Leading global banking, payments, and shopping service Klarna returned to taxi advertising this spring as part of a wider strategy of OOH, online, social media and print activity, to create broadcast-level noise for their #WhyPayInterest campaign; planned and booked by Bountiful Cow and Kinetic.

Klarna is no stranger to taxi advertising, having used the opportunity numerous times to generate broadcast-level brand awareness to a retail street audience; but on this occasion the brand harnessed the potential of taxis to create heightened message awareness during key moments.

“Klarna branded taxis have played an important role in the ‘Why Pay Interest?’ campaign,” Klarna Marketing Manager Mark Godfrey explains. “From delivering three separate messages at once, to targeting key locations and landmarks, as well as featuring heavily in our PR releases and activity.”

First let’s take a look at the messages - the alternating creatives included surprising financial statistics highlighting the benefits of using Klarna over the traditional credit card model. For example, in 2020 alone, Brits lost over £5.7 billion to credit card interest – that’s £144 every 60 seconds. Meanwhile, those that used zero-cost buy now pay later options saved £76 million in interest payments. Thought-provoking stuff and actually quite an unusual execution for taxi advertising – we don’t usually see copy-led creative on taxis, as many brands feel the opportunity doesn’t lend itself.

Of course, we beg to differ there – the high frequency offered by taxi advertising makes it the perfect roadside communication platform for multiple messages. A campaign such as Klarna’s, with 400 taxis, will be seen on average twice a week by Londoners; in fact for those in the city centre where taxis spend most of their time, real-life campaign visibility will be a lot higher.

Godfrey continues, “As Britain starts opening up again, we wanted a presence on the street and taxis represent one of the safest ways of getting moving again, helping us see our loved ones and taking us to venues and events around the capital once more.”

This powerful campaign, which will reach 7/10 Londoners, comes at a time when there is growing pressure from the Government for regulation of the UK’s booming buy now pay later industry; #WhyPayInterest shines a spotlight on challenging what CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski suggests is an outdated business model. It’s important for online shoppers be aware that Klarna is on the front-foot in this debate, so to create targeted message amplification, Klarna asked the PR Events team at Ubiquitous to arrange a number of bespoke taxi activities.

Convoys of branded taxis are highly effective at turning heads - to draw the attention of pedestrians in Piccadilly, three Klarna taxis continually circled Piccadilly Lights, on which Klarna’s campaign was also featured. A similar tactic was employed to heighten awareness of the Klarna projection on London’s iconic County Hall.

In addition to convoys, Klarna users were offered free taxi rides from Shoreditch’s Ebor Street, where a branded Klarna ice cream truck was set up in front of an interactive mural – what a great way to create an on-street impact for this important message, and combine it with bags of feel-good factor.

High-five Klarna! This taxi campaign is a shining example of how to deliver a broadcast-level OOH reach and frequency that also has a real-life, street-level impact, exactly where and when you want it.

There are very few OOH opportunities that can deliver the combination of high city-centre audience reach and iconic brand placement, in the way that taxi advertising does; these are the predominant reasons why brands put taxis on their media schedule.

However, since the arrival of the hybrid TXe black taxi in London, we have seen a number of brands choose taxi advertising because the channel now offers a ‘green’ solution, and for many brands this is either already extremely important, or is growing more so.

The advent of the TXe cab represented a watershed moment for Londoners; black taxis account for 20% of the NOx emissions in London – there is no doubt that having more TXes on the road (and fewer diesel cabs) will improve the quality of the air we breathe. Historically our campaigns have been on diesel taxis, but this has rapidly changed - hundreds of TXe drivers have already joined our media fleet. Ubiquitous sees this vehicle as the future of taxi advertising and we’re significantly invested in maintaining and building on the number of electric cabs that are available for brands.

Now that we are talking about taxis that are better for the environment, why not broaden our ambitions? What else we could be doing to turn the iconic black cab green?

Towards the end of last year, our Ops team started testing biodegradable vinyl, to assess its suitability for the exterior of hard-working, rain-or-shine, black cabs. This is important because currently, the type of vinyl used by taxi campaigns goes into a landfill - nobody at Ubiquitous is happy with this, and no matter how good the UK and EU regulations are, a sticky fact remains: plastic takes centuries to degrade. So, while we wait for a suitable biodegradable option to be available, the Ops team set about finding an alternative solution to landfill.

After conversations with the local authority that collects waste for Ubiquitous, they discovered that the council simply contracts-out the waste management to a third party, but under that agreement, just a limited number of waste solutions are available – only landfill for vinyl. So, they took it up a notch and spoke directly to Veolia (the contracted provider) and guess what? They do offer a better solution for vinyl disposal: ‘waste-to-energy’ incineration. So, we quickly struck a direct deal with Veolia and committed to this greener strategy.

What is ‘waste-to-energy’ incineration? Simply put, it’s a high temperature burn of vinyl products that results in a zero-emission, zero-landfill output; the energy is cycled into power for the local community and the waste ash is recycled as road surface aggregate. The waste-to-energy option solved the landfill issue immediately and is a commitment by us that puts a tick in the ‘green’ column for black taxi advertising.

To double down on that tick, we also needed to address the issue of diesel emissions from the classic TX taxis in our fleet. Carbon emission is a big topic – the Mayor and TfL have aggressive targets to improve air quality and would like all public transport to be ‘zero emission’ (as would other councils across the UK). But for black taxis, many of which are privately owned, this is a slow evolution, even despite the attractive financial incentives put in place for cabbies to decommission their diesel cabs and switch to the TXe.

So, in the meantime, what solution can Ubiquitous offer to brands, to balance the environmental impact of their classic black taxi campaign? Create an offsetting programme.

This turned out to be a quick and easy win - for as little as £1,000 brands can off-set the diesel emissions from a 4-week, 400-taxi advertising campaign; that’s a small price to pay and can be rolled into an existing programme or can be invested by Ubiquitous on behalf of the brand; it can even be promoted on the campaign itself.

So, there we have it – three ways in which we have made it possible for brands to ensure their taxi advertising investment complements their CSR commitments: TXe taxis, zero landfill (as standard on all campaigns) and carbon off-setting.

We’re proud to have achieved our goal, and in doing so, to have created a new OOH opportunity: Iconic black taxi advertising - now available in green.

Seen any green cabs around London lately? Bulb, the UK’s fastest growing green energy company, has wrapped 30 hybrid electric taxis in its signature pink branding to spread the word about its affordable, renewable energy.

Bulb partnered with taxi-advertising company, Ubiquitous, to sign the cab drivers up to Bulb. At home, the cabs are charged with 100% renewable electricity sourced from wind, solar and hydro generators in the UK.

By choosing renewable energy, Bulb’s 1.4 million members have collectively lowered their carbon impact by 4.9 million tonnes of carbon per year. The company, whose mission is to help people lower their energy bills and cut carbon emissions, see Electric Vehicles (EVs) as another important step towards net zero emissions. The brightly-coloured fleet will drive around 620,000 emissions-free miles in London every year, contributing to cleaner air in the capital.

Earlier this year, Bulb partnered with EO Charging and Suffolk County Council to launch the country’s first “fully open” charging network. Up to 400 individual charge points across 100 locations and businesses in Suffolk will be installed under the scheme once complete. In February, Bulb also announced a partnership with smart device manufacturer, EDMI, to trial technology to control EV charging automatically, helping to balance the grid.

Jenny Zhao, Head of Growth at Bulb, said: “At Bulb, we’re on a mission to help people save on their bills and reduce their emissions. We hope these cabs will get more people thinking about where they get their energy from. Switching to a renewable energy supplier is a quick and easy way to make a positive impact on the planet – we hope the cabs will encourage lots of people to do just that.”

Steve O’Neill, a London taxi driver for 25 years, said: “I’ve got two small grandchildren so for me, when I think about the long term future of the air, I’m thinking about them. If I can make one small help towards making the air a little bit better then great, I’ll do it.”

British footwear and accessories retailer Kurt Geiger created a dual-sided SuperSide taxi campaign to roam London’s streets and create a strong brand presence during London Fashion Week 2018. Featuring various styles from the brand’s new collections, a handful of the taxis were on hand to provide VIP transfers between the LFW shows.

Each taxi was allocated to a specific VIP guest, including Iskra Lawrence, Sarah Ann Macklin and Portia Freeman, to name a few. The taxis ensured that guests would reach each show on time and also doubled up as useful storage space for their luggage and goodie bags.

The VIPs were extremely pleased with the generosity of Kurt Geiger, sharing their experiences on social media to thousands of followers.

Foresight Group LLP (“Foresight”), a leading independent infrastructure and private equity investment manager, has leveraged its environmental credentials to advertise on a fleet of London’s new electric taxis.

The taxis, secured with taxi advertising experts Ubiquitous, have been wrapped for 12 months, and form part of an integrated campaign that runs across digital, print and out-of-home platforms emphasising Foresight’s commitment to investing for a smarter future.

As a leading clean energy investor, Foresight has a portfolio of over 150 clean energy investments in solar, wind, battery storage and waste to energy plants, which between them generate over 1.4GW of clean energy, enough to power more than 600,000 households. The campaign will highlight areas where Foresight’s investments are helping create a smarter future: investment into smaller UK companies across the regions; projects that turn landfill into renewable energy; solar plants that help power industry with up to 100% clean energy; and innovative funding for the rollout of smart meters.

Foresight's Group Marketing Director, said: “These hybrid taxis are a small but valuable step forward in addressing London’s air quality and in creating a sustainable future. They are the perfect platform to launch our campaign as the vehicles themselves are a great example of the smarter future we’re aiming for. Our funds offer investors the opportunity to support innovative technologies that combine attractive returns with a more sustainable and responsible approach.”

On Foresight’s innovative taxi investment, Andrew Barnett, Managing Director of Ubiquitous commented: ”Foresight were quick to realise the brand potential of London’s new hybrid black cabs and not only from a green credentials point of view; these smart new vehicles are really turning heads in London for their larger size, enhanced passenger experience and innovative technology.”

Foresight partnered with creative agency AML and media buyers Ptarmigan and Talon Outdoor on the campaign.

Being relatively new to the world of out of home it has quickly become clear to me that digital OOH is the darling of the Outdoor world, not least because of how much money is being invested in the opportunity. With Ubiquitous being the market leader in taxi advertising, a classic OOH opportunity, I have had to think smart - using industry data to establish how best to position taxis alongside DOOH, in such a way that delivers unique benefits for brands.

There are obvious reasons why a brand might be attracted to spending money on DOOH. The larger formats, which we’ve named Premium Roadside DOOH (Prem. RSDOOH), capture the attention of consumers who are generally ‘on the go’; many of the large Prem. RSDOOH sites are on busy arterial roads, reaching those who drive into cities – often in locations where no other OOH is available. Besides the obvious size and illumination, DOOH has opened creative options for advertisers that classic billboards could not achieve, such as the flexibility to endlessly tailor creative to suit time, occasion and day and to update it with fresh content dynamically, achieving a brand impact that has greater contextual relevancy for the target audience. The impact of DOOH is not only being seen in the nation’s capital but right across the UK, in all major cities.  

In the UK’s regional cities, the presence of DOOH is growing fast, as media owners swap classic sites for dynamic frames and new operators, such as 8Outdoor, make an impact on the DOOH landscape. Much of the Prem. RSDOOH is placed along the main roads into city centres, in areas of high traffic; however, some media owners are being more strategic with their locations, using the opportunity to optimise sites for audience.  

The city centre audience is very attractive - the UK’s key cities are hives of activity and magnets for the most economically active people. It’s not just London into which millions of people commute daily; 7 million people live within a one-hour commute of Manchester city centre. Birmingham has the highest number of business HQs and the largest conurbation outside of London. In two-weeks OOH in Birmingham has the potential to reach 8% of the GB population. The desirability of Edinburgh’s audience is well known; to be frank it’s small and wealthy, with the highest average disposable (gross) income of all UK cities, it’s a popular choice for those wishing to target the ABs.  

The increase in DOOH sites in these (and other cities) is heralded as a great advancement for the OOH industry, which of course it is. Where there once stood a classic poster site, there is now a slick-looking digital roadside or mall dynamic panel in its place, which can sometimes display as many as eight ads in under a minute. With its eye-catching display, creative flexibility, and contextual messaging, who wouldn’t want to book a campaign here? You may ask yourself, what’s the catch? However, there are some who lament the loss of opportunity to dominate a city through ‘classic’ sites that deliver 100% share of voice, at a cost-efficient rate. As I have mentioned, there are definite (and proven) advantages of DOOH, but the non-exclusive SOV means that the overall number of people who see your campaign, and the impacts delivered, will be significantly lower than that which was achieved through classic sites. Packs that were once booked for audience reach are now sold by impacts delivered and for ‘wow’ factor, rather than reach of individuals; reach is significantly impacted once sites are shared by brands.  

Here lies an opportunity then for the remaining classic reach formats to make a pitch for some media budget, by adding good old cost-effective reach. Outside of London the first-choice reach format is a classic 6-sheet, however these are becoming increasingly difficult to come by. Once all the long-term holdings or national packs have snapped up the sites, brands may have little choice but to book D6s or not book space at all. This inventory squeeze, combined with a strong reluctance by some brands to share space at premium prices, has presented an opportunity for Ubiquitous and the extensive city-centre reach delivered by taxi advertising. Using Route data I’ve explored the reach of the Prem. RSDOOH sites in the key cities and have seen an opportunity for brands to double the audience reach of a Prem. RSDOOH campaign, with the cost efficient addition of taxi advertising. On the basis that taxis cover off the middle of the donut and Prem. RSDOOH the ring, they make a great complement that delivers ‘wow’ and reach.  

With a little help from Route we can demonstrate that by adding £10,000 of taxis to your high investment DOOH campaign you quickly double your reach, achieving significant additional brand exposure in key regional city centres. Not only is the incremental reach delivered by the taxis huge, due to the locations of the Prem. RSDOOH screens, the taxis deliver unique reach in many cases, being seen by those in your audience who would otherwise miss the campaign entirely.

In short, a Prem. RSDOOH campaign looks great, and no one can argue with the benefits that come with this innovation opportunity, but if you’re a brand that needs to sell products, change minds or grow share, you need to reach a lot of people. With decreasing numbers of classic city-centre 6-sheets, perhaps brands and planners should trust the Route numbers and explore the iconic black taxi as it might just be the best way to cost-efficiently deliver city centre reach of the most desirable target audiences.

Jennifer Schooling.  Media Analyst, Ubiquitous.  

American Airlines harnessed London’s iconic black cabs for its October 2017 campaign, a real-time geofenced initiative, that used mobile advertising to retarget people who had been in close proximity to the 85 wrapped taxis.

Conceived in partnership with planning agency MediaCom, mobile targeting specialist Mobsta and research agency, Research Now, the Ubiquitous taxis were fitted with GPS, to allow us to understand, for the first time ever, where the campaign was travelling to in London, and identify the people who had likely seen it.

Brady Byrnes, American Airlines’ director of global marketing, said: "American Airlines is all about innovation. Our flights from London give travellers the most connected experience, with on-board Wi-Fi being at the very heart of this offering. That’s why we’re proud to work with MediaCom to push digital innovation and offer this exciting media first."

Ubiquitous’s research found that taxis tend to concentrate in those areas populated by American Airlines’ target audience of ABC1s. Mobsta's demographic data ensured that the mobile ads are only sent to the phones of that target group.   To assess the effect of seeing the taxis, Research Now recontacted consuemers to see if their experience of seeing the taxi adertising had a positive effect on brand consideration, which it did!

Daemon Brown, commercial director at Ubiquitous, said: “Our research tells us that taxi advertising dominates city centre streets and will take American Airlines into areas where their target audience is most likely to be. Tapping into taxi location data to determine proximity to the target audience is an innovation that will deliver valuable additional brand touchpoints.”

Denise Breslin, managing director at Mobsta, added: “We have been harnessing location data to complement OOH with targeted mobile for some time, most recently offering pre-campaign insights to improve planning and buying efficiencies. However, the solution, which has been developed specifically for American Airlines, truly demonstrates what creative thinking and location data can do together when used to better understand the effect of a media placement/buy like taxi media.”

Chantecaille’s beautiful Rose de Mai taxis truly blossomed outside their London Press launch at the prestigious Arts Club in Mayfair.

The exclusive beauty event exhibited their up and coming AW17 product range to high profile journalists and key industry influencers. During the event, the striking rose designed taxis showcased outside of the venue ready for their photoshoot with the Chantecaille team including the Founder’s daughter, Alex Chantecaille, Vice President of Sales and Promotions.

Staying true to the brand’s preeminent quality, Chantecaille ensured that their valued guests continued to be appreciated after the event by providing them with their very own Chantecaille taxi to chauffeur them to their workplace.

Anna Shearer, Chantecaille’s Marketing Assistant commented that “the event was a huge success and the journalists loved the taxis as did Alex Chantecaille!”

Concur, the leader in employee spend management, recently launched a year-long multi-channel campaign targeting UK businesses named “Conscious Interaction.” The activity has been created and delivered by Maxus For Business, the specialist B2B division of Maxus UK.

The multi-pronged activity leverages the personal nature of event marketing across radio, digital/mobile display, digital audio, OOH and social. The campaign is highly targeted, executing around key business districts, environments and events. A vital part of the activity involves Concur’s fleet of branded London taxis offering free journeys between eight and nine AM, or to and from key events.

When no events are taking place, the taxis will start the free passenger hour from strategically important business locations such as Canary Wharf and Old Street.

On-board, Meshh technology is being used to deliver free WiFi, with a branded landing page within the taxis – a media first, not only for a B2B client.

Jenny Thornton, Director of Field Marketing at Concur, said: “Our target audience of SME decision-makers are incredibly busy and always on the go, thinking about how to save the business money and prepare for growth. This campaign shows how Concur makes life easier by removing process headaches for them as well as their business travellers.”

Commenting on the Concur campaign, Sarah Priseman, Director of Marketing & Planning at Ubiquitous said, ‘This is not the first time that we have showcased Concur on our taxis, so not only are we really pleased to have them back, we are delighted that the brand has embraced the hyper-local content opportunity. This campaign is a world-first – it’s the first deployment of Meshh technology in vehicles, and it’s also the first time a brand has used the full capabilities of technology to provide hyper-local video content combined with free Wi-Fi to taxi passengers.’

Taxi advertising is proving an increasingly popular way for property agents and developers to keep their brand awareness high and their message prominent amongst an urban audience of buyers and sellers. In fact, people who regularly see taxi advertising are 47% more likely than the average person to expect to buy or sell in the next 12 months; they’re also 80% more likely to expect to buy their first home this year. Despite recent dips at the top end of the market, London’s housing scene is robust, being the biggest in Europe and attracting £35bn in capital in the last quarter of 2015 alone. Excluding the top-end price drop (thanks to higher stamp duty), London prices actually rose by 11% year-on-year. According to the Land Registry the average London home now costs £476,000; this will likely only continue to rise with more than 54,000 new homes planned, or being built in prime areas, many of them priced at more than £1m. Prices might be high but there is still growth to be had, especially in some of the cheaper boroughs such as Newham, which saw a 23% growth in 2015. Being the front-of-mind property agent or developer in this climate is of huge importance; the market moves quickly so keeping potential buyers and sellers informed about your services and properties is key to success. We have seen a host of residential agencies use taxi advertising in the last 18 months, as well as developers looking to rapidly sell new builds in prime areas. As an advertising medium, taxis guarantee continuous growth in audience reach because they are always travelling down new streets, both residential and business. Over three months a campaign of 250 taxis will reach more than 3.5m greater London ABC1 adults; that’s 70% of the available audience. More than 30% of the audience are career-driven, upwardly mobile professionals; 20% are established families, perhaps commuting in to London to earn and spend money, and a further 20% are affluent achievers – high earning executives. This is a valuable audience with money to invest with or settle down with. Reaching London’s prosperous audience of house buyers, sellers and renters on the streets, via taxi advertising complements other media that might be running in targeted press or on radio; London’s ABC1 adults are hard-working and time-poor; they need to be reminded of your brand regularly, and taxi advertising will do just that, delivering on average 17 opportunities for the audience reached to see the campaign across the three months. Vitally, this audience is also mobile-enabled and are quick to respond to outdoor advertising seen by researching the brand on their mobile. Many have property apps and will be looking at them daily in their quest to either find or sell a property in this fast-moving market. Don’t miss out – be seen by this opportunity-rich audience both frequently and cost-efficiently via taxi advertising. Sources: Route; Land Registry; The Guardian, City AM – 2016.