ABOUT

Complaining is a national pastime the UK, from the weather to politics. In London, travel disruption tops the list. We catastrophise our commutes, describing trips like Dante’s Inferno – chaos, endless, tragic, disaster, etc. Our campaign positioned taxi app Freenow as the stress-free way to get around London. Posters paired iconic London culture with familiar travel frustrations, reframed with local humour. Lines like Shakespeare Without the Drama, Twickenham Without the Scrum, and The West End Without the Song and Dance showed that, with Freenow, you can enjoy London without travel trauma.
Part of the Lyft group, Freenow needed to break into London’s highly competitive ride-hailing market. The brief was to grow relevance and usage by focusing on black cabs and a defined audience: affluent urbanites. Data showed this audience over-indexed on highbrow cultural activities. We paired this insight with the idea that, in a city where 25 million journeys happen daily, black cabs are the one mode of London transport that reduces rather than adds stress. Using familiar London humour and cultural references made Freenow feel local, premium and instantly understood.