WhipCar, the world’s first neighbour-to-neighbour car rental service, launched on London’s streets in April 2010. The service enables private car owners to rent out their cars for money to safe, eligible drivers looking for a close, convenient and affordable way to rent them, using an easy-to-use simple online booking facility (www.whipcar.com).
Bite’s London team was brought on board by WhipCar’s founders, Vinay Gupta and Tom Wright, to launch the service, generate buzz, and most importantly to drive registrations on the site. Because this service was a world’s first, one of the challenges was to educate the media and consumers on a new user behavior around car use and excess capacity.
Using a blended, multi-channel corporate and consumer approach, the team achieved outstanding results that translated into strong registrations on WhipCar’s site. Consumers across a wide array of audiences learned about WhipCar through coverage in multiple national newspaper and business publications, including The Economist and Financial Times, Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer and broadcast outlets, such as BBC Working Lunch, BBC London News and BBC Radio 4. WhipCar also secured awareness through a range of technology, consumer lifestyle and personal finance outlets, including WIRED, Marie Claire and Moneysavingexpert.co.uk.
The campaign achieved a clean sweep of the UK national publications, generating international interest and stimulating widespread online conversations. WhipCar has seen rapid uptake in its service from both car owners and drivers alike and is well-positioned to redefine the notion of car ownership in the UK.
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