Santander Cycles Launches 'Side Quests' to Turn Routine Rides into Weekend Adventures

Why simply go from the same old drudgery of A to B, when you can get to the fun and mystery of C with a Santander Cycles 'Side Quests?'

It’s Saturday, there’s no work today, so where to go? London is a treasure trove of entertainment and excitement just waiting to be explored. A quick click on the Side Quests site generates a random, spontaneous route to some of its hidden gems.

The 'Side Quests' site forms the central component of Dark Horses’ first work for Santander Cycles. The scheme, now 15 years old, already provides safe and cost-effective transport to millions of Londoners. However, the next stage of its evolution is to add fun and adventure to that list, with Santander and TfL aiming to make Santander Cycles an integral part of Londoners’ weekends, their leisure activities and their lives outside of the commute.

Launching on 25 June, Londoners will now be able to go to the Side Quests site and be served various pre-existing, spontaneous and randomly generated maps to some of the Capital’s most interesting, but maybe less well-known, attractions and areas. Every month, more and more maps will be added to represent the unique and multifaceted nature of the city.

Each route has a bespoke theme, from top food spots to movie filming locations, which are curated to take people around the best experiences the city has to offer. Themes include The Thrift Store Tour, Park Life and The Brutalist.

Alongside the website, which uses the main Santander Cycles brand colours of white text on red alongside a bold visual style, the campaign will come to life through a variety of channels including branded takeovers of bikes and docking stations around London, supporting influencer activity, print, digital takeovers and direct mail.

​Dan Sherwood, managing director at Santander, said, “Side Quests are all about people veering off from their main story and going on their own adventures. Our audience is both visitors and locals in London, who are hungry for new and authentic experiences of the city. It’s about encouraging them to explore the unexpected, never following the mainstream. And this campaign does that brilliantly.”

​Josh Pearce, creative director at Dark Horses, said, “At some point, we’ve all had the ‘what should we do today?’ conversation on a weekend, and ended up endlessly scrolling for ideas. Side Quests was created to cut through that indecision and offer something spontaneous, fun, and local. The routes are themed around both popular and offbeat interests, helping Londoners break out of their routines and rediscover their city, and its hidden gems, from a fresh perspective.”