Taxi Driver DM

Background

The official registration of the 300C as a taxi vehicle offered Chrysler the opportunity to speak to a new trade audience. Taxi drivers are old hands when it comes to automotive offers, and are constantly on the lookout for real and pragmatic benefits such as excellent financing terms and vehicle characteristics. Chrysler needed to persuade them that the 300C represented an alternative that would make them stand out to their customers.

Idea

Proximity BBDO came up with the creative idea of getting taxi drivers to put themselves in the shoes of their clients. Beyond showing them the financial benefits and technical assets of the 300C model, they urged taxi drivers to think about the expectations of their passengers by inviting them to answer a short quiz and to ask their clients also to complete the test. The belief was that the 300C would prove so popular among clients that they would want to take the driver’s seat, while taxi drivers would want to take their passenger’s place.

The questionnaire took a humorous approach, asking questions such as ‘when you get into a taxi, what do you notice first? A - its brand name; B – its Karma; C – nothing’ and, ‘At the end of the ride, do you: A – pay and get out of the taxi; B – thank the taxi driver for the nice ride and give him a big tip; or C – invite the taxi driver and his wife over for dinner next Saturday?’. At the end, the results explain what kind of person you are depending on the proportion of A, B and C responses. (If you have a lot of C, you can recognise a future friend for life when you meet him. And there are some signs that you just can't ignore.)

Results

A partial survey among taxi drivers showed that 7% completed the form, but better, nearly 70% found it relevant. Full results are not yet available.

Target Audience

Taxi drivers

Size

30,000 mailings

Our Thoughts

You couldn’t do this for a Ford or a Vauxhall. No one would envy a taxi driver spending his days behind the wheel of a Mondeo – not even the new one, which is a pretty good car, as it happens - but the Chrysler 300C is a different proposition altogether. There’s a genuine insight behind this idea: petrolheads really will want to know what it’s like up-front just as taxi drivers will want to know what it feels like in the back.