Barclays Bike Dock Shut For Range Rover WTA Party

Jaguar Land Rover, Sony Ericsson and Virgin may all have been delighted to back the Women’s Tennis Association’s traditional pre-Wimbledon party at West London’s Kensington Roof Gardens, but the Barclays Cycle Hire sponsorship team might not have been quite so happy about the event.

Headline sponsor Range Rover provided an honour guard of soon-to-be-launched baby Evoques and used branded perimeter and barrier advertising to surround the venue entrance, but this led to the closure of the local Barclays London cycle hire station for the duration of the event. The Barclay’s-branded blue cycle rack and pay kiosk were all blacked out or covered with Range Rover advertising for the afternoon and evening gala.

Range Rover may be claiming that its new model will be its ‘greenest’ vehicle ever, but why the mayor and City Hall felt inclined to dilute its cleaner, greener London transport policies by green-lighting the closure of one of its cycling stations in favour of launch advertising for a new 4-by-4 is a mystery.

The move certainly suggests that Boris and his team have an inconsistent transport policy and it doesn’t do Barclays any favours either. After such a major investment in London cycling, the bank finds its branded service closed down to promote a gas guzzling Chelsea tractor.

Perhaps the banking brand received a sponsorship rebate for losing brand presence on one of its higher profile bike docks?

But what about those regulars who use that Barclays bike dock every day? The stars of women’s tennis (including Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova) and various celebrities (such as Alex James, Tinie Tempah, Kirsty Allsopp, Twiggy and Patsy Kensit) may have enjoyed the exclusive bash, but local cyclists were, well, simply ‘excluded’.

Comment:

Even Barclays own sponsorship of the men’s ATP tennis tour couldn’t stop this Range Rover-backed WTA event from shutting down the bank’s branded cycle hire docking station.

Links:

Barclays Cycle Hire
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/14808.aspx

WTA Tennis
http://www.wtatennis.com/page/OffCourtNews/Read/0,,12781~2071507,00.html

Land Rover Jaguar / Range Rover
http://blog.landrover.com/home/wta-pre-wimbledon-party-in-association-with-range-rover-1343.html