London Cabs to promote Sri Lanka

The London Branch of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau started a campaign under the rebranding exercise at key destinations world over, where 27 taxi cabs were branded with images depicting Sri Lanka. The creative execution depicts the new branding that will advertise the resplendent isle throughout the world.

This campaign was facilitated by Cabvert, the company which is promoting its own brand of Cabvertising, which includes the utilization of the exterior as well as interior of cabs.

Previous research suggests that on average 152 people per day travel in a taxi cab, and one can conclude that for every passenger travelling in each cab, the cab is viewed at least 250 times more, said Director, UK and Ireland, of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Sanjika Perera. Taxi advertisements are easier to read because they are eye-level, he further added.

Based on the above figures each cab will carry an average of 54,112 passengers per year giving the opportunity to have direct access to a captive audience and thus promote Sri Lanka, with a highly personal touch. Moreover, taxi-cabs are on the road 24 hours of the day, 7 days of the week, giving 24 hour mobile media awareness, unlike buses, radio and television. In addition to branding the cabs, Sri Lanka Tourism had an information session with the drivers enabling them to discuss the destination with passengers. This gives a favourable advantage as research indicates that over 85% of the population speak to the taxi driver on a journey. Creating the demand for the destination is the need of the hour and such campaigns are considered to be of high impact, but low cost.