Virgin Media Television

 

Virgin hired 20 rickshaws to cover the three-day event, held over the busy August bank holiday. These were decked out in the striking scarlet Virgin livery, using interchangeable panels to promote separate campaigns for the Virgin Media Television, Virgin Living, and Virgin 1 strands.

 

Virgin Media designers created a credit card-sized travel map of the city, showing six major festival venues where delegates could access the rickshaw service. The branded Virgin rickshaws were on standby at central sites including Edinburgh International Conference Centre, the Caledonian Hotel and the McEwan Hall.

The aim was not just to create a splash on the streets. As Olivia Smythe from the Virgin Media TV PR team explains, it was also a practical strategy to provide effective transport during the mayhem of Edinburgh festival season.

 

‘The rickshaws were out from 9 in the morning till 10 at night, taking visitors to industry shows, meetings and parties,’ she says. The rickshaws’ manoeuvrability turned out to be a big advantage: ‘With venues like Dynamic Earth, it’s hard for cabs to get close. But rickshaws can go into places that are inaccessible to taxis and pick people up right on the doorstep. There’s also far less chance of getting stuck in traffic queues for ages.’