megabus
A mega upgrade for megabus
Stagecoach’s megabus is the market-leading value coach operator in England, Scotland and Wales, carrying over four million passengers a year. When they approached us to bring clarity and impact to their brand identity, we jumped at the chance to get on board.
- Brand identity
- Digital
- Print design
- Outdoor media
- Cartography
First stop
As experienced brand architects, we knew we had to begin with the essentials. We defined usage rules for existing assets such as the megabus logo, and then built on areas of the brand which were lacking. This process culminated in the creation of comprehensive brand guidelines.
Journey highlights
A key feature of our upgraded brand guidelines is a unique set of icons, that help to communicate all the great things megabus has to offer. The icons capture the brand with fluid simplicity, using yellow for the long strokes and white for the short ones. The colours are a visual metaphor for the long and short journeys that megabus operates, and help define a practical rule for icon creation.
Making messaging simple
To appeal to a broad customer base, the megabus identity has to be lucid, trustworthy and memorable. Their tagline, ‘making travel simple’, became our guiding principle for customer-facing communications, resulting in a straight-talking but gentle and relaxed tone of voice.
Getting scenic
Another brand element that required definition was photography. Megabus communications are highly varied, so our rules had to be suitably flexible. We defined three photography styles; Abstract, Service, and Location.
Abstract is the primary photography style and focuses on using images that link directly to a message. Service images literally convey the service and quality vehicles that megabus offers to customers. Location images are vibrant and atmospheric, tantalising customers with the places and events they can travel to with megabus.
The ultimate result of the brand guidelines project has been the 80 page guidelines document created by m360. This is now our go-to guide for both our internal team and third party stakeholders, when managing all brand communications and ensuring consistency in visual style. m360 was able to guide us through the process of redefining our company brand and vision, and we are really happy with the results.
Group Head of Marketing & Brand Strategy, Stagecoach
The creative route
The final challenge of the project was to flex our cartography skills, by making the megabus Network Map clearer and more appealing. It was a privilege to work on such a vital and iconic asset.
megabus continues to champion the brand we designed, and with our ongoing client services support, we have helped them deliver their vision through national campaigns, digital and social comms.
On Britain’s roads and in our major towns and cities, megabus is a brand to look out for, and we’re proud to add them to our portfolio.
