13cabs encourages Australians to hail a taxi in latest ‘Heads Up’ campaign via Thinkerbell
Australian taxi service 13cabs this week launches the 13cabs Heads Up campaign via Thinkerbell, that introduces a brand-new way (for some) to get a quick ride when they need to get somewhere.
13cabs has the biggest fleet of cars on the road, with over 10,000 cabs available Australia-wide and over 30,000 drivers ready to get you there.
Says Rebecca Fyson, head of marketing, 13cabs: “Hailing a cab is the easiest way to get a quick ride when you need one. We are all guilty of it, our heads down and preoccupied with our phones that we sometimes forget to look up.
“Hailing our brightly branded orange 13cabs is a quick way to get in our instantly recognisable and trusted taxis. The 13cabs fleet has the most safety measures of any personal passenger service in the country. These include mandatory car check-ups several times a year, live GPS vehicle tracking beyond the mobile phone, and multiple security cameras to ensure a safe and secure ride for both Passengers and Driver.
“13cabs wants to remind everyone that getting a 13cabs is so simple, it’s right there in front of you, no need to fumble around with your phone. This campaign is about ‘looking up’ and simply putting out your hand to grab a super quick ride.
“13cabs focuses on having plenty of available cabs on the roads during peak times, as well as waiting at hundreds of dedicated cab ranks around the country, so when a Passenger needs a quick ride, 13cabs is ready and waiting.”
The campaign includes a TVC and online video featuring a group waiting for their ride-share to arrive, whilst several available cabs drive by. It also includes hyper-targeted OOH and street furniture reminding inner-city travellers to hail for a quick ride.
Says André Pinheiro, lead creative tinker, Thinkerbell: “It’s a bit cheeky poking some fun at the current ride-share behaviour, but everyone who sees this says ‘oh my god, I’ve done that!’ and that’s what we wanted to achieve, something relatable that also educates on the 13cabs point of difference.”
So heads up folks, next time you need a quick ride, you know what to do…
Created by Thinkerbell, directed by Matthew McCaughey, produced by Guilty’s Rohan Timlock, edited & finished by Ryan Brett of Manimal, sound design from Dylan Stephens at Risk Sound, and media conducted by Nunn Media.
31 Comments
Try to hail a taxi for a local destination in a cab rank along busy parts of Collins St.
Most of the time, they blatantly refuse if you’re not going to the airport or somewhere profitable enough for them.
13 cabs is best among all taxi companies.
They listen to customer complaints and 13 cabs drivers generally dont refuse..
Avoid Slyyk,crown,black and white and indepent taxis .
Unfortunately, that’s the mentality. one track mind. I’m a taxi driver, and I never refused any trip no matter how short.
Maybe thats just for you mate!
An incredibly relatable experience which probably means it’ll do what it’s designed to
It’s just and inferior product that is destined to crash and burn… pretty hard sell and yeah, won’t work. You’re not going to fix this idea with advertising. It’s a product issue and everyone nows cabbies are mostly C#%&s. Compete with getting me home for $5 in an UberPool, then we’ll talk.
Look at how smart the woman is for getting a taxi.
I feel for Thinkerbell. They’re answering the brief, but they can’t change the inferior product.
Getting a cab looks like a lonely ride.
Customer names location that isn’t $40+
Taxi speeds away without taking the fare.
The end.
Get in the cab before you tell them the destination. Refuse to get out if the cab driver doesn’t want to go. If they try to throw you out call 000 and report you’re being assaulted. Or just get an Uber. It’s time cabs died .
Being able to hail a cab is a real point of difference between cabs & Uber. Or it would be if cabs actually came along when you need one, as depicted in this ad.
so it makes sense to me
(still wont use cabs tho)
I know I can hail a cab. I watch them passing by because I expect they’ll be stinky, the cabbie will crap on about Alan Jones or some racist rant, I can’t just hop out at the end, I need to watch they don’t add a dodgy double toll on the fare, nd I won’t get a receipt emailed to me at the end. But at the rate Uber is losing money it probably won’t be long till it’s my only option.
They have an incredibly difficult product to push.
Everyone on here complains about how crap taxi’s are, but the things you complain about are far, far beyond an agency’s remit.
Because the idea an agency would potentially come up with to solve this problem is Uber.
Thinkerbell has cabs as a paying client and so have a job to do. And unless something’s changed recently, this is a job we do, right?
What harm is it to get people hailing a cab instead of using Uber? At worst they have a bad experience and don’t go back. At best they consider it as an alternative to Uber. At least this taps into a real insight and doesn’t oversell it.
I think to market cabs right now, in their current state, that’s about the best you can hope for.
What do you mean this doesn’t oversell it? It oversells so much by bashing Uber so badly that it’s painful to watch and almost parody. Marketing cabs is certainly difficult, but everyone is calling BS on this spot because they haven’t put forward something that we can empathise with.
But Uber lets you put in the destination and see the price before getting in.
3/10
I like Thinkerbell. They’re thinkers. I don’t know about the bell bit.
As in ‘bell the cat’.
The level of negativity and hate on this site never fails to astonish me – and I’ve traded on it in the past.
This is a lovely piece of strategically spot-on work that lands a point of difference, very clearly. Nice one.
Agreed!
Look at all those fools staring at their phones.
They’re missing all those available real cabs that are driving down the street.
Creative genius, Thinkerbell.
it doesn’t make sense to belittle your target audience
I swapped to cabs after pretty bad Uber ride. Pleasantly surprised at the standard of cabs on the road these days: nice drivers and plenty of cabs available in the city and at the airport (not like the bad old days). Thinkerbell have hit the mark: nice point of difference. No more cancellation charges for me!
You sound like the client.
Or a junior account manager.
Nice work. Brand building / rebuilding is a long game and this is an excellent step in that direction.
On another note the people in the advertising industry are pretty average.
Uber seems easier and cheaper most of the time now but it’s built on a flawed business model. They lose hundreds of millions of dollars every year, trading at a loss to create those reduced tariffs. But what will happen once they’ve destroyed the cab industry? Those Uber prices will rocket up (or Uber will crash and burn) and there will be no cabs to turn to.
I’m a snooty older person with a fleet of beautiful classic cars, a 3 beer limit and an unshakable sense of superiority. So I wouldn’t take a cab or an Uber in a fit. I also look down my nose at silly young things with their faces buried in their phones 24/7. So I guess this ad and this product are not for me.
Or you could use Ola, Didi, Bolt etc
I saw myself in this ad. And that makes a good insight. Well done.
Hope you got paid. Agency staff usually don’t.
This exact scenario has happened to me with my friends waiting for an Uber after a night out, except it took at least 15 mins and about 25 cabs went by. I kept pointing them out. I would have hailed one myself but I lived a block away. People need to get their heads out of their phones. I laughed at the ad.