Voi launches new ‘Ride Safe, Park Smart’ campaign to encourage responsible travel

Voi Technology, the UK’s leading e-scooter operator, is launching a large-scale, multi-channel marketing campaign to encourage riders across the UK to Ride Safe, Park Smart and always wear a helmet.

The Ride Safe, Park Smart campaign will be live from today for a period of four weeks.

The campaign was developed in-house by Voi’s marketing team and the bright coral ads will be visible across multiple formats, including kiosks, and large and small billboards across nine Voi locations: Bath, Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge, Liverpool, Northampton, Oxford, Portsmouth and Southampton. The ads also feature a code for new riders to get £3 off their first ride by entering ‘RIDESAFE3’ into the Voi app.

The Ride Safe, Park Smart campaign is part of Voi’s commitment to constantly look for opportunities to improve rider safety. Safety features introduced after September 2020 include the ‘Reaction test’ to discourage users from riding under the influence of alcohol.

The ‘Beginners mode’, lets users reduce the e-scooter speed to 10mph until they get used to the scooter, or the ‘Helmet Selfie’, which uses an image-classifier AI that can immediately detect if a user is wearing a helmet with 95% accuracy. Helmet-wearers are rewarded with five loyalty points at the end of their ride, which can go towards discounted rides.

Another safety innovation is the ‘End of the Ride’ photo, which requires users to take and submit a photo of their parked e-scooter. Riders who fail to park correctly receive a warning in the first instance, and following that a £25 fine is imposed. Voi has seen a 70% improvement in good parking behaviour since the introduction of the new feature, helping to tackle street clutter.

Voi also works closely with disability associations, including the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) to ensure the needs of vulnerable groups are heeded during the UK trials.

This has seen the testing of an e-scooter sound to help alert blind and visually impaired people when an e-scooter approaches and the introduction of RNIB-approved parking racks in cities including Birmingham and Southampton. A study from the Norweigan Institute for Transport Economics found that dedicated parking spots for shared e-scooters can help solve pavement clutter.

Jessica Hockey, Senior Manager, Partnerships & Marketing UK & Ireland at Voi Technology said:

“Safety is at the heart of all our marketing activity and the goal of this large scale, multi-channel campaign is to ensure our riders have these key safety messages at the top of their mind at all times.”

Picture – Denis Barinov / Shutterstock.com

Jack Samler, General Manager at Voi UK and Ireland, said:

“People in the UK have embraced Voi’s e-scooters with more than 3.5 million rides taken so far. Whether it’s riding to work, running errands or visiting friends and family, we’re committed to ensuring all riders know the rules of the road and are safe when they’re on the move. We hope everyone will see and absorb our new ad campaign over the next few weeks and remember to ride safe, park smart and wear a helmet every time they take a Voi e-scooter.”

In addition to the campaign, Voi will continue to roll out its online and in-person safety events across the cities where the company has trials, giving away free helmets to participants, as part of its ongoing commitment to educating its riders.

Find out more about Voi here.