A cab in Oslo, Norway, has been fitted out with hidden CCTV cameras, hooked up to facial recognition software, to record passengers as part of a digital experience for new online gaming company, Casumo.
Casumo’s mission is to erase boredom and make people smile. ‘Cab Cam’ secretly monitors expressions to calculate how happy the customer is, then surprises them with a refund for the boring part of their journey.
The punter only pays for the part of the ride that cameras see of them looking happy. Further putting the fun back into taxi journeys, Casumo then gives passengers the balance of the fare as a cash-back code to redeem on Casumo.com
The Nordics-focused campaign kicks off in Oslo, and is the brainchild of Stockholm and Amsterdam-based digital agency, Perfect Fools.
From June 11, three cameras in a regular Oslo cab feed into a 4G-connected computer and printer. During a journey the emotional state of the unaware passenger is monitored while real-time software calculates the cost based on how bored they look during the ride.
At destination the passenger receives a receipt featuring their photograph, what percentage of their ride was dull, a bill for the ‘joyful’ part of the journey, and a code to redeem the ‘boredom saving’ on Casumo.com.
The print out also asks the passenger if their photo and emotional journey details can be published on a campaign website.
The site will feature a heat map of the taxi’s journey, colour coded to identify the most boring parts of the city. Passengers’ own experiences will be shown online alongside statistics and details of the technology used.
John Harmander, chief marketing officer at Casumo, said: “Casumo is an award-winning, mind-blowing gaming experience; a storytelling platform that interacts with users and rewards them for participating, not just for playing. Casumo differs from other gaming sites because it takes the user on a journey fuelled by storytelling, engagement and rewards.”
“Players are encouraged to have more fun. The boredom ride goes in line with the Casumo mission to erase boredom on all levels. Also in the physical world, Casumo is more than a casino. We are an entertainment machine, and we just got started.”
Tony Högqvist, creative partner at Perfect Fools, says: “Taxi journeys are dull so we will analyze the level of boredom and fight it with the Casumo antidote. Our main call to action is to erase boredom, adopt a Casumo.”
The campaign is one of a series of executions to support the global rollout of Casumo’s multiplatform games, which include classic casino and slot machine games such as blackjack and roulette, alongside quirky experiences featuring wizards, ghosts, pirates, nursery rhyme and even South Park characters.
Casumo differs from other gaming sites because it takes the user on a journey fuelled by storytelling, engagement and rewards. Players are encouraged to adopt a Casumo character and nurture it in the spirit of looking after a tamagotchi. Caring for a Casumo is rewarded with trophies and free bets.
