Taxi Tops

By Wavemaker, New York, USA

For United Airlines

Winner in category Media

WPPED Cream
Project Description
Newark Liberty Airport is a major hub for United Airlines. However, despite its proximity to Manhattan, many Manhattanites favoured John F. Kennedy International in Queens. To change this, United tasked us with finding a creative execution to raise awareness of the convenience of United’s Newark hub location.
To avoid being ignored alongside the noise of traditional advertising, we knew our message would need to be placed directly in front of our targets in a way that clearly illustrated how consumers were inconveniencing themselves. To do this, we decided to focus strictly on the hard data that would specifically illustrate to travellers how much longer they were making their trip by choosing JFK over Newark Liberty.
To break through the noise and leave a lasting impression, we targeted Manhattanites at the moment when they would be most impressed by the data: When they are embarking for their trip to JFK in Queens. Not only would time-conscious Manhattanites then be thinking of how much time they could have saved flying out of Newark during their entire trip to JFK but, next time, they would almost undoubtedly make the change.
Also, by creating out-of-home advertisements targeting travellers, other Manhattanites would inevitably be drawn towards the displayed data, even if it did not connect with them directly until their next air trip.
Agency Solution
As almost every Manhattanite going to JFK hails a cab, we put live data displays on the roof of 125 yellow taxis around Manhattan. These digital display readouts showed travellers how much time, up to the second, they would be saving by going to Newark in real time.
These data displays took into account different routes, traffic, construction routes and any other obstacles to be found around Manhattan that were gathered by GPS trackers and traffic apps installed in the taxi.
These displays ran 24/7. As each GPS outfitted taxi moved around the entire island of Manhattan at any time of day or night, the times displayed updated and always irrefutably favoured Newark to JFK.
In addition to showing travellers trying to get to JFK how much easier their trip could be, Manhattanites walking to work or hailing a taxi were also exposed to this first-of-its-kind live traffic data display.
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