Citi Bike: The battle to win back New York

This case study describes how Citi, the financial services company, used sponsorship of New York City's bike share scheme to improve brand health following the financial crisis.

Citi Bike: The battle to win back New York

Michael Taylor

Campaign details

Brand owner: CitiAgency: Publicis Kaplan ThalerBrand: Citi BikeCountry: The United States

Executive summary

In 2012, Citi needed a disruptive way to revive its troubled brand in its hometown, New York. The City needed a sponsor with the vision and courage to invest in getting a citywide bike-share programme off the ground. They came together, and Citi Bike was born. Pre-launch, the programme faced 'bikelash' from naysayers. But converted even the most hardened of cynics were converted with a strategy that...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands