Commercial Advertising on Bus Contracting Model Buses

Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP) Buses

With BSEP buses being paid for by the Land Transport Authority, these buses were not allowed to bear any commercial advertisements. Instead, they carry advertisements by government-related organisations as well as advertisements by the Land Transport Authority. These restrictions were subsequently removed with the transition to the Bus Contracting Model for all bus services.

Bus Contracting Model (BCM) Advertising

New bus commercial advertising under the Bus Contracting Model made its debut on Tower Transit Buses in June 2016, with the front third of the bus being left unwrapped with its base lush green livery. This implied that the Land Transport Authority had set regulations on new commercial bus advertising on its buses which took effect from May 2016 for Tower Transit and September 2016 for the rest of the operators. The same “rear two-thirds coverage” guidelines applied to both single and double deck buses.

Bus advertisements by Operators themselves, for promotional and recruitment purposes, were also compliant with the two-thirds coverage.

On 4th September 2016, a Go-Ahead Mercedes-Benz Citaro, SG1012Y, was spotted running on revenue service with a full body commercial advertisement wrap for Mediacorp. This came as a surprise as rival operator Tower Transit’s commercial bus advertisement wraps only occupy two-thirds of the bus, which implied that Moove Media was infringing the LTA regulations on commercial bus advertising.

This proved to be true as the Mediacorp bus advertisement wrap was taken down on 21 September 2016, barely a month after its debut. According to Moove Media’s rate book on their corporate website, advertisers are required to buy a minimum of 12 weeks of advertisement exposure time.

On 29 September 2016, an advertisement on the SG Secure movement made its debut on revenue service with Go-Ahead Singapore, covering only two-thirds of the bus, similar to that of Tower Transit’s bus advertisements. Promotional advertising for government agencies and initiatives also followed the two-thirds regulations.

The new two-thirds advertising regulations expose the base lush green bus livery on the front third of the bus, with an appearance of the operator logo on the front, left and right side. This makes identification of public buses easier for commuters.

As a result of the change in regulations, buses of all operators began to feature advertising compliant with the “two-thirds” regulation. In particular, several unusual advertising stickers came about during the transition period for SBS Transit and SMRT Buses in their old corporate liveries.

Initially, buses were pasted with full liveries with only the rear two-thirds covered with advertising material; the front was simply left blank (usually white, but in lush green on several rare instances). This move also necessitated the covering up or removal of existing company logos on buses where the logos were partially covered up by the 2/3-advertising. Eventually, all such buses would have their company logos replaced by smaller logos affixed near the front axle, mirroring that of the standard Lush Green livery.

Smaller advertising panels continued to be offered, as they did not interfere with 2/3 advertising regulations.

2D and 3D advertising

2D advertising on buses also made a resurgence by advertisers seeking to maximize the advertising area on buses. Moove Media, the advertising arm for SBS Transit and Go-Ahead, has introduced more 2D billboards on single-deck buses which extend upwards.

3D concept advertising, which had previously been offered on SBS Transit buses (and SMRT Buses on a smaller scale), continued to be offered.

LED Digital Panel Trial

In November 2018, a trial for LED digital advertising panels commenced. Two double-deck buses, each from SBS Transit and SMRT Buses, were fitted with LED digital panels. These buses are:

• SMB5065R
  SMRT Buses / Alexander Dennis Enviro500
  eLumiNEX Digital External LED Dynamic Panel Display
  
• SBS3701S
  SBS Transit / Volvo B9TL Wright
  Digital Moove External LED Dynamic Panel Display

In House Advertisements

Public Bus Operators also did up in-house advertisement wraps to promote staff recruitment and events such as the relocation of bus interchanges.

As part of the SBS Transit 50th Anniversary celebrations, several buses were wrapped to commemorate the event.

Full-Body Wraps (from 2022)

Operator logos on the nearside & offside are still required to be present as part of the full-body bus advertisement wrap, which was first introduced under the Bus Contracting Model with the #HeyChingay50Bus campaign in January 2022.

In late March 2023, SBS Transit launched the “Be Safe, Be Seen” Road Safety Campaign, in which 15 buses were wholly wrapped for the campaign, except a strip on the front one-third of the bus for the operator logo.

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