Taxi advertising is one of the older out-of-home formats and one of the least documented, which means most people buying it for the first time are working from assumptions. This guide covers what you are actually buying, how a campaign is put together and what happens once you have signed off the artwork.
What you are buying
You are buying space on licensed taxis for a period of time, quoted as a monthly rate per cab. Unlike a poster site, the space moves. A licensed black cab is not assigned to a route — it works wherever the fares take it, for the whole of a working day, which in a city like London means the business districts, the retail streets, the stations and the airport routes in the same shift.
That mobility is the defining property of the medium. It means you cannot promise a specific junction the way a poster site can, and it means a modest fleet covers far more of a city than the same number of fixed sites would. You are buying a share of the city rather than a set of locations.
The two formats
There are two exterior formats. Taxi Supersides are large printed panels on both flanks of the cab. Taxi Full Wraps cover the entire exterior. Supersides cost less per cab, so a budget buys more of them; wraps carry far more presence per vehicle. Which one suits you is a question of reach versus standout, covered in detail in Supersides vs Full Wraps.
Interior Tip Seat advertising is included with both, at no additional cost. These are the panels on the fold-down seats facing the passenger. It is not sold separately, and it is included because the exterior and the interior do different jobs: one builds awareness across the street, the other puts a message in front of a seated passenger with time to read it.
The two fleets
Both formats run on two vehicle types. The Premium Black Cab is London’s latest-generation electric taxi — a newer, quieter vehicle with a roomier interior that carries three tip seat panels. The Classic Black Cab is the traditional London taxi, the silhouette that reads as London in a photograph anywhere in the world, and it carries two tip seat panels.
A campaign can run on either fleet or a mix of both. In practice the choice is driven by what the brand wants to be associated with and by what is available for your dates.
How a campaign is put together
- You send a brief. Audience, city, approximate budget and the dates you need to be live. A target and a month is enough to start — nothing more formal is required.
- We come back with options. Formats and fleet sizes costed against your budget, with live availability for your dates, usually within one working day.
- You choose a format and fleet, and we confirm the booking against specific vehicles.
- You supply the creative. We adapt it to the fleet templates for your format and cab type, and proof it with you. Nothing goes to print without your sign-off.
- We print on materials approved for licensed vehicles and fit the cabs at approved depots. Printing and installation are included in the published rate.
- The campaign goes live, and your advertising works the city with the fleet for the length of the booking.
Lead times
The timeline is driven by three things: how quickly artwork is approved, print and fitting capacity, and fleet availability for the dates you want. A campaign with a fixed launch date needs more lead time than an always-on run that can start when the cabs are ready. Bring dates to the first conversation and we will tell you what is realistic rather than what is optimistic.
Taxi inventory is finite in a way digital media is not — a cab carrying one campaign cannot carry another. Availability, not budget, is often the real constraint on a specific set of dates.
Creative that works on a cab
The best taxi creative is simpler than the best press creative. Your audience sees the vehicle in motion, from three metres, for a couple of seconds, often at an angle. That rewards one message, high contrast, and a brand that is legible at a glance — and punishes body copy, fine detail and anything that needs to be read in order.
Tip seat panels are the opposite case: a seated passenger, a static panel, and several minutes of dwell time. That is where a longer message, a URL or a QR code actually earns its place.
What it costs
Published guide rates are quoted per taxi and include printing and installation, plus interior tip seat advertising. Most campaigns are then planned as packages, priced against fleet size, duration, format, fleet mix and availability — which is often more competitive than the per-taxi rate. Taxi advertising costs sets out the published rates in full.
Getting started
The fastest route to a useful answer is a short brief with a city, a budget range and your dates. Send us the brief and we will come back with formats, availability and an indicative rate.