DATE: 29th November, 2019

 

Ubiquitous and Curb Mobility (owner of Taxi Media™) are delighted to announce that Ubiquitous has acquired Taxi Media’s UK taxi advertising business.

Ubiquitous prides itself in bringing innovative, knowledgeable and accountable best-in-class service to the taxi advertising market. The transaction will enable Ubiquitous to further develop its industry leading offering.

For Curb Mobility, the transaction enables an increased focus on its market-leading UK taxi payment systems business, its own industry leading taxi media offerings in the U.S. and the global expansion of its payments and mobile ridehailing platforms.

The transaction reflects Ubiquitous’ commitment to the taxi advertising sector and the Ubiquitous team looks forward to working with Taxi Media’s UK customers and suppliers going forward.

Andrew Barnett, Managing Director of Ubiquitous, said: “At a time when advertisers are increasingly looking for more impactful and innovative ways to engage their target audience, the Taxi continues to be an iconic and essential part of the out-of-home advertising mix. I am delighted we have acquired Taxi Media’s UK Taxi Advertising business and look forward to offering ever greater service to our taxi advertising clients.”

“Combining these two talented media teams will give UK advertisers more efficient access to larger inventory and uniform product innovation,” said Amos Tamam, CEO of Curb Mobility, “while at the same time speeding expansion of the Curb Mobility digital media offerings in the US and accelerating development of our market-leading UK taxi payments business.”

 

END 

 

For enquiries regarding UK taxi advertising opportunities please contact Ubiquitous.

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.”

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.

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.”

Proxama the leading mobile proximity marketing experts and Ubiquitous, leader in UK taxi advertising, have announced an exclusive, long-term partnership to create a network of beacons in the UK's black taxis, enabling messages to be delivered direct to an engaged audience experiencing times of dwell.  

The network will connect consumers to brands via their smartphones using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons. The partnership will plan to install up to 4,000 beacons into taxis in London and across other major cities including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham, meaning that passengers can receive context-relevant messaging, as they travel to their destinations. During the course of one year, each London taxi is estimated to make around 4,500 journeys, principally around central London locations, rail stations and London’s airports – similar journeys are experienced in other UK key cities.

London’s regular taxi users tend to have high personal income, are smartphone and tablet enabled and are likely to be middle-management and above – in short, a very desirable group and one which brands very much seek to reach. This new beacon network represents an opportunity not only for Ubiquitous’ clients to send contextually relevant messages to passengers’ smartphones, but will be relevant to all app-based clients seeking a beacon network that engages with high value consumers, across a long dwell time. Based on data from our existing beacon networks, Proxama anticipate that 24% of consumers that receive ‘in-the-moment’ content-relevant notifications will click-through to the app. This is a significantly higher response than other forms of mobile advertising.

Andrew Barnett, Managing Director, Ubiquitous comments: “Being the first company to put beacons into black cabs at scale is consistent with our innovative track record and I am delighted to be working with Proxama who are quickly establishing themselves as pioneers in this market. For all brands, the opportunity to connect with their customers through proximity marketing, in a high dwell-time setting such as the back of the cab, provides a unique one-to-one moment in which there is the time to respond to messages and offers.”

Jon Worley, CEO of Proxama marketing division comments, “This is an excellent high profile partnership for us and one which we believe is extremely well suited to proximity marketing. The average cab journey lasts around 20 minutes in London and is a natural time for people to engage with their smartphone for messages and new content. We look forward to seeing the customer reaction.   Our network of beacons has grown rapidly across London since the beginning of the year. Advertisers are now able to make use of the Proxama Network which covers London buses, airports and black cabs, with further expansion planned across multiple sectors.”

A black cab has become the latest London icon to be decorated in a rainbow livery to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT), on Sunday 17 May. The cab, which is London’s first rainbow taxi in service, has been wrapped as part of the 11th anniversary of IDAHOT, a day that aims to raise awareness of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights worldwide.

The wrap is part of a partnership between Transport for London (TfL), Ubiquitous, the company responsible for advertising on taxis and cab driver, Ian Beetlestone. The taxi will join TfL’s rainbow bus, as another symbol of London being one of the most diverse cities in the world and both vehicals take part in this year’s Pride Parade in London.

The rainbow taxi and bus also mark the 10th anniversary of TfL's LGBT staff network group, OUTbound. Over the last decade, the group has made a significant contribution to championing LGBT+ policies, for both staff and customers. Martyn Loukes, Chair of TfL’s LGBT staff network group OUTbound, said: “We are incredibly proud to have helped bring London’s first rainbow taxi in service to the Capital’s roads, joining our fabulous rainbow Routemaster which has proved a huge hit with our customers. Having a traditional black cab, which is famous all over the world, wrapped in a rainbow flag shows what a truly diverse city we are.”

The vision for London’s first rainbow taxi came from Ian Beetlestone, a 36 year old gay London cabbie who lives in Islington and is originally from Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. Ian approached TfL to join the Pride in London Parade this year and OUTbound were able to make his vision of a rainbow cab a reality with the help of Ubiquitous. Ubiquitous have sponsored the entire wrap for the taxi which also includes information for passengers about how they can report homophobic and transphobic crime on the taxi’s tip seats. Passengers can report the crimes at www.report-it.org.uk, or tapping by their smartphone against the NFC stickers in the cab.

Andrew Barnett, Managing Director at Ubiquitous, said: “When OUTbound asked us to take part in supporting IDAHOT by wrapping a Ride with Pride taxi, we embraced the idea. This eye-catching livery is a great way to deliver an important message to every street in town, and represents a pairing of tradition and progression that truly demonstrates what a diverse city London is.”

Ian Beetlestone, a London taxi driver, said: “Gay cabbies are like gay footballers - you know statistically there must be some but you rarely hear about them. I wanted to stand up and be counted. I've dreamed about driving a rainbow cab and am thrilled to have made this dream a reality with the help of TfL and Ubiquitous. “As we mark International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia this Sunday, I want everyone to know they are welcome to hail a ride in our iconic, beautiful vehicles.”

Steve McNamara, LTDA General Secretary, said: “This project further strengthens the bond between London’s LGBT community and the taxi trade. It is wonderful that an iconic taxi is being specially wrapped to celebrate IDAHOT.”

It takes more than three hours to wrap a taxi, but you can watch the Ride with Pride taxi being wrapped in under a minute here: https://youtu.be/4iMHVnHhd_I This article first appeared on the TfL website.

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

The TDYCF and Ubiquitous are bringing back the annual driver of the year competition, but with a difference! Who will the Taxi Driver of the Year in 2015?

As many of you in the taxi trade will know, the TDYCF Competition has not been held for quite a few years now. There have been many requests for organisers Russell and Barbara Poluck to bring it back, but unfortunately the cost to do this is very high and has prohibited the reintroduction of the competition. So, Ubiquitous has offered to lend a hand, and with a new approach and the input of the trade, we will help to get the competition back on the road.

Commenting on the Award announcement, Russell Poluck M.B.E and Honourable Chairman of the Fund said, ‘Let’s not forget that the focus of this initiative is to raise money for those less fortunate than ourselves. We are really thrilled that with the help of Ubiquitous, we are able to reinstate the TDYCF Award and hope that the increased profile of the event will help to provide extra support for our charities. We urge the trade to get behind this initiative so we can successfully reinstate the great tradition of the driver competition and raise more money!’

So the gates are open for the good people of the taxi trade to nominate drivers for the Taxi Driver of the Year 2015, which will not only raise the profile of black cabs and drivers, but will also raise money for the five charities that the Fund supports. The finale of the Award will take place at the annual TDYCF dinner dance, which this year will take place on Saturday November 7th, in central London. For those wishing to nominate a driver for the Taxi Driver of the Year 2015, nominations must be received by 1st October, 2015.

Please read below for a few additional and important facts:

1. Choose which driver/s you might like to nominate, seeking their permission to nominate them for the award!

2. Remember to check that your nominated drivers are available on Nov 7th for the annual dinner dance and competition finale.

3 . Please advise your nominated drivers, that if shortlisted they will be asked to take part in a written knowledge test, taking place at 4.30pm on the day of the dinner dance, Nov 7th.

4. After the written test, each driver will have the opportunity to meet the panel of Judges and answer a few questions about being a cabbie.

5. The winner is decided on the night and is announced as the 2015 taxi driver of the year, collecting their prize as well as the glory! It’s as simple as that!

So why not give some thought to those drivers that you feel uphold the values of London’s cabbies and are trustworthy, polite and knowledgeable. Spaces for finalists are limited, so don’t delay! It costs just £200 to enter a driver and this includes two dinner dance tickets, one for the driver and one for the person who nominated them. Additional drivers can be entered for £100 and this also includes the cost of their ticket to the dinner dance. The TDYCF would love to see a great turnout for the Award at this years’ annual dinner dance, tickets for which are just £65 per head and tables of 10 are available too.

The Fund is Chaired by Russell Poluck, M.B.E. and support the following charities:The Albany Taxi Charity Fund for Children with special needs. The London Taxidrivers’ Fund for Underprivileged Children. South-end Fund for Underprivileged Children. London Benevolent Association for War Disabled. East London Cabbies Outing.

On January 19, 2015, otherwise known as ‘Blue Monday’, the UK’s largest gym chain Fitness First, joined forces with the UK’s best loved Olympian and fitness enthusiast, Victoria Pendleton and Team GB gymnast Max Whitlock to turn Blue Monday, Red.  

Helping Brits to beat the post-Christmas blues, holiday debt and lack of sunshine with endorphin boosting one to one fitness activities, Fitness First opened gym doors across the UK for free visits, welcoming members of the public to experience ‘Fitness Reconfigured’, a campaign providing new insights into fun and dynamic workouts with a difference. Fitness First found that 41% of UK adults agreed that January was the most depressing month of the year with 82% wanting to improve their general wellbeing as part of their new year’s resolution.

To help raise the profile of Red Monday, Fitness First created an exclusive fleet of red taxis, and furthermore, to help those Londoners who required a little more encouragement to get to the gym, Fitness First provided VIP taxi rides. On entering the taxis, passengers were met by famous Olympians, Victoria Pendleton and Max Whitlock, who were on the back seat to share fitness tips and motivational advice to help spur the passenger on.

Max Whitlock said “When I ask my friends, they say that getting to the gym can be the hardest part of any workout, especially during the winter. I love the idea of Fitness First cabs which make the journey easier for a lucky few.”

To book a Fitness First taxi, people simply needed to Tweet #RedMondayFF to @FitnessFirstUK, for a lift to one of three central London clubs. The same hashtag was used throughout the day to share motivational hints and tips.

Commenting on  the taxi activity, David Jones, UK Marketing Director of Fitness First said, “It’s been a delight working with the Ubiquitous team and their drivers who have gone out of their way to deliver an excellent concept that has gone down a storm with members and non-members alike.’

When I started to think about the topic for this next blog I had a mind to write in some detail about the importance of responsive design when creating mobile campaigns. This topic isn’t something that you might immediately associate with a taxi advertising company, but with the launch and subsequent success of CabConnect, our Wi-Fi enabled mobile engagement opportunity in taxis, we have had to dive into this brave new world and quickly learn to swim. However, in reality the details of how to develop responsive design aren’t as important as why, when it comes to ensuring that a client’s mobile campaign is a success. So, why is a responsive design that automatically adjusts to device screen size so important? Because, frankly, nobody enjoys a poor mobile experience and in today’s world of integrated communication we consumers expect brands to be consistent in the manner in which they communicate with us, and if they fail, we are disappointed. We live with a mobile device on hand, readily swapping between phone, tablet and laptop as we maintain conversations, watch content and research products; in fact these days we do the majority of our research via a mobile device, yet we still purchase via the desktop; but this is changing - Google has revealed that some 80% of mobile shopping is spontaneous. Confidence in mobile as a retail platform is growing rapidly; going online via a mobile device has doubled in the last three years, with 53 percent of people now using one to access the internet – this is up from 24 percent from 2010. Indeed, woe betides the brand that neglects its mobile strategy; people are very quick to leave a site that delivers a poor mobile experience; 40% have switched to a competitor site because of this very reason. In Adobe’s 2012 mobile consumer survey, speed and navigation were frequently cited as the two most important areas for improvement for mobile sites. I speak from personal experience when I say that there is no doubt that many of us have a compulsive desire to stay connected via the mobile. Our 2013 research into mobile habits in taxis confirmed this: over 80% of people felt a desire to keep connected to friends and family whilst on the move and that the same percentage were frequently browsing the internet on their phone. Finding good network coverage or free Wi-Fi via which to access fast-loading, mobile friendly sites are high on our agenda; oh the first world problems faced by today’s urban consumer. So the why of responsive design is really all about a speedy and easy brand experience. Mobile content that reformats and resizes for your device helps to create a seamless interaction that reflects positively on the brand. We all know what success looks like - we are all consumers who’ve had good and bad experiences. Like I said earlier, Ubiquitous are not specialists in this field, we work with Track4Services, the technical partner whose expertise we rely on to keep CabConnect running. With their help we guide clients through the process of taking their taxi campaign into the mobile realm and for some, this might be the first piece of bespoke mobile content that they have created. Clients sometimes worry that because they don’t have a mobile website, their campaign will fail, but this isn’t the case, as it’s relatively easy to create some simple, yet brand-consistent responsive mobile content – there is no need to completely rework a website in the four weeks before taxi in-charge! However, taking a broader view, it does make sense for brands to move towards a fully responsive website, allowing users to access a single URL via any device; this is also the recommended route for optimising SEO too. But even so, in this day and age where the mobile screen dominates, 45% of businesses don’t have a mobile site or app. Between the team here at Ubiquitous and the development experts at Track4Services, our aim is to quickly help clients to understand how to developing responsive content, but more importantly, why to do so. This is a responsibility that we genuinely feel falls to us, and even if a client knows their way around HTML, if we successfully communicate the why then everyone stands to have a much better campaign experience. Sources: ONS 2013, Google 2013, Adobe 2013, OLOE Taxi Passenger Survey 2013.