Note: This is the first of a series of articles about a recent trip I took to VeloCity, a biennial European conference held in Munich this June.

Of over 150 presentations at VeloCity, two stood out as being very popular. First, a promotional video for VeloCity 2009 in Brussels (which we've requested be placed on the internet, as it is an amazingly energetic, playful, beautiful 5-minute promo video). Second, a presentation by a group of 25 students of Applied Geography at the University of Trier about a marketing concept they've created: RadLust.

The students looked at how to double cycling in Germany in five years. While more traditional answers seem to focus on improving bicycle infrastructure, the students (driven in large part by their professor) decided that car manufacturers are into something by spending so many resources on marketing. The car industry spends more money on advertising than any other. Their professor argues that Munich bicycling rates went from 6 to 12% of all trips from 1975 to 1987 in large part because various advertisements for jewelry, wine, and even Porsche cars used bicycle imagery to convey desirable sophistication (it's since dipped to 10% of all trips).

So the students looked at various subthemes, and an encompassing brand of "RadLust" — the joy of cycling (a bike in German is a "fahrrad"– check out German MTV's "Pimp My Fahrrad" show). They developed 32 posters, which they are showing around. Yet sadly they have no resources to actually distribute the advertisements, and the bicycle industry has been lukewarm to asks for money.

Check out their site to learn more.

Anecdotally, BMW was a major sponsor of VeloCity, and while their speech was as much about hydrogen cars as anything, they have a line of bicycles, which they are marketing in part by a slogan close to "BMW with six gears is fun. Imagine it with 27."

Yet this sort of advertising isn't the only way to market. A much more common thread at VeloCity was the enthusiasm around social marketing, and individual marketing programs like Australia's TravelSmart program, which has been implemented locally by the City of Portland as SmartTrips. It's a program that has increased cycling by 23 to 68% mainly by providing encouragement and the specific information people need — be it maps, help with keeping your bike in order, or how to dress for riding.

Munich also provides information on transit, walking, and biking as a welcome packet to 85,000 residents each year. As part of a welcome from the mayor, people are invited to order whatever information they want on transit, bicycles, etc. The project, part of the larger Munich mobility strategy, reduced car use by 10% (in this case, as a boon to Munich's excellent transit system, which shot up, while walking and biking also decreased).

A final note on marketing: as part of the joy and fun, conference plenaries began with Queen's "I want to ride by bicycle."

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