranno.

‘Our on-going relationship with Pride, both in London and across the UK, is just one of the ways in which we show our commitment to the LGBT community. At Barclays we want our colleagues, customers and clients to feel free to express who they are at all times.

‘We’ve made great strides internally in creating an inclusive global workplace, but we want to go further. By supporting Pride in London, we’re saying “this is who we are” and we want to encourage everyone else to be able to say who they are, without fear.’

2015 Pride In London not only coincided with the historic announcement by the US Supreme Court legalising same-sex marriage nationwide, but also celebrating alongside a Burger King LGBT campaign that triumphed in Cannes at the annual Cannes Lions ad festival..

The Burger King ‘Proud Whopper’ campaign which introduced a new burger for San Francisco’s 2014 gay Pride festival, developed with Ogilvy-owned ‘David The Agency’, won two Gold Cannes Lion wins.

The limited edition ‘Proud Whopper’ was sold at the Burger King restaurant at 1200 Market Street in San Francisco during last year’s festival

Links

Barclays Website:

http://www.barclays.co.uk/

Pride In London ‘Barclays Sponsorship’ Website:

http://prideinlondon.org/news/2015/04/barclays-returns-for-headline-sponsorship-of-pride-in/

Pride In London Website:

http://prideinlondon.org/

Pride In London Website:

http://prideinlondon.org/seenitcapture/

Pride In London Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/LondonLGBTPride

Pride In London Twitter: