Cabbies hail Mediamine

To help ensure its members stay at the front of the rank, the New Zealand Taxi Federation monitors its industry and reputation daily through reports provided by its Mediamine analyst Daniel.

To get an accurate view of how the sector is being reported on over time, NZTF also engages Mediamine to undertake six-monthly qualitative and quantitative analysis of its monitored media, focusing on topics, sentiment, competitors, sources and item structure.

Taxis account for a third of all New Zealand’s public transport, and the NZTF’s main role is to provide a benchmark for the industry. Executive director Roger Heale says that, as NZTF has become more active in the media, it’s critical it stays up to date on the latest news, so it is able to inform its members.

“We need to be aware of things as they happen, so that we can quickly communicate important news to our members. We don’t have a huge support staff, so it’s really useful having a service such as Mediamine do the heavy lifting for us,” says Roger. “We can also easily distribute Mediamine reports directly to our members, so they can see how the media as a whole is reporting on our industry.”

As well as receiving the latest news, Roger says that the two ‘perception’ reports Mediamine provides each year are invaluable.

“The reports act as a proxy for what the public might be thinking, or at least what they’re being told about us and our competition,” he says. “Uber is obviously one of our main competitors, and measuring how they’re portrayed overtime, compared to our members, is really important.”

The proof is in the reporting

NZTF sets out industry standards for its members, and also provides a channel to stakeholders such as the NZTA and local councils.

“We can voice any concerns that our members have at a higher level than maybe they could on their own,” says Roger.

He says that a major goal of the NZTF is to give the public confidence that when they get into a federation car, it’s of a higher quality than a non-federation car.

“At the end of the day, Mediamine allows us to back up decisions with independent analysis. When we say this is what we’re doing, our members may not always understand why,” says Roger. “But over a period of six, 12 or 18 months, they can see the results because we’re able to track the effectiveness of our messaging, and that in turn encourages buy-in to future decisions.”