In the run-up to the London mayoral election, the London Taxi Company launched a campaign to promote awareness of the modernisation of the capitals taxi industry. Brittany Golob reports

In 1654, Parliament officialy established London taxis for the first time by enacting a law registering the Fellowship of Master Hackney Coachmen. Since then, horse-drawn Hackney carriages made way for automobiles and older models have been replaced by new. London taxis are still regulated and are now licensed by Transport for London (TfL). Though it is a historical industry, it is not one that is stuck in the past.

London’s taxi industry is constantly evolving. That’s the very concept the London Taxi Company (LTC), the only manufacturer for the iconic black cabs that roam the streets of Britain and beyond, wanted to highlight in its recent film, ‘Back to Black Cabs.’

The LTC worked with production company VisMedia and strategy consultancy Teneo Strategy as part of its #StayFareMayor campaign. It, alongside partners like taxi hailing apps Gett and Hailo, and London taxi drivers themselves, envisioned the film as a day in the life of the London cabbie.

Framing the piece of work was Amy Winehouse’s famous ‘Back to Black’ song, which former taxi driver and Winehouse’s father, Mitch Winehouse, allowed the LTC to use. VisMedia then had the responsibility for rewriting the lyrics slightly to better fit the video’s messaging and commissioning artists to perform the song. The film begins in the morning and travels throughout London as a cabbie picks up diverse passengers from a mix of iconic sites and everyday locations. The film uses the song to get across its key messaging and ends with a shot of licensed black taxi drivers with the call to action, #StayFareMayor.

“Our position was that the taxi trade has not always been very good at communicating,” says London Taxi Company’s head of public affairs David Ollier. “It was very good at reacting to things that it didn’t like and lobbying against things. But it was not very good at saying what it was all about and what it needed to succeed.” He adds that the taxi trade was not experienced at speaking with a unified voice on its own behalf. The campaign brought many taxi companies together, a rare occurrence, and encouraged everyone to get involved with the campaign.

Dubbed #StayFareMayor, the integrated comms campaign including the video ran ahead of the London mayoral election. The LTC worked closely with mayoral candidates, and ultimate winner Sadiq Khan in particular, to discuss the future of black taxis in London. The LTC and its partners says it will continue to work with the mayor’s office to pursue its goals.

“We specifically targeted the mayoral elections because we felt that was a good opportunity to come together, to develop a common set of messages, a common set of policies that were more progressive and more about the sort of things we were good at and the things people like about taxis. We wanted to focus the communications strategy on those items,” Ollier says.

Alongside this, the LTC produced a research paper, ‘Faster, Smarter, Greener,’ which outlines the modernisation plans for the black cab and gives the LTC credibility within the area of sustainability. The taxis themselves will all be zero emissions by 2018 and the trade will promote its digital future. The new fleet will have wifi hotspots and will all allow for card payments – which many cabs already accept – and the LTC is working with Hailo and Gett to promote awareness of the ease of hailing a taxi through a smartphone app.

“It was trying to shift the perception from old, traditional, stuck in its ways to something that has a future vision which is built around improving the consumer experience”

“We wanted to make people aware that black cabs do take card payments,” says Tay Plain, producer at VisMedia. “A lot of people aren’t aware of that or they have a negative mindset about it. We want to make people aware that black cabs are modernising already.”

The tone was kept positive throughout the campaign and the video itself is lighthearted. Yet the partners were conscious of the need to communicate its more serious policy points in a considered way. “The approach that ourselves and Teneo wanted to take was a new kind of approach for the cab trade,” says Ollier. “There was a little bit of an attitude about, ‘Do we really need this type of PR and communications? Will it make any difference?’ But the reaction we got from the trade for the video really demonstrates the power of it.”

He says the feedback has been resoundingly positive, particularly among taxi drivers themselves – many of whom were not fully supportive at the outset. “Hopefully this is the start of a different style of communications coming from the trade,” Ollier adds.

Teneo worked with the taxi trade on key points that defined London cabs by the people within the trade and the end users themselves. For taxi drivers, it’s about high-quality service and trust, but for users advantages tend to be the use of bus lanes and journey speed.

The video worked to include all these points and show the cab experience through the eyes of a variety of users – from businessmen to tourists to wheelchair users to groups of young people.

Plain says the shooting style was a bit tricky due to the fly-on-the-wall viewpoint and shots of the exteriors of the cabs. However, he expected challenges with filming inside the vehicles themselves and was pleasantly surprised when the accessible, spacious taxis could accommodate the cameras with ease.

The resulting video launched on 4 April and has since seen over 31,000 views on YouTube. Its social presence is commendable as well with over 800 shares, thus far. Aside from working with government and promoting awareness among consumers, the LTC also wanted to change the way the industry communicates.

“It was trying to shift the perception from old, traditional, stuck in its ways to something that has a future vision which is built around improving the consumer experience and getting greener and getting smarter,” Ollier says. “I’m most proud of the fact that the trade has come together around a positive, forward- thinking agenda. If we can keep that going and keep projecting that positive future vision, and explaining to people why we’re relevant and what we need to achieve that vision, I’m really happy about that.”

Taxis have come a long way, both on the streets of London and through the pages of its history books. But the story has not yet ended; taxis are now primed to have a faster, smarter and greener future.