Bolt x Hyper Island: ‘Evil eye’ campaign addresses e-scooter parking anger

The challenge

You’ll know Bolt for their diverse offering ranging from ride-hailing to food and grocery delivery to car sharing services. Our students teamed up with them to create a campaign that addressed the anger around public parking of their scooters.

Parking e-scooters had been an ongoing public issue for a while. But in September 2022, Bolt riders were told that the rules had changed. It came as a result of a new system that was imposed upon mobility companies whereby scooters had to be parked in a specially designated area. This was Bolt’s chance to show that they had listened to the regulators; that the angry voices of the public had been heard, and that they were taking full responsibility to enforce the regulations.

The decision

Enter Hyper Island’s brightest and best to tackle the problem and find a creative solution. So, why were people parking incorrectly? Lack of knowledge and understanding of the implications? Pure ignorance? Either way, a change of behaviour was needed. Now you can always ask nicely, but that would most likely bring successful results on only a handful of people. The alternative? Give them the death stare and let the shame of their actions sink in.

It was an approach that went completely against Stockholmers’ way of life. “In Stockholm, we stand on the right when we ride the escalator, we talk loud enough in the subway and when someone behaves crazy in public, we rarely say anything – we just give them the “evil eye”. And everyone knows how hard it is to receive a silent rebuke,” explained copywriter and former Content Developer student Johan Eriksson to Resume. “We wanted to allude to those situations to get the message out in an entertaining and recognisable way,” he continued. 

The solution

The campaign focuses on two characters, the e-scooter user and the good Samaritan. Using the perfect blend of humour and seriousness to spark a clear and classic ‘good versus evil’ theme to the storyline, we see the e-scooter user looking to park wherever they’ve chosen to stop. But pressured and shamed by the dismay in the stare of the good Samaritan, they eventually decide to do the right thing and park their ride in the dedicated space. There’s even time to squeeze in a reminder for users to wear helmets while riding.

The campaign was launched across social media and on outdoor billboards in Stockholm. We couldn’t be prouder.

Check out the films (with Swedish text) here, here and here.