Taxi Driver Online

14 Jan 2008

Taxi drivers paid to market products to customers

Taxi drivers are being recruited by advertising companies to promote their
clients' products to passengers.

Cabbies, famous for their gift of the gab, are seen as the ideal people to
spread 'word of mouth' marketing to thousands of potential customers.

Firms desperate to find new ways to get their message across have been
quick to see the potential of the new approach.

In one example, a company which pays to advertise on the outside of a
black cab can also brief the driver so he can be an 'ambassador' for their
brand, talking enthusiastically about their products.

Drivers have also been given free holidays in the hope they will rave
about the destinations.

Driver Adrian Torlini, 41, from Aylesbury, was signed up as an
ambassador for Taxi Promotions UK.

He was given a five-day trip to Bangkok paid for by the tourism authority
of Thailand.

But Mr Torlini said: "I suppose that's payment of a sort, but I have never
seen it as a job. No one said I had to talk about it.

"They just know that if you send someone somewhere and they like it they
will talk about it, and if they are a cab driver they will talk to lots of people
about it."

He believes he has helped many of his fares see Thailand in a new light,
just as he has persuaded others of the charms of Melbourne, where he
and his wife spent 10 days on another free holiday.

Asher Moses, managing director of Taxi Promotions UK, believes all kinds
of products could eventually be promoted by his drivers, from airlines to
online poker websites.

Source: The Daily Mail, Opodo

But Mr Torlini said: "I suppose that's payment of a sort, but I have never
seen it as a job. No one said I had to talk about it.


I hope he has declared this to the tax man.

_________________
Grandad,