The Swinton Mystery Tipper campaign began in March 2008 with the objective of generating insurance leads for Swinton Taxi Division.  Not only did it smash this objective out of the park, but it also won several marketing awards including a DMA Gold in the Financial Services category.  So when we were tasked earlier this year with improving upon it we were a little apprehensive, but netherless we accepted the challenge withgusto and started to devise a bigger and better Mystery Tipper campaign….  but would the awards follow!?

A brief overview

For those of you who are not familiar.  The Mystery Tipper is a mysterious blonde decked out in a mac and trilby who travels across towns and cities in the UK, handing a £1,000 tip to a cabbie who has a ‘Mystery Tipper’ sticker in their cab. Cabbies get a sticker after requesting a taxi insurance quote from Swinton Taxi Division. Easy, effective and successful, The Mystery Tipper’s appeal is its simplicity. that and the lure of a big tip.

Read more…

It was billed as creative flair versus strategic nous. Those blokes in jeans and trainers versus those guys in suits. It was a hard fought match… for fifty minutes the game was too close to call, but a late flurry by Creative sealed victory for the boys with Macs and sent the PC guys running home with their tails between their legs.

With the help of some Precision Burner energy drinks saved up from a pitch for EAS… Creative were primed to take this game by the horns from the kick off. But credit to Account Handling… they were more than our equal for a long time and even took the lead a few times which only spurred on my brave warriors… dressed in black and playing like footballing Ninjas… we raised our game and produced some wonderful flowing football.

Read more…

Banksy is probably one of the most famous artists alive. His stencil-style ‘guerrilla’ art became his trademark along with his strong anti-war, anti-capitalist and anti-establishment messages. His first pieces appeared on the streets of Bristol and London in early 90’s and many more have appeared around the world since.

Although his art carries strong political messages they are also quite amusing and daring… in 2006 he left an inflatable doll dress as a Guantanamo prisoner in Disneyland to bring attention to the conditions of the terror suspects. He’s also believed to have smuggled a fake picture he created of a smiling Mona Lisa into the Paris Louver museum and hung it near the real one.

Read more…

Those lovely people at Marketing Week have run a feature about the IDM Business Performance Awards 2009.. and as Red C picked up Bronze in The Diamond Award… our award-winning work for the Mystery Tipper gets a lovely feature.

The IDM Business Performance Awards have been celebrating the most effective and influential marketing for the past 12 years, recognising the strategic contribution of direct, data and digital marketing to business. The most coveted prize in direct marketing, the BPA Diamond becomes ever harder to win as the standard of entries raises the bar each year.

Read more…

Red C’s Mystery Tipper campaign for Swinton’s Taxi Division has been selected as one of the finalists for the overall Diamond Award, at this year’s IDM Business Performance Awards.

The IDM Diamond Award is the most coveted prize in direct marketing. It celebrates the long-term contribution direct marketing can make to the success of a business. So it’s fair to say we’re pretty chuffed to be nominated. Read more…