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By ERIC PFANNER
Published: January 21, 2008
LONDON — Taxi drivers here have never been shy about sharing their views. George W. Bush? The royals? Cabbies are sure to have an opinion. But what if they start talking about Texas Hold ’em or a royal flush?
In a promotional campaign for 888.com, an online gambling business, 375 London taxis have been decked out with advertisements for the company’s Web site. Most cabs are simply moving billboards for 888, which provides online poker and other kinds of gambling.
But in 10 cabs, the marketing pitch goes further. The drivers may seek to engage passengers in conversation about poker. If customers take the bait, the drivers try to steer the conversation gently toward 888.com. Those who show particular interest may be given coupons offering free hands of virtual cards — worth as much as $10 — on the poker site.
Taxi Promotions UK, the agency that set up the 888.com campaign, calls its roving pitchmen ambassador drivers. Since the program was set up more than a decade ago, the drivers have served as informal representatives for a variety of tourism destinations and charities.
Now Taxi Promotions is trying to expand the ambassador program, creating a unit called Womad Taxis, short for “word of mouth.” It aims to capitalize on the growing interest in word-of-mouth advertising, which is based on the notion that consumers place more trust in something they hear directly from another person, rather than something they learn through the media.
PQ Media, a research firm in Stamford, Conn., estimates that marketers in the United States alone spent $1.35 billion on word-of-mouth marketing last year, up 38 percent from a year earlier.
The fastest growth in word-of-mouth advertising has been on the Internet, where marketers are working with blogs, social networking sites and other forms of communication to try to get ordinary consumers to spread the word about their products and services. Web-based buzz is easier to track than offline word of mouth.
A taxi ride gives marketers something they find increasingly elusive — a captive audience — at a time when consumers are bombarded with commercial messages and when digital technology gives them the power to skip TV ads.
The average London taxi ride lasts 16 minutes, said Asher Moses, managing director of Taxi Promotions. In a normal day, a driver picks up 40 to 60 fares; multiply that by 10 drivers, for the 888 campaign, and the audience that can be reached is sizable.
Taxi Promotions is training more drivers; Mr. Moses said he wanted to have as many as 300 involved within a year. Already, 888 has signed up for a bigger campaign, involving 20 drivers, for the introduction of a bingo Web site next month.
Matt Robinson, the marketing director of 888, said the company was paying about half a million dollars for the campaign. Online gambling, which is banned in the United States, Germany and other countries, is legal in Britain, as is advertising of such sites.
Mr. Moses said drivers generally had not been given formal training.
Sometimes they have received free trips to destinations promoted on the exteriors of their cabs — to acquaint them with the hotels, restaurants and beaches at tourist hot spots in Thailand, for instance.
“The driver can choose what he wants to point out,” Mr. Moses said. “It’s not a hard-core sales talk; it’s sort of a subliminal talk.”
But now Taxi Promotions is fine-tuning the program, bringing drivers together with advertisers so they can discuss ways to promote the product, service or destination.
Marketing specialists are working with the drivers to explain the best ways to engage different audiences in conversation.
Mr. Robinson said the 888 campaign had been successful, but he acknowledged that it was difficult to measure its effects.
And then there is another problem with relying on taxi drivers: Some people would rather spend their cab rides speaking on their cellphones, reading the newspaper or looking out the window in silence.
“There are two kinds of passengers,” said Mr. Moses, a former cabby who set up Taxi Promotions in 1995. “There are those who interact with the driver and those who don’t.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/bu...ia/21taxi.html
Published: January 21, 2008
LONDON — Taxi drivers here have never been shy about sharing their views. George W. Bush? The royals? Cabbies are sure to have an opinion. But what if they start talking about Texas Hold ’em or a royal flush?
In a promotional campaign for 888.com, an online gambling business, 375 London taxis have been decked out with advertisements for the company’s Web site. Most cabs are simply moving billboards for 888, which provides online poker and other kinds of gambling.
But in 10 cabs, the marketing pitch goes further. The drivers may seek to engage passengers in conversation about poker. If customers take the bait, the drivers try to steer the conversation gently toward 888.com. Those who show particular interest may be given coupons offering free hands of virtual cards — worth as much as $10 — on the poker site.
Taxi Promotions UK, the agency that set up the 888.com campaign, calls its roving pitchmen ambassador drivers. Since the program was set up more than a decade ago, the drivers have served as informal representatives for a variety of tourism destinations and charities.
Now Taxi Promotions is trying to expand the ambassador program, creating a unit called Womad Taxis, short for “word of mouth.” It aims to capitalize on the growing interest in word-of-mouth advertising, which is based on the notion that consumers place more trust in something they hear directly from another person, rather than something they learn through the media.
PQ Media, a research firm in Stamford, Conn., estimates that marketers in the United States alone spent $1.35 billion on word-of-mouth marketing last year, up 38 percent from a year earlier.
The fastest growth in word-of-mouth advertising has been on the Internet, where marketers are working with blogs, social networking sites and other forms of communication to try to get ordinary consumers to spread the word about their products and services. Web-based buzz is easier to track than offline word of mouth.
A taxi ride gives marketers something they find increasingly elusive — a captive audience — at a time when consumers are bombarded with commercial messages and when digital technology gives them the power to skip TV ads.
The average London taxi ride lasts 16 minutes, said Asher Moses, managing director of Taxi Promotions. In a normal day, a driver picks up 40 to 60 fares; multiply that by 10 drivers, for the 888 campaign, and the audience that can be reached is sizable.
Taxi Promotions is training more drivers; Mr. Moses said he wanted to have as many as 300 involved within a year. Already, 888 has signed up for a bigger campaign, involving 20 drivers, for the introduction of a bingo Web site next month.
Matt Robinson, the marketing director of 888, said the company was paying about half a million dollars for the campaign. Online gambling, which is banned in the United States, Germany and other countries, is legal in Britain, as is advertising of such sites.
Mr. Moses said drivers generally had not been given formal training.
Sometimes they have received free trips to destinations promoted on the exteriors of their cabs — to acquaint them with the hotels, restaurants and beaches at tourist hot spots in Thailand, for instance.
“The driver can choose what he wants to point out,” Mr. Moses said. “It’s not a hard-core sales talk; it’s sort of a subliminal talk.”
But now Taxi Promotions is fine-tuning the program, bringing drivers together with advertisers so they can discuss ways to promote the product, service or destination.
Marketing specialists are working with the drivers to explain the best ways to engage different audiences in conversation.
Mr. Robinson said the 888 campaign had been successful, but he acknowledged that it was difficult to measure its effects.
And then there is another problem with relying on taxi drivers: Some people would rather spend their cab rides speaking on their cellphones, reading the newspaper or looking out the window in silence.
“There are two kinds of passengers,” said Mr. Moses, a former cabby who set up Taxi Promotions in 1995. “There are those who interact with the driver and those who don’t.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/bu...ia/21taxi.html