Restore wins Oxford Bus Company ‘Brand The Bus’ competition

Mental health charity Restore has scooped the Oxford Bus Company ‘Brand the Bus’ competition to have a double-decker emblazoned in its messaging.

The Oxford based charity has been invited to work with Oxford Bus Company to design a bus wrap featuring the brand colours, logo and messages of the organisation. It was selected by a judging panel from a top ten group of good causes which had earned the most public votes from 23 original entries.

Oxford Bus Company has also awarded the advertising space on a bus rear to second placed Be Free Young Carers. The Harwell based charity supports the lives and wellbeing of young carers in Oxfordshire. Maggie’s and Read Easy Oxford were also deemed to be excellent submissions and will both receive marketing support, including on-board digital advertising screens.

The winners were decided by a judging panel including Grant Hayward director of Collaborent and Laura Price, CEO of Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action.

Phil Southall, Oxford Bus Company Managing Director, said: “Congratulations to Restore and to all the good causes that entered. As ever it was an incredibly close call to select the overall winners from so many excellent entries.

“Restore’s submission was very compelling and mental health is such a big issue, more so during the pandemic and so we felt it was an important cause to back to help spread awareness of their support services. We are looking forward to working with them on their design for a bus.

“We decided to award a bus rear advertising space to Be Free Young Carers in recognition of the fantastic work they do. The competition highlighted how many good causes there are working tirelessly in our community and how important it is to support each other.”

Restore supports people to take control of their recovery from mental health challenges, develop skills and lead meaningful lives. It offers recovery groups, training and employment coaching to make this possible.

Lucy Didcock, Community Fundraiser at Restore, said: “We are so thrilled to have been selected as the overall winner of the Brand the Bus competition. There are so many worthy charities in Oxfordshire and we are proud to have stood amongst them. A huge thank you to the Oxford Bus Company for organising this brilliant competition. We can’t wait to spread our message further and wider.

“We have more people than ever needing our support and branding an Oxford Bus will enable us to reach further into communities, spreading the word about the wonderful work we do at Restore and raising vital funds to reduce our long waiting list. Ultimately, this win will help more adults in Oxfordshire on their journey towards mental health recovery. We can’t thank Oxford Bus Company enough.”

Girlguiding Oxford, Home-Start Oxford and Blue Skye Thinking have all had double decker buses decked out in their branding after winning previous rounds of the competition. Some 4,807 unique online votes were cast for the entries made by charities and good causes in 2021.

The finalists were: Restore, Read Easy Oxford, HFT, PACT, Kelly Jackson Memorial Fund, Helen & Douglas House, Maggie’s, Yellow Submarine, Borneo Nature Foundation and Be Free Young Carers.