WMCA launched a Cycle Hire proposition in several locations during 2021. Our objective was to raise awareness of the new service and turn car users into bike users, and increase the number of journeys taken.

As the cycle hire scheme was new to the region and there was only a handful of docks installed initially, we had to focus our activity within a 500m proximity of these locations to minimise wastage. We principally used digital 6 sheets, and occasionally paper 6 sheets, which allowed us to get directly onto street level and target a pedestrian audience. As the number of docks increased, we introduced programmatic display to capture a broader audience.

During the first month of the scheme running there were 10,000 journeys conducted on the bikes which grew to 53,935 journeys in three months, which is a percentage increase of over 430%. We have seen steady growth since then and as of February 2022 we achieved 214,325 journeys.