Driving people to an event with taxi advertising

At the end of this month the London Coffee Festival will be keeping everyone buzzed in East London - but across the rest of the city you'll be able to spot an exclusive fleet of Freehand Coffee Roasters SuperSide taxis, created by Festival exhibitors, Miko Coffee. Miko have invested in taxis because they reach an audience of cosmopolitan coffee drinkers, right across town, not just in the area around the Truman Brewery where the Festival is being held. Taxis create outstanding message cut-through, which for a new brand like Freehand is vital - being on the move and mixing it up with Londoners as they are out and about is exactly what taxis do best! When we asked Miko marketing manager Jenna Horsnell about her taxi campaign, she said, 'We’re aiming to create a real buzz around this new coffee brand with fun competitions, fab prizes and a fleet of branded black cabs, which are guaranteed to get people talking about Freehand long before they visit the Festival." You can read more about their campaign and the taxi competitions, here. Events, museums and galleries have been visitors to the sides of taxis for many years, often using the iconic format as part of an integrated campaign comprising media that makes use of commuter dwell time on transport, such as ads on the tube network combined with Time Out and Metro press activity. London adults are avid fans of the city’s cultural offerings – a quarter of them claim to visit exhibitions and galleries more than once a month. Jenna is absolutely right about generating brand 'buzz' - as an impactful above ground format, taxis add extra hits of the commuter audience and they also help the brand message to infiltrate that elusive upmarket group of AB city-dwellers who are on the street looking for and using taxis on a weekly basis; 60% of London adults who notice taxi advertising are interested in the arts and other cultures; they’re the type who like to be 'in the know' and will spread the word to like-minded friends and family.  There are events happening nationally all the time, from annual residences such as the Coffee Festival through to showcase art exhibitions at national galleries and one-off retrospectives. We are currently running a campaign for Patek Philippe - the exclusive Swiss watch manufacturer has harnessed the iconic and eye-catching power of Livery taxis to promote a forthcoming exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery that celebrates Patek Philippe's long tradition of high precision watch making and provides an insight to the company's 175 year history. Their gorgeous purple taxis are aimed at an upmarket, culturally progressive audience who are likely to own luxury goods - the taxis do an outstanding job of not only delivering the Patek message in a 'premium' manner, but they work hard amongst the AB audience too. Outside of London, taxis are an equally popular way to reach time-poor, yet culturally interested people and their families. The National Museum of Scotland has used our taxis on several occasions to drive both local and visiting audiences to their exhibitions. We have seen a wide variety of attractions on their taxis, from Catherine the Great to ice age mammoths - a diverse range of exhibitions that need to be effectively promoted to people in and around Edinburgh. This is in a city where the Outdoor media formats are somewhat limited, so taxis offer an excellent way to reach people throughout the city, at mainline stations and the airport. When people think ‘taxis’ they will quite often think of big ‘brand’ campaigns, as indeed taxis offer distinct advantages  for this type of activity. However, they are just as suitable for driving home a timely, targeted message, just as our ‘culture clients’ have demonstrated. If you’re looking for a format that is part of the fabric of a city and appears in high footfall cultural and social areas as a matter of course, you should consider taxis as your showcase.   Source: GB TGI 2105