Earlier this year Seoul decorated four of their buses with the main characters of the famous Korean cartoon show “Tayo the Little Bus” (꼬마버스 타요). Within a short time the Tayo bus became a huge success. Parents make a pilgrimage to bus stops with their children in order to ride their heroes from the TV show. All that it took was a pair of eyes and a smile on the front of the bus. On the side and the rear of the vehicles are drawings of the Tayo characters. It’s probably one of the most successful measures to promote the usage of buses towards children and parents.
Originally, it was planned to run the Tayo bus vehicles for a month from March 26 to the end of April. The concept included the idea that people take pictures of them with the Tayo bus (also known in Korea as “인증샷”) and upload it to the FB page of Tayo. Then they could win something. Now it’s already four months later and the buses are still in operation. Not only that, the measure was so successful that it was expanded to more buses of other routes. Now, in total over 100 vehicles greet passengers with a smiling face!
The first buses were a blue bus no. 370, green bus 2016, yellow bus 2211 and red bus 9401. Not every vehicle of these routes was transformed to a cartoon character. It is possible to locate the buses with Daum Maps. If you follow this link, you can still see the original vehicles on their daily routes. Now it got expanded to many buses but the city doesn’t take track of new ones. I’ve saw the original buses a couple of times but I was always too slow with my camera. At least I was able to take a picture of this one on the right.
Shinsegye Department Store in Myeong-dong offers a ride in their Tayo bus and there are photo zones with Tayo in many places like department stores, subway stations, children hospitals etc. Here’s a picture of the Shinsegye event:
Promotion of Public Transport
This measure shows a great way to promote public transport. Advertisement is an area, where public transport lacks far behind the car industry. Car commercials with cool image and empty streets persuade us that driving a car is the coolest and best thing on the planet. On the other side of the spectrum commercials for public transport are boring. There are some exceptions: This Danish commercial from Midttrafik:
And this Norwegian bus commercial:
Buses have a lot of potential thanks to the huge space on the side of the vehicles. Usually there is some advertisement, which is unrelated to bus companies, and it is restricted to a certain space with fixed dimensions. However, that space on buses can be used better. I believe that the unique decoration of buses is a great way to promote buses.
What kind of effects does the Tayo bus have?
Korean mothers may say to their small children: “Let’s go and ride Tayo!” Of course, children will love it. I assume that children will grow up with the impression that buses are fun. Moreover, I believe that it also has an effect on the parents. It’s probably small but I hope that if they take their child on a bus, they will see that it isn’t that bad to use public transport WITH their child. Usually getting a child is a life-changer in many areas. Regarding mobility, it is a point when even the last car-free couple decides to buy a car. Suddenly it becomes necessary to be a “good parent” and drive their children around. So I hope that it has long-term effects on the ridership of public transport and on how children grow up.
Sources and Related Links: Seoul City Announcement | News Article
