“What’s all this about?” asked confused Londoners passing through ‘Webminster’ tube station today. Hitherto it was named Westminster and the stop where you’d get off to see Big Ben, or rather (just to confuse things even further) the Elizabeth Tower as Big Ben is the bell inside.
What's this all about? #webminster #westminster #london pic.twitter.com/2Q8DD6IvgM
— Maddie (@Madhvi57) January 12, 2017
Apparently Webminster is some guerilla marketing dreamed up by the Amazon Web Service (AWS) team. They say that Londoners use AWS for their daily life and work and in fact TfL who run the tube network use AWS to run their network.
What AWS really want you to know is that there’s a new AWS Region in London which is Amazon’s third AWS Region in Europe. AWS customers can use the new London Region to better serve end-users in the UK and can also use it to store data in the UK.
I’m still trying to figure out quite how the average commuter is supposed to deduce a new London AWS Region from seeing ‘Webminster’ on their journey to work. Great if they see the billboards on the platform, but if they see the roundels away from the marketing splurge it’s no wonder that they’re confused.