Transport Victoria gives more reasons to ‘Love the Bus’ in new integrated campaign via TABOO

Transport Victoria has launched ‘Love, The Bus’, an integrated campaign designed to change how Melburnians see their local bus and encourage more people to get on board.

The campaign was developed in collaboration with TABOO and Transport Victoria’s agency village, including Snack Drawer, Ethnolink and OMD.

‘Love, The Bus’ follows a significant expansion of bus services across two of Melbourne’s fastest-growing regions. In the north, 781 extra weekly trips have been added across nine routes, while the outer west has received more than 1,970 extra weekly trips across eight routes, plus one new service.

The improvements mean more frequent buses, longer operating hours and better connections to stations, schools, shops and essential services. But while the network has changed, perceptions have been slower to catch up.

Through community research, an opportunity was identified to increase travellers’ engagement with and sentiment towards bus travel, and further raise awareness of the recently delivered bus improvements to increase consideration of new or increased bus use.

Instead of leading with timetables and route changes, ‘Love, The Bus’ gives The Bus a voice through one of its most familiar features: the dot-matrix destination display. Across cinema, out-of-home, digital and social content, the displays carry warm, playful messages from The Bus. Emotive headlines are paired with practical information about local service improvements, giving people both a reason to feel differently about the bus and a reason to use it.

Says Charlotte Adorjan, Executive Creative Director, TABOO: “This is a special one for us because we first presented the campaign two years ago during DTP’s review process – and have been honing it with the team ever since. Buses have a personality all their own, so giving these Melbourne icons a dot-matrix voice has been a lot of fun. Who knew a bus could be so adorable?”

‘Love, The Bus’ is rolling out this week across cinema, out-of-home, digital and social channels throughout Victoria. Community activations will also take place at shopping centres and bus exchanges at train stations.

Client: Transport Victoria
Creative Agency: TABOO
Production: TRUCE (Director – Alexander Naughton)
Media Agency: OMD Australia
Multicultural Communications Agency: Ethnolink
Content Agency: Snack Drawer

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