As baby boomers age, it is becoming incredibly important for cities to be aware of mobility issues and accessibility. Mindful of this, the city of Antwerp collected over 3,000 ideas on how to improve mobility in the future and compiled the top 20 to be distributed in a graphic book, website and on social media.
To get as many eyes onto these city-improving concepts as possible, the city enlisted the help of industrial design studio 'bundl' to come up with a campaign to get the word out. The campaign brought "one of the concepts to real life," -- by adding cardboard 'taxi' signs to the tops of 5,000 cars throughout the city; a simple, low-budget idea that only requires a little bit of ground work.
Although it is not an easy feat to get people engaged and excited about improvements to infrastructure, the campaign provoked curiosity and received just the coverage it was looking for on social media and television.
Taxi-Cab-Transforming Campaigns
Antwerp's Guerilla Campaign Spreads Awareness on Mobility Issues
Trend Themes
1. Aging Population - Opportunity to innovate in products, services, and infrastructure to accommodate the needs of an aging population.
2. Urban Mobility - Potential for disruptive innovation in transportation systems and solutions for improving accessibility and mobility in cities.
3. Guerilla Marketing - Opportunity to create impactful and low-budget marketing campaigns that generate curiosity and social media coverage.
Industry Implications
1. Transportation - Innovation in transportation systems, technologies, and services to address growing mobility needs in cities.
2. Design - Design thinking and creative solutions to improve infrastructure, urban spaces, and products for an aging population.
3. Marketing and Advertising - Development of innovative marketing campaigns that captivate audiences and utilize guerilla marketing tactics to increase brand exposure.