Background
In its four years, Hailo had become one of Ireland’s most loved brands. When German taxi giant mytaxi acquired them at the end of 2017 Ireland had to wave goodbye to Hailo and say hello to mytaxi. Facing a public who subscribed to the adage ‘if it aint broke, don’t fix it’, mytaxi had a mountain to climb.
Strategy
Their strategy was to tackle consumer sentiment head on with a campaign that put the public’s concerns at ease around user experience and poked fun at their disbelief, shock and outrage surrounding the loss of one of Ireland’s most loved brands.
Creative
The communications were unified under the simple message ‘Hailo is now mytaxi’. The tone of the work was playful and irreverent while retaining the Irishness Hailo had become known for. Visually, mytaxi wanted the brand to be about city movement, which informed their new identity. In a copy-led outdoor campaign, backgrounds became light streaks across taxi exteriors and a bespoke font, ‘Autosan’ was created, inspired by the texture, parallel lines and underpasses of roads.
Media
OOH, Experiential, Digital, Radio, Social.
Results
Having launched in March 2017 mytaxi had achieved 78% brand awareness by July of that year. They successfully achieved their targets in migrating the user base from one app to the other and in the final quarter of 2017 the company completed a record number of journeys for the period.
