BRANDING: London Taxis hires first strategy head

Nicki Websper, who joins from software supplier isero.com where she was marketing director, will also be responsible for taking the black cab brand into markets outside transport.

She said the black cab's success in becoming such an icon had happened almost by accident, and she had been hired to bring a strategic dimension to its marketing.

"Few people are really aware who makes the black cab, yet we are the UK's third-largest car manufacturer. We have a fantastic opportunity now to exploit the iconic positioning of the black cab to make it even more meaningful, she said.

The first example of this is a product placement deal with Pearson Broadband, the TV production arm of Pearson, which is to make a 13-episode series tracking a black cab journey from Tiananmen Square to Trafalgar Square.

The show will be screened to 93 million potential viewers on Chinese television and a PR campaign will promote the exercise in the UK too.

Websper will also spearhead LTI's defence to Transport for London that the Hackney Carriage (as the black cab is called) should be the only vehicle allowed to operate as a black cab. Transport for London is said to be considering allowing MPVs to be licensed as black cabs too.

This article was first published on Marketing