FREE NOW logo beside three phones showing a curly red-haired person holding a round "CAB CHATS TRIVIA" sign
Submitted by Coolr

FREE NOW Presents Cab Chats Trivia with Tia Kofi

Influencer Marketing

Coolr built an IGTV trivia series with Tia Kofi for FREE NOW that reached over 1.5 million people and lifted engagement 66% above industry standard.

+66%average engagement rate versus industry
1.5Mpeople reached

Case in 60 seconds

Coming out of the pandemic FREE NOW wanted to add some personality to their brand image, which left the brand needing a face and a tone of voice rather than another functional message about hailing a cab.

The campaign appears to turn on the ordinary pleasure of a natter with a cabbie, because the driver is the part of the journey people already talk about, so the cabbie characters carried personality the brand itself could not claim directly.

FREE NOW Presents Cab Chats Trivia put the brand's cabbie characters front and centre of the activation, casting a recognisable host to test London cabbies rather than presenting the brand talking about itself.

Tia Kofi, the Queen of Clapham and a Drag Race icon, jumped from cab to cab taking contestants through London centric trivia questions across a six-minute IGTV episode, while she posted from her own channels alongside a paid plan and competitions offering prizes to FREE NOW followers.

Coolr reports a hugely positive sentiment, a reach of over 1.5 million people and an average engagement rate 66% higher than the industry standard, with the episode described as the most organically viewed piece of content FREE NOW has ever published.

Strategy Breakdown

FREE NOW followers and a London audience, addressed through London centric trivia questions and competitions run for the brand's own followers.
Ride-hailing brands are judged on the functional transaction, and Coolr's own framing places this work coming out of the pandemic, a moment when FREE NOW wanted personality rather than another service message.
The page frames the challenge as FREE NOW lacking a face and a tone of voice, so the work had to supply both through content rather than through brand advertising.
FREE NOW hosts and presents the format under its own name, FREE NOW Presents Cab Chats Trivia, which places the brand as the publisher of entertainment rather than the subject of it.
Based on the available evidence, the format rests on the everyday cab conversation being something riders already enjoy, so trivia between host and driver reads as a familiar exchange staged rather than an invented one.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Instagram
  • six-minute IGTV episode
  • video

Partners

  • Coolr

Participation mechanic

  • A series of competitions for FREE NOW followers to win prizes ran alongside the episode, giving the audience something to enter rather than only watch.

Creator role

  • Tia Kofi — creator

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Average Engagement Rate Versus Industry Standardwe achieved an average engagement rate that was 66% higher than the industry standard
People Reachedwe managed to reach over 1.5 million people

Why Coolr's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A brand short on personality can borrow it from a character already inside its own service, because the cabbie was familiar to riders before the campaign existed and needed no explanation to work as a format.

  2. 2

    Casting a host with an established comic register lets the sarcastic tone read as the host's rather than the brand's, which appears to be why the light hearted creative was received as entertainment rather than advertising.

  3. 3

    Pairing a host's own channels with a paid plan and follower competitions gives one episode three routes to an audience, so organic reach is not left to carry the campaign alone.

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