Karhoo App Arrives in London Bringing Colour & Choice to Consumers

Karhoo, the new cab comparison and booking app that has signed up hundreds of thousands of licensed taxis and private hire cabs across the world, launches in London today, with an extensive integrated marketing campaign in the capital. 

The launch for the app, which is set to change the on-demand transport industry forever, has been a year in the making and has seen Karhoo’s internal team supported by a number of leading agencies. These include VCCP for creative and media, ROAST for online and mobile performance, Mission on strategy and PR and Bolser, for web and CRM. The brand identity was also created by VCCP’s branding arm, SomeOne.

Karhoo, a vendor-neutral platform, allows passengers to compare and book available cabs in their area by price, proximity and vehicle style. The app lets passengers pre-book days, weeks or months in advance or choose immediate pickup with their preferred cab company, giving both local and national operators access to thousands more customers.

The brief to agencies was to build a brand campaign to support Karhoo’s mission to use positive disruption to help established operators of licensed black cabs, minicabs and executive cars level the playing field and be part of the e-hailing revolution, while giving consumers more choice with every cab booking. 

The launch campaign is based around the thought of ‘Here comes choice.’ It combines playful creative execution with targeted, above the line activation and comprehensive media relations.

Daniel Ishag, Karhoo’s CEO, said: “We are working with the best in the communications industry to create a brand and global strategy that will enable Karhoo to disrupt the market for the better; giving passengers more choice and fleets more work… everybody wins.”

Darren Bailes, Executive Creative Director at VCCP commented: “Karhoo is a brilliantly simple service that the cab world has been crying out for. Customers realise that not all cab rides are the same; different journeys at different times for different people are best served by different cabs. Sometimes a black cab, sometimes a local minicab or executive car and sometimes you need to pre-book. Karhoo makes it all possible. The clean, minimal graphics of the creative epitomise Karhoo’s brand values and the “Here comes choice” tagline captures the app’s key offering.”

Robert Andersen, head of mobile at ROAST added: "ROAST has been working closely with Karhoo for the past twelve months to carefully plan and align the brand’s international digital strategy. We are now excited to be rolling-out in London with a cross device, cross channel digital performance campaign that is built on a deep understanding of the local online and mobile ecosystem.” 

Launching today (May 9), the extensive campaign will roll-out across across 17 train stations in London with DOOH, Tube cards and DEP executions including a digital display Waterloo take over, as well as mobile performance and location based activity across Facebook, Twitter and paid search. 

Fans of ITV’s, Marcella, will be the first to see Karhoo’s  30 second TV spot which will run on Channel 4 for two weeks.