Time Out, a global media and hospitality business which helps people explore and experience London, has developed a bespoke digital multi-channel campaign for FREE NOW, the mobility app which gets you from A to B in over 170 cities. The campaign, says the publisher, is the largest-ever video-led campaign in the UK between Time Out and a brand and aims to bring the best of London to people who want to make the most of the capital this autumn.
Created by the Time Out Creative Solutions team in partnership with FREE NOW, City Life by Time Out and FREE NOW is the video embodiment of Time Out’s long-running City Life editorial series, continued the publisher. City Life will run as six episodes, each made up of five one-minute segments. An episode will go live each fortnight from 21st September until early December. The five one-minute segments will be distributed individually across Instagram (which has over one million followers) and TikTok, Time Out’s fastest-growing channel right now. In addition, the campaign includes a bespoke landing page housing the videos, Time Out newsletter take-overs, digital display ads, and Instagram stories.
FREE NOW, according to the publisher, offers vehicle choice for consumers in the UK. With one app, users can book a range of mobility services from black cabs and PHV to eScooters and eBikes which are made available through app integrations with main operators active in the market including Dott, HumanForest, TIER and VOI Technology – and each mode of transport is used in the branded video series by the presenters as they move around the city.
Time Out added, the six City Life video episodes are titled Street Life, City Secrets, Black Culture in London, Autumn, Nightlife and Cosy London — all tapping into Time Out’s brand core purpose, which is to inspire and enable people to explore and enjoy the best of the city. Brought to life with engaging, immersive storytelling and hosted by a combination of Londoners and Time Out editors, the episodes feature Time Out’s recommendations for ways to enjoy autumn in the city and how FREE NOW helps you get around. Presenters visit a bar behind a secret door in Hackney, a restaurant where you eat off the counter without plates and Deptford High Street, which Time Out say is one of their coolest streets in the world for 2022. They also meet up with the actor Michael Duke who plays Bob Marley in the West End as well as rate the factors which create the perfect cosy London pub. Episode 1, Street Life, can be found here.
Gareth Thomas, director of client experience in Time Out’s Commercial team says: “We are excited to deliver this campaign for FREE NOW. Our current partnership is representative of our digital-first commercial propositions, which enable brands to connect with our unique content and experience-hungry audience in new ways. Our Time Out Creative Solutions team supports clients who wish to go above and beyond standard advertising opportunities. FREE NOW is a perfect partner for Time Out as they literally get you to the heart of the action and the fun of the city, which our audience is eager to discover. This exciting, symbiotic initiative is a great example of how we bring campaigns for partners to life through wholly digital activity, where we are seeing incredibly exciting growth and engagement as we meet our audience where it is now, all day long.”
This new City Life campaign strengthens the existing relationship between the two brands, added the publisher, and follows other campaigns this summer and last December.
Mariusz Zabrocki, general manager of FREE NOW in the UK explains why they have launched this third campaign with Time Out: “Working together with Time Out is a perfect synergy for us. Time Out reflects city culture and lets people know how they can experience the very best of it and FREE NOW takes people to and from those exciting experiences. Being both embedded in city life, the brands work brilliantly together and so do our teams to develop these bespoke campaigns”.
Gareth Thomas says that partnership opportunities in the UK now extend way beyond London: “Our digital-first focus allows us to continue to expand our footprint and reach a wider audience. Time Out is a global brand with a national footprint and a local voice; our expert journalists provide content in our audiences’ social feeds, inboxes and where they are online. We are building our content in UK cities, which our audience love as much as we do. For example, we have had journalists at the Edinburgh Festival this summer and the content has seen great engagement”.
Time Out says their digital initiatives include a revamped social media strategy focusing on editorial video content, a new email newsletter called ‘Out Here’ which lands in Time Out’s audience’s inboxes several times during the week and digital Time Out covers on social, newsletter and online which bring together the best of Time Out design, photography, text and video and nod to the company’s print heritage but with a contemporary digital twist.
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