Swinton Taxi Division is an insurance broker that provides insurance policies to taxi drivers, both priCvate and public hire in a very competitive market. To create awareness of Swinton and persuade cabbies to phone for an insurance quote, each year the firm runs a prize draw at its exhibitions – the prize in previous years being a holiday.
But its new ‘Swinton mystery tipper’ campaign turned a one-off prize draw into a year-long promotion. The target audience was hard-working, no-nonsense people who drive the unforgiving streets so getting cabbies to take an interest in a campaign about insurance was never going to be easy.
Work of fiction
The campaign was to give cabbies the biggest tip of their lives. A mysterious woman would hand out £1000 tips to lucky cabbies who displayed a Swinton sticker in their cab windows. To get the sticker, taxi drivers had to call Swinton for an insurance quote. Enclosed within the quote was the sticker drawn in the style of a 1950s strip cartoon showing a woman with a distinctive orange trilby, upturned collar with the lower part of her face hidden behind a fan of notes.
Different areas were targeted at different times with advance warning about the presence of the mystery tipper given in the trade press, by direct mail and through local radio. Information about the visit was also included on the ‘Mystery Tippers’ Facebook page!
Advertorials written in a parody of crime fiction ran in the trade press before and after every tip, showing a photo of the winner with the cheque and announcing the next location. The marketing material emphasised that the cash could be given to any cabdriver with a sticker. The first sticker to be noticed by the mystery tipper would earn the cabbie a £1000 tip with no strings attached.
Taxi drivers are famous – or infamous for talking, and one of the best tools in a marketer’s workbox is word of mouth recommendation. Advance warning about the mystery tipper got cabdrivers talking, and the news spread through the cabbies’ grapevine like wildfire.
Results
The direct marketing performed on average 130 per cent higher than the same period in the previous year and thousands of leads have been generated from a single exhibition.
Interest generated by the trade press usually experiences a 20 per cent decline in the first third of the year, but actually increased slightly by two per cent. Mystery tipper web banners have also been included on the Private Hire and Taxi Monthly, National Taxi Association and Taxi Today websites, increasing traffic from display by 92 per cent. Prompted by information on the internet, Swinton has received 2321 calls in the year to date, 233 more calls than this time last year. The internet achieved 273 calls above budget.
The campaign’s aim was to boost leads, quotes, calls and brand awareness and it’s exceeded all expectations. Results at the time the award submission were made was:
- Five record months for the volume of calls received, each one higher than the call volumes for the corresponding month in the previous year
- 4927 more calls in the year to date than the previous year
- 1625 more quotes in the year to date than the previous year
- 4235 calls above budget in the year to date
Rhian Thomas at Swinton Taxi Division comments: “After briefing Red C to come up with a prize draw for 2008, I wasn’t expecting this. A year-long campaign that has shown a tangible increase in business month on month is a dream result for someone like me in marketing. I’ve already signed up the mystery tipper for next year and look forward to seeing the successful results continue.”
