AirQon, Breda: Win a sustainable EV taxi drive!

A crowded session of Ploegendienst Festival (Source: Kairos Events)

The winner from the social media giveaway wins a sustainable EV taxi drive from and to the festival. This is organized in close collaboration with the AirQon consortium, which collaborates by providing an electric car and a chauffeur: the EV taxi. Before the festival started, the winner is picked up by the electric car and when the festival ended, he/she is brought home.

The online giveaway was created on Facebook by means of a social media campaign, in which people could respond to a post telling why they wanted to win this sustainable EV taxi drive and with who they would share the ride. The participation was a success: 120 people participated on Facebook, and the giveaway was won by one person that had the chance to invite up to three friends to join her.

The experience seemed to be unforgettable for the winner and very positive for the organization of the event. This sustainable ride is an additional, exclusive element for the visitor that is much appreciated. In addition to this, the initiative can be used for dissemination and marketing activities, projecting a positive, modern, smart image of the event. A proper footage of this with photographs, on-board video and similar material lets generate social awareness. In addition to this, both the organizers and the winner were interviewed to have their direct impressions about the initiative.

This pilot experience reinforces the purpose of AirQon as a crowd-powered energy source based on a green, sustainable mobility solution. It provides an innovative use case that can lead to a new business model. In fact, because of the success of this experience, Kairos Events is interested in replicating it and doing it at a bigger scale, with more winners and electric cars implied in the future.

Consequently, this is a very powerful action for a wide range of events, not only at a Breda scale, but also at national level. The giveaway significantly contributes to the overall experience of the event and to the organizers, because it is another way in which they can pursue to be as green and hospitable as possible. These are two elements that are always eagerly implemented on new levels by Kairos Events.

The winner knew about the invitation to enjoy the EV taxi drive eventually through a Facebook post. Once she won, she had to contact Ploegendienst Festival via e-mail, so the details about the EV taxi drive were easily arranged. Therefore, the process to close the details and to be ready to enjoy the experience was very simple.

Particularly, the winner was not an EV user. She has her own car, which is not electric, but she is pretty sure that electric cars are the future. In fact, she definitely defined herself as a supporter of electric driving. Nevertheless, having that multiple choices are available, such as electric car sharing or leasing plans, living an experience like that is likely to help to grow up the public interest on electromobility.

In addition to this, the winner highlighted that her interest in electric cars is because of her awareness of the importance of the environment. In her opinion, this importance is bigger day by day, so in the future lots of habits will change, and the means of transport are not aside of this evolution.

The day of the EV taxi drive, which was 25 km long in her case, she and her friends were especially surprised by being dropped off in the middle of the festival area. Despite of being asked about what she would like to improve or change about this initiative, she pointed that it was a unique experience for them, so she would not change anything. Moreover, asked about the value of this service perceived by her, she would pay for a service like this because it is an environment friendly means of transport that is worth it.

AirQon powers Ploegendienst Festival (Source: Kairos Events)

Firstly, it must be highlighted the positive impact that an initiative like this giveaway may have. Electric mobility is inherently linked to sustainability and modernity, therefore having it associated to an event, a brand or a company, for example, may undoubtedly contribute to build up a positive concept of it. There are illustrative examples of this with evident success, such as zero paper, zero plastic or net-zero emissions strategies.

Secondly, a mobility option like this can strongly encourage potential attendees to make a decision about joining an event. Distance matters less if a giveaway is won, or if you can easily share a ride and consequently bear a lower cost. In addition to this, an EV taxi may represent an innovative concept, so people more aware about the environment can perceive the difference of booking it for a ride to a festival.

Thirdly, the giveaway process is based on simplicity. By means of a worldwide, general channel like Facebook, the potential public to be reached has no limits and the dissemination possibilities of the initiative are endless. Moreover, the EV taxi ride can be commercialized as a VIP service, as in the case of a ticket with backstage access included, for example, because of the high importance of transportation and parking options given by the people attending events.

And finally, the idea of an EV taxi ride perfectly maintains the possibilities to actively participate in the crowd-powered energy solution that AirQon represents. And, of course, it also contributes to a shared use of the transportation means by naturally encouraging people to share the experience with other friends attending the same event.