BlogWhy Fifteen Completely Removes all Fifteen Branding
June 13, 2023

Why Fifteen Completely Removes all Fifteen Branding

By Fifteen
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To fully integrate public bike-sharing into the fabric of a city, it is essential to have a uniquely designed system to foster a sense of ownership among residents and users. That's why Fifteen encourages cities to use a unique identity that instils pride and encourages regular usage.

Fifteen gives cities full control over their bike sharing schemes: from helping the city decide everything from operation zones to tariffs, and to supporting cities with designing a system that is branded to the city’s identity. This article explores why we recommend cities use unique branding identities for their city’s bike-sharing system and how we help cities do this.

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Bikes uniquely branded to the respective bike-sharing scheme designs, as seen in the bike-sharing schemes with Fifteen's bikes in Paris (left) and Gijon (right)

Why Have a Uniquely Designed Bike-Sharing System?

  1. Branding Independence: With Fifteen’s support, cities can create a service identity that reflects the city's own initiatives, values, and goals without being constrained by a company's marketing strategies or corporate image. By not tying the bike sharing service to a specific company, the city retains greater control over its branding and messaging and is able to promote its own brand in the way it wants. 
  2. Instilling Pride to Encourage Regular Usage: A uniquely designed bike-sharing system becomes more than just a service provided by a company; it becomes an integral part of the city's public infrastructure. This shift in perspective instils a sense of pride, making residents more likely to incorporate the service into their transportation behaviour.
  3. Creating a Sense of Ownership: It’s important to instil a sense of ownership for a public transport service, and creating one that is unique to a city, for residents helps foster a feeling of pride and responsibility among residents to protect and care for the bike-sharing system. 
  4. Create an icon for your city: In Paris, there’s the Eiffel Tour, the Seine River and then there’s 20,000 Vélib’ bikes being ridden across the city. Velibs are seen everywhere and the word “Velib” is also well used: you’ll hear many people using the word “Velib” instead of “bike”. For Parisians, it’s not just any bike, it’s a Velib.
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In Marseille, the city chose the name "Levelo", and a red, white and yellow branding identity can be seen across the entire system including the bikes and station (pictured).

How Fifteen's Design Team Helps Cities Create a Unique Identity

Every city is different, some city’s prefer to do the rebranding themselves, or they may have existing branding which can be given to the team. Other cities prefer a complete more in-depth rebranding which is where Fifteen’s design team is a valuable resource to have.
 

Fifteen's Invaluable Design Team

Fifteen's design team, led by Marco, plays a crucial role in ensuring that cities have an bike-sharing scheme that visually becomes part of the city's transport options.

The design team works with your city's design or communications team to learn more about the city’s existing branding and vision for the bike-sharing system, and to understand everything a city wants and needs from their bike-sharing system. 

Proposals for a Unique City Branding

After learning about the city, the Fifteen team works on a design proposal that aims to resonate with the residents and aligns with existing city branding. Working in conjunction with the city every step of the way, the design team creates all of the files necessary to print the different elements that make your bike-sharing system unique.

Bike Sharing that Matches Your City or Region

Fifteen’s bike-sharing systems have many elements that can be uniquely designed for your city. From stickers on the basket, mud-guard, and frame to a specially designed app and website, Fifteen ensures a fully unique service for your city. 

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Fifteen also help cities to design an app and website that matches their city's bike-sharing service, as seen with Marseille's Levelo (pictured)

By rebranding public bike-sharing systems with unique city branding, Fifteen empowers cities and their residents to take ownership of the public bike-sharing experience. This approach instils pride, encourages regular usage, and showcases the city's commitment to sustainable transportation. Through collaboration with Fifteen's design team, cities can create a bike-sharing system that aligns with their identity and fosters a sense of community.

Don't miss the opportunity to transform your bike-sharing scheme into a beloved and iconic part of your city. Contact Fifteen today to learn more about the branding process and how their team can support you in creating a bike-sharing system that is cherished by your residents.

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