Shoot Spotlight: Black & White Cabs Recruitment Campaign

We love looking after our clients.

Black and White Cabs (BWC) and Red Bean Productions have fostered a great partnership over the years producing several broadcast and online video assets together and having a lot of fun along the way. Recently, Black and White Cabs approached Red Bean Productions with a series of sketch ideas to be developed into social media videos for their driver recruitment campaign. The videos were to serve as a ‘call to action’ to generate interest and drive traffic towards the Black and White Cabs recruitment website for sign-up.

It’s all in the message.

As an established company, Black and White Cabs are always looking for additional drivers to help service the growing demand for taxis, especially maxi and wheelchair accessible vehicles. With this in mind, Red Bean helped develop a compelling concept that would capture the attention of people who were looking for a career change. We decided the best way to speak to potential drivers would be through a series of resonating comedic stories. Each video had its own message – ‘Respect and Support’ or ‘Work Life Balance’ which are benefits each employee should have the rights to, and will definitely receive when working with Black and White Cabs. Further, the overall theme in the series culminated with the message ‘be your own boss’ by showing the freedom you could have. The comedy was the driving force behind the storytelling. We wanted to bring a relatable human element to each story by linking it all together with one central character – Jimbo, who features in every video as the friendly Black and White Cabs spokesperson. The concept’s recurring theme sees Jimbo popping up during moments where people feel they are losing a grip over their work life balance. That time when your boss is hounding you after work or being screamed at over the phone in your office cubicle, Jimbo is there to remind you that there are other options. He helps people realize that they can make a career change towards a more fulfilling job with Black and White Cabs. This makes Jimbo a lovable character to his viewers and helps capture people’s attention with his positive message. Jimbo is essentially a nice guy on a mission to assist those looking for a career change. Thanks, Jimbo!

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

As an experienced production company, we knew it was important to approach the shoot with a resource savvy mindset, without sacrificing on quality. A decision to keep each video duration well under one minute meant that we could focus on leveraging the story with upbeat dialogue, to get the message across quickly. It had to be short, sharp, and shiny. With this approach, it was imperative to cast strong actors who had chemistry and could get creative with comedic lines. After all, script and performance were the keys to success here. Other production components like location, costumes, make-up, props, and editing were kept simple yet complimenting towards each story. For example, the production made use of available locations like the Black and White Cabs head office as the scripts were written with these locations in mind. Wardrobe options were not overbearing to distract away from the actor’s performances. A strategic decision was made to have Jimbo always in his Black and White Cabs uniform as we wanted him to be synonymous with the brand. The videos were all shot in one day for logistical ease, saving time and resources. Our team worked with each actor individually to craft the funny nuances and tonality in their performances to achieve the comedic impact needed for each story. This meant that when we got to the editing suite, it was just a matter of piecing everything together as per the storyboard. Most of the planning was done in pre-production where it was vital to have everything organised in advance. The effective communication gave the crew clarity and eliminated any necessary stress so that everyone could have some fun on the day!

A fun, successful shoot!

The successful launch of this recruitment campaign was due to the strong partnership Red Bean had with Black and White Cabs. The shoot went very smoothly with everyone involved from the client, agent, and cast to crew, having so much fun. We thank Black and White Cabs for trusting us to deliver their marketing message and packaging it into an effective comedic series that we can all be proud of. We look forward to producing more comedy brand stories together!

Here’s what our friends at Black and White Cabs had to share about their experience working with Red Bean:

‘Red Bean & Black & White Cabs have established an easy working relationship with shared creative views and business ethics. These small clips are aimed to give Black & White Cabs exposure on a variety of digital platforms to help reach a larger audience. We also wanted to make sure our personality shows through and that is; a friendly, family-focused company that takes care of drivers and customers, even though we are 100 years old we’re no dinosaur! We’re continually investing in technology and innovation as well as being adventurous with our marketing ideas. Thank you Red Bean Productions for showcasing our business philosophy in a resonating and entertaining way. We love working with your team and can’t wait for the next series installment!’ – Wendy (BWC Marketing Manager)