During fall a lot of Stockholmers get depressed because of the short daylight, a symptom called seasonal affective disorder. But life in a big city can be stressful so many people don’t take the time to take care of themselves.

Cabdrivers often gets to double as therapists and according to a survey 70% of Stockholmers agreed a taxi ride is a good time for reflection.

From this an idea was born – The Taxi Therapists. A new service you book online, where you get to talk to a licensed therapists that’s sitting together with you in the backseat of the cab. That way you could take care of yourself while getting to your destination.

The news spread like wildfire from Swedish media to international news media like CNN and BBC. Historians spoke about how the idea functioned as a carrier of Sweden's brand internationally, while the business press hailed Taxi Stockholm's public relations victory against competitors.

It is always difficult for an old and big player to succeed in seeming surprising and interesting. With The Taxi Therapists, Taxi Stockholm managed to do just that.

59% of Stockholmers stated that the campaign made them see Taxi Stockholm as a company who knows and cares about their customers. At the same time Taxi Stockholm managed to build its position in all media segments - from local news, entertainment and social journalism to business and trade press, while the campaign echoed internationally. With a single campaign taxi suddenly became relevant in all categories.

We created and launched an online service where you could book your taxi ride with a therapist in the back seat. During the campaign period, three cars were equipped with therapists and the service was overbooked – most of the capacity was reserved for passengers but we also held a part for journalists.

During the first step – national Swedish media brought up the story, especially those covering Stockholm.

After gaining publicity and buzz at home, we concentrated on targeting foreign correspondents and English-speaking news outlets to create international buzz. The story eventually spread to BBC and CNN in this stage. We played on how the story symbolized the archetype of Sweden – social engineering, melancholia, creativity and darkness.

The overwhelming interest from the world made the story even more relevant at home. So we created a domestic meta-story about the taxi therapists becoming an international symbol for Sweden.

Taxi Therapists was developed and performed with a very limited budget. In short, approx. $2,000 was allocated for the 3 therapists that customers could book whilst using Taxi Stockholm. In addition to this Taxi Stockholm invested in PR-assets and a website where customers could book their Taxi therapists. The budget for this was $20,000. In summary, the PR-execution of this campaign only required approx. $22,000 in budget which is astonishing given the result.