The Summer of Taxis!
Summer is the season many in the UK spend all year waiting for. While autumn, winter, and spring are beautiful in their own way, it’s the summer that provides sunny opportunities for the UK OOH audience – and advertisers too!
The Ubiquitous team have plenty of FMCG brands to choose from as examples because they’ve benefitted from Taxi Advertising! Brands in the FMCG sector can be sure to stamp their authority on the season with a few tips from the UK’s leading Taxi Advertiser.
Drinks and Alcohol Brands
Quenching your thirst in the summer means choosing from a dizzying range of options when socialising at your favourite watering hole. Maintaining visibility relies on brands connecting their refreshing products to these social occasions. Experiential events are just one way that brands can invite audiences to interact in their world – on their terms.
Ubiquitous and their activity for Hayman’s Gin highlights how brands can align their campaigns with social occasions to create an absorbing brand experience. The Taxis helped Hayman’s Gin create a signature World Gin Day event that spoke to the sophistication of the brand. First, the activity used one Hayman’s Gin-branded Taxi to film eye-catching content for their social media profiles. Then, another branded Taxi picked up VIP guests and transported them from Balham tube station to the Distillery for their World Gin Day event. Aligning the activity with their World Gin Day event added an authentic reason to engage meaningfully with Hayman’s Gin.
Ice Cream and Snacks
Relaxing with an ice cream or a snack is a must on a hot summer’s day. Magnum is a premium ice cream brand in the UK well known for its thick, cracking chocolate shell and velvety ice cream. They used Taxis for an impactful PR campaign that ferried influencers (like Ashley James and Tallia Smith!) for a pop-up Magnum store on the Kings Road in Chelsea. The Taxis put in the hard work picking up the passengers and dropping them off, but they were still happy to act as the perfect branded backdrop for a vibrant photoshoot. The PR activity for Magnum is proof that brands in the FMCG sector can maximise their advertising spend by embracing the practical benefits of the format. We’d argue that there aren’t too many advertising formats that can carry VIPs for a photoshoot, while still being the star of the photoshoot too! It’s the practicality of Taxis that makes them a clever choice for a brand’s summer campaign.
Personal Care/Health
We mentioned earlier in the article how FMCG brands can benefit from experiential events. This extends to brands in the skincare and beauty sector too. A PR activity for Sculpted by Aimee used Taxis for an interactive pop-up event in major UK cities to celebrate their Base Camp activity. The Base camp activities were an opportunity for lucky fans of the brand to learn more about which foundation suited their skin tone best. In London, it included a pop up in Covent Garden that included free makeup tutorials from professional makeup artists and free samples. While we’d argue that a fun event like this could work all year round, we’d also say that throwing a party during peak summer season in Covent Garden would have certainly helped build excitement around the event. Audiences are in a good mood thanks to the weather, further proving why summer is the perfect time.
Convenience Food and BBQ
On a warm summer evening, it feels rude not to pack your picnic blanket and head straight to the park. FMCG brands rely on moments like these to position their products as an obvious part of social celebrations. A recent Taxi Advertising campaign for dip and snack brand Holy Moly relied on the charisma of the London cab to lean into the personality of the brand. The activity itself tied into the Taste of London Festival, a three-day event in Regents Park that Holy Moly proudly participated in as event partners. However, Holy Moly went further than just the partnership. They put a Mariachi brand in the back of the cab and filmed hilarious content that created a memorable link to the event.
The London Taxi played a crucial part in this memorability in more ways than one. The unique shape of a black cab stands out compared to other vehicles on the road, which ultimately makes the memory stick in the minds of inquisitive audiences. This is known as the Von Restorff effect. Combine this with a mariachi band singing a humorous song about guacamole in the back of the cab, and you’ve got a recipe for a brand moment that sticks.
Conclusion
Grabbing the attention of your audience in the heat of summer shouldn’t leave you scratching your head for ideas, especially if you follow these lessons from the Ubiquitous team. For one:
Aligning your brand with the social occasions that make the summer,
Embracing the beauty of a live event,
Standing out from the crowd thanks to the unique shape of the Taxi!
Of course, we’d argue that the last point is the most pertinent. After all, It’s the unique shape and quirks of the black cab that has made it such a fixture in award-winning creative campaigns, and in experiential campaigns that have delivered brand-fame and impact.
So, think Taxi! If you’re planning a summer activity with a difference, you can’t go wrong with a format that’s always out and about, just like the audiences it effortlessly reaches.