Hailo had a new pre-book service they wanted to promote coinciding with the May 22nd Referendum on gay marriage. We approached them with an idea to combine the two.
We were going to offer free trips to the polls on May 22nd, when people used Hailo’s new Prebook service. And so began our ‘Drive for Equality’.
We wanted to see how normal everyday Hailo passengers reacted to a ridiculous discriminatory character – The Heterophobic Taxi Driver. Their natural reactions helped convey our message that all discrimination is ridiculous, no matter if you were on the YES or NO side. The passengers were the first to be let in on the stunt, and received a ‘Save the Date’ invite to pre-book and get a free lift to the polls.
The video was a huge success and garnered a sensational positive reaction by the public. Despite a low budget and media spend, the videos has been viewed just shy of a million views (995,000), with all of the 730,000 Facebook views being organic. #DriveForEquality trended in Ireland the week of the vote and high profile celebrities with huge followings posted the campaign (Graham Norton 1.1 million followers, Dara O’Briain 2.2 million followers, and George Takei 9.6 million followers on Facebook). The campaign was also covered all around the world with 45 pieces of local press coverage, 11 pieces of International and it even made it on to RudeTube on Channel 4.
