In message , at 10:25:48 on Wed, 11
Dec 2013, Peter CS remarked:
Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the London Assembly's Liberal Democrat
group, said: "Barclays have received immense benefits from the
publicity given to the cycle hire scheme in its early years, but now
that its performance is looking shaky they appear to be bailing out.

I wonder how many people are influenced to open an account with Barclays
because of the sponsorship. Few people in England can be unaware that
Barclays exists and is a bank - and if they aren't, Barclays (like most
banks these days) doesn't brand itself as 'Barclays Bank' so just seeing
the name on a bike won't help.

Conversely I wonder how many think that a bank that uses their money to
paint its name on bikes is maybe one to avoid.

So how 'immense' are the benefits?

I think it comes under the umbrella of "Corporate Social Responsibility"
rather than "advertising", and many large companies have significant
such budgets. Wikipedia has a page on CSR, which covers most of the
rationale.
--
Roland Perry