2022 Winners & Shortlists

WHO'S YOUR CABBIE

Short List
BrandRTA
Product/ServiceRTA TAXI
EntrantVMLY&R Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategorySpatial & Sculptural Exhibitions and Experiences
Idea Creation VMLY&R Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Background

• Situation Millions of taxi drivers operate every day. This commonplace job in every city of every country is a thankless career where nobody even knows who they are. They just fulfill their functional purpose that they are called names that aren’t even names – ‘Sir’, ‘Boss’, ‘My friend’, ‘Taxi Driver’. • Brief RTA, Dubai’s transport authority, wanted to recognize taxi drivers as heroes that keep the city moving. During the pandemic, when the entire city stood still, taxi drivers were a saving grace to the people of Dubai. • Objectives Ensure that the taxi drivers of Dubai felt truly appreciated and recognized. • Budget ZERO budget. The production value was a collaborative effort between all entities, including RTA, the Dubai Taxi and the agency. • Scale The first implementation was a trial run, but after the positive social media response, RTA proceeded to replace over 2000 taxi tops.

Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)

RTA advocates safe and smooth transport for all. This positive sentiment has led to innovations that make transport more enjoyable and accessible to the city. However, this doesn’t only apply to the passengers served, but for those that deliver the service – including yellow-cab taxis. We realized the taxi experience is a cold, functional one. Every ride is a journey limited to a beginning and a destination. But what if it was also time shared between people? Our campaign was going to revolutionise taxi experiences, by changing how taxi drivers were perceived - thereby making trips more human and meaningful for driver and passenger. Our idea was to replace 4 monotonous letters on the top of cabs (TAXI) with the taxi driver’s name. This small change with a big heart ushered in a sense of respect and inclusion, humanizing their job, and reaffirming purpose to their essential career.

Describe the execution (40% of vote)

The taxi light box is iconic. It is a universal taxi symbol across the globe. Leveraging its unmistakable design recall, we decided to alter the perception of passengers by one simple design change - changing the existing 4 letters ‘TAXI’ to the name of the driver behind the wheel. We held all other factors constant. We used the same font and colours too. The implementation of the change was low cost, where we used black stencil prints of each taxi driver name and replaced it on the existing yellow lightbox. This design change was done on several yellow-cab taxis in Dubai as part of a trial phase. However, as a moving medium, the taxis with their newly designed lightboxes, found themselves on every corner, highway and neighbourhood block across the city. After the positive social media response, RTA proceeded to replace taxi tops on over 2000 cabs.

List the results (20% of vote)

69.7 million Earned Media Impressions (ZERO spend) 91% increase in Roads & Transport Authority Approval Ratings 73% increase in taxi rides Over 2000 changed Taxi Tops (replaced with driver name)

Credits

Name Company Role
Kalpesh Patankar VMLY&R Dubai Ideation
Fernando Miranda VMLY&R Dubai Ideation
Bahaa Eddine Fakher Eddine VMLY&R Dubai Ideation
Prathyush Kumar VMLY&R Dubai Editoir
Yamen Bassili VMLY&R Dubai Account Director
Links
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