London taxi drivers have never been shy about sharing their views. George W. Bush? The royals? Cabbies are sure to have an opinion. But what if they start talking about Texas hold ’em or a royal flush?
In a promotional campaign for 888.com, an online gambling business, 375 London taxis have been decked out with advertisements for the company’s Web site. Most of the cabs are simply moving billboards for 888, which provides online poker and other kinds of gaming.
But in 10 of the cabs, the marketing pitch goes further. The drivers may seek to engage passengers in conversation about poker. If customers take the bait, the drivers try to steer the chat gently toward 888.com. Those who show particular interest may be given coupons offering free hands of virtual cards – worth as much as $10 – on the poker site.
A captive audience at its worst. What are you going to do? Jump out of the cab?
Taxi Promotions UK, the agency that set up the 888.com campaign, calls its roving pitchmen “ambassador drivers…”
Now Taxi Promotions is trying to expand the ambassador program, creating a new unit called Womad Taxis, short for “word of mouth.” It aims to capitalize on the growing interest in word of mouth advertising, a form of marketing based on the notion that consumers place more trust in something they hear directly from another person, than something they learn through the media.
William Gibson was right.
And London is the center of the advertising cesspool.
The drivers may seek to engage passengers in conversation about poker.
Do that with me and you can forget the tip.
“Ever see what a 44 Magnum will do to someone’s head?”
That’s a quote from someone in a taxicab in New York to the driver on a TV show about New York I just saw.
This is news?
#4 – sorry, the snooze blog is just down the street – take your 1st right where it says Fox Snooze.
If you wander through, again – read the part where it says “Blog Primer” and then “Comment Guidelines”.
You’ll catch on after a while.
thanks for the tip. I will be sure to avoid those cabs
Scary part is a driver negotiating city streets with his mind on manipulating his passengers buying habits instead of his driving.
What are you going to do? Jump out of the cab?
Simple. First, explain to the cabby that I do not gamble. If that is ineffective, at the destination, explain to the cabby that the tip will be paid by the online poker site. If they are getting more from the poker site, this will unfortunately not hurt them much. If not, it will be a quick and obvious discouragement, which should not take long to self-correct.
Obnoxious though this may be, it might sometimes be a welcome relief from hearing their political views (usually several goosesteps to the right of Hitler’s).
#9 – Peter,
You’ve got issues like that there as well?
I had one once in NYC. I had worked late on St. Pat’s day and didn’t feel like dealing with the very loud and obnoxious sounding bar crowd across the street. Being entitled to take a car service after 9P, I did. It wasn’t that the driver attempted to make a left turn from 40th St. to go up 5th Ave. that scared me. (For non-Manhattanites, 5th is a major one way avenue, downtown only.)
It was that he was playing some religious fundamentalist radio station talking about how one should not believe one’s parents or anyone else. One should only believe what is in the bible. Then it related a passage where Moses asked God what to do about a man he’d caught carrying sticks on the sabbath. Obviously, stone him to death, and not in a good way.
I kept my mouth shut the entire ride. My views might literally get me killed by someone like that.
When I got home, I called the car service number and reported him … anonymously please. I really don’t want him coming to hunt me down and kill me. Thank you so much. (To their credit, the service was extremely apologetic. They stated that they are supposed to keep the radio off or tuned to light music.)