TFL looking into allowing sponsored Tube Names

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...tics-live-blog

Q: What else are you going to put in these empty ticket offices?

You could do all sorts of things, Johnson says. Transport for London is looking at this.

It is exploring the idea of naming tube stations after corporations, he says. Marble Arch used to be called Selfridges.

But changing the maps would be expensive.

Johnson says he is not against this "in principle".

Q: If Samsung wanted to change the name of Tottenham Court road too Samsung, how much would that cost? £500,000.

Johnson says much more than that. It would cost at least £4m to change the maps.

Awful awful idea. Not worth it even for £4 million. These names are historic and some are known throughout the world. Throwing that all away for a few quid and turning the entire tube map into a ad-invested nightmare would be a disaster.

[denphone]

l totally agree as its one thing giving certain trains names but another thing doing this.

[Osem]

Governments and organisations routinely explore all sorts of ideas and I see nothing wrong in exploring this one and it wouldn't necessarily mean changing the maps at all. I can't see the names being entirely changed since they have important geographical meaning and who's going to want to sponsor the less well known stations? However, if we can raise much needed revenue by adding, for example, sponsored names to the existing station signage I see nothing wrong with that? I'd have thought these companies are far more interested in people seeing their names bright and bold in the stations where they'll been really seen, not on maps which relatively few people spend more than a few minutes looking at.

[mark1234]

I have no problem with the station becoming, for example, "Samsung Tottenham Court Road". Bringing more money into the system is a good thing. I think it would be a mistake to lose the place names, not for historical reasons, but because infrequent travellers, of which there are many, wouldn't have a clue where they were going.

Originally Posted by Osem

Governments and organisations routinely explore all sorts of ideas and I see nothing wrong in exploring this one and it wouldn't necessarily mean changing the maps at all. I can't see the names being entirely changed since they have important geographical meaning and who's going to want to sponsor the less well known stations? However, if we can raise much needed revenue by adding, for example, sponsored names to the existing station signage I see nothing wrong with that.

How much do we auction off to the highest bidder in the name of revenue? There has to be a point where the reach of corporations is stopped. These names have been there for over 150 years and are synonymous with London. It would be an act of barbarism, in my view, to have 'Samsung's Baker Street Station', 'McDonald's Marylebone' or 'Bank from Barclays' all over our maps. The stations are historical landmarks themselves and where do we stop after that? Adding sponsored names to our castles, landmarks and institutions? Money shouldn't override everything to the point where nothing is sacred or public anymore.

[Osem]

As I've said there'd be no need to have the sponsored names on the actual maps. The maps are secondary as the vast majority of users (i.e. commuters) rarely refer to them. The big money is in prominence and the sponsorship could simply be related to the actual station signage as an add on. These stations are already covered with advertising of one sort of another so seeing "Tottenham Court Road" on signs which also have, for example, Samsung logos on them wouldn't bother me one jot. One thing's for sure, we are not going see our individual stations (or maps) renamed entirely after sponsors and without their original geographical names.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Damien

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...tics-live-blog



Awful awful idea. Not worth it even for £4 million. These names are historic and some are known throughout the world. Throwing that all away for a few quid and turning the entire tube map into a ad-invested nightmare would be a disaster.

I don't know if it is true, but I was told that when my Uni moved, we could have had our name added to the local DLR station name (after a for clause so it would be "xxxx for yyyy' rather than just "xxxx"), and the Uni refused when TFL said it would cost £10 million for the naming rights.

---------- Post added at 10:26 ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 ----------

Originally Posted by Osem

As I've said there'd be no need to have the sponsored names on the actual maps. The maps are secondary as the vast majority of users (i.e. commuters) rarely refer to them. The big money is in prominence and the sponsorship could simply be related to the actual station signage as an add on. These stations are already covered with advertising of one sort of another so seeing "Tottenham Court Road" on signs which also have, for example, Samsung logos on them wouldn't bother me one jot. One thing's for sure, we are not going see our individual stations and maps renamed entirely after sponsors and without their original geographical names.

The justification apparently given for the price I mention above was simply that the tube map is seen by thousands of tourists each day and actually sold all over the world.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Stuart

I don't know if it is true, but I was told that when my Uni moved, we could have had our name added to the local DLR station name (after a for clause so it would be "xxxx for yyyy' rather than just "xxxx"), and the Uni refused when TFL said it would cost £10 million for the naming rights.

Yes that's the sort of thing I think is being considered here. Let's face it, nobody in their right mind is going to allow iconic stations like Tower Bridge, for example, to be renamed Dr Pepper are they...

The common station name doesn't need to be altered at all - all that's required is for the sponsor's ID to be associated with that station in some way, perhaps excluding all other advertising so that the station would itself be themed according to the sponsor's requirements and the amount they're prepared to pay. Unlike most ugly external signage adorning our buildings, most of the material would be invisible to those above ground and therefore not a blot on the landscape at all.

Originally Posted by Osem

Yes that's the sort of thing I think is being considered here. Let's face it, nobody in their right mind is going to allow iconic stations like Tower Bridge, for example, to be renamed Dr Pepper are they...

The common station name doesn't need to be altered at all - all that's required is for the sponsor's ID to be associated with that station in some way, perhaps excluding all other advertising so that the station would itself be themed according to the sponsor's requirements and the amount they're prepared to pay.

No they're talking about bolting the name on. It's still a bad idea. It would be Samsung at Westminster or horrors like that. Tesco's Tower Bridge. These are the stations that will be targeted as those are the iconic ones which millions of tourists visit and take pictures of, pictures which will now have a shiny corporate logo attached to it.

Also Boris explicitly stated that the maps would be changed too. The station name would literally include the sponsor's name.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Stuart

I don't know if it is true, but I was told that when my Uni moved, we could have had our name added to the local DLR station name (after a for clause so it would be "xxxx for yyyy' rather than just "xxxx"), and the Uni refused when TFL said it would cost £10 million for the naming rights.

---------- Post added at 10:26 ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 ----------



The justification apparently given for the price I mention above was simply that the tube map is seen by thousands of tourists each day and actually sold all over the world.

That design will I'm sure be protected as I've said - so far as it's ever possible to do these days when the likes of the Chinese can blatantly copy virtually anything. Yes tube maps are printed and sold but people don't spend any amount of time actually looking at them and they're all available freely online so the marketing effect would be minimal imho when compared to the very many millions of people who use the tube stations every day and will be exposed to much higher profile imagery for much longer periods. I reckon the vast majority of tube maps printed and sold are used for a very short period or time and then either wind up in the bin or a drawer somewhere - that's no use to a sponsor.

Originally Posted by Osem

That design will I'm sure be protected as I've said - so far as it's ever possible to do these days when the likes of the Chinese can blatantly copy virtually anything. Yes tube maps are printed and sold but people don't spend any amount of time actually looking at them and they're all available freely online so the marketing effect would be minimal imho when compared to the very many millions of people who use the tube stations every day and will be exposed to much higher profile imagery for much longer periods.

The Tube map is one of the most iconic maps in the world as is the logo. It's design has influenced many other metro systems. It, like the logo, is considered a British design and there are posters and art people buy. Look at all the tourist tat people buy, you can get tube map mugs, posters, tea towels, notebooks, magnets and heaven knows what else.

The maps should not be changed and nor should the logo. We've got to stop selling everything off to the highest bidder.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Damien

No they're talking about bolting the name on. It's still a bad idea. It would be Samsung at Westminster or horrors like that. Tesco's Tower Bridge. These are the stations that will be targeted as those are the iconic ones which millions of tourists visit and take pictures of, pictures which will now have a shiny corporate logo attached to it.

Also Boris explicitly stated that the maps would be changed too. The station name would literally include the sponsor's name.

'Talking about' being the operative phrase at this stage. Marketing is all about exploring ideas and concepts and I reckon very few final campaigns resemble the original ideas put on the table for discussion. That's how the process works and that will be the case here I'm sure as better, more acceptable, options arise and are gradually refined.

Originally Posted by Osem

'Talking about' being the operative phrase at this stage. Marketing is all about exploring ideas and concepts and I reckon very few final campaigns resemble the original ideas put on the table for discussion. That's how the process works and that will be the case here I'm sure as better, more acceptable, options arise and are gradually refined.

Yes and they should be made aware pretty quickly that polluting the Tube Map and the Roundel TFL Logo with corporate sponsorship should be unacceptable. It's bad enough the Emirates got their name on there because of that disastrous cable car thing across the river but at least those were new stations. Not even the O2 has had the Greenwich station renamed in their honor. In fact the only time I am aware of a station changing it's name was Arsenal in the 1920s.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Osem

That design will I'm sure be protected as I've said - so far as it's ever possible to do these days when the likes of the Chinese can blatantly copy virtually anything. Yes tube maps are printed and sold but people don't spend any amount of time actually looking at them and they're all available freely online so the marketing effect would be minimal imho when compared to the very many millions of people who use the tube stations every day and will be exposed to much higher profile imagery for much longer periods. I reckon the vast majority of tube maps printed and sold are used for a very short period or time and then either wind up in the bin or a drawer somewhere - that's no use to a sponsor.

Even if it's looked at online, it's still seen, which is what a sponsor would want.

[richard s]

Just for the record:

The typeface on the London underground map was designed by Johnston and Eric Gill.

Did you know there is an animal on the Tube map.

Animals on the Underground


The shape of a pig seen in the lines of the London Underground map.



We could sponsor some stations called get me to work on time, or overcrowded here.