News hailed on 22 // 04 // 15
Embargoed 00.01 Thursday 23rd April
Letting books take the front seat: Hailo and Penguin Random
House UK get London reading with the launch of #BlackCabBooks
Taxi app Hailo and publisher Penguin Random House UK are teaming up to create a mini
mobile library – by placing free books in Hailo black cabs this week as well as audiobook
extracts in the Hailo app for Londoners to enjoy.
Launching their partnership to coincide with World Book Night on the 23rd April, Hailo
and Penguin Random House UK are encouraging more of us to use our travel time to enjoy
an amazing story or be inspired by an idea instead of flicking through emails while rushing
to meetings or travelling to the airport.
Passengers will have access to a range of fiction and non-fiction books from World Book
Night title The Martian by Andy Weir to Arianna Huffington’s Thrive: The Third Metric to
Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder. Aspiring
business minds can also learn a few lessons from superstar entrepreneur, Richard Branson,
with an audio extract from his book Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons in Life and Business
available in the Hailo app.
As part of the scheme, one audiobook extract will be available via the Hailo app every
day between Thursday 23rd April and Monday 27th April. Eagle-eyed passengers will be
able to discover and enjoy physical books in the back of their Hailo cabs this week.
Gary Bramall, Chief Marketing Officer, Hailo, said:
“Our core mission is to improve travel and make life better for our customers. We believe
in the joy of reading, something many of us don’t get the time to do in our busy lives.
We’re really proud to be able to offer free books to our passengers thanks to our friends
at Penguin Random House UK.”
Ruth Spencer, Acting Head of Digital Marketing and Partnerships, Penguin Random House
UK, added:
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“We are always looking for innovative new ways to help readers discover our incredible
range of authors. As a generation, we’ve never been more connected and as a business
we’re working harder than ever to capture our audience’s attention. We hope this
experiment will help us connect our authors with as many readers as possible without
them having to move a muscle and encourage people to spend more time enjoying the
stories, ideas and writing that matter.“
Rose Goddard, Project Manager for World Book Night said: “At The Reading Agency we
believe that everything changes when we read, and World Book Night is a crucial part of
the work we do to encourage those who may not already read to begin their own reading
journey.
“We’re very happy that Hailo and Penguin Random House UK will be sharing some brilliant
books with people who might not otherwise encounter them on World Book Night, and
along with our huge network of volunteers will be helping to inspire countless reading
journeys as these stories are shared and passed on.”
As part of the initiative, the lucky passengers to find the physical books are allowed to
take them home to read but will be encouraged to return the books on their next journey
with Hailo for others to enjoy.
Passengers will also be encouraged to share their reading experience from the back of the
cab on social media using #BlackCabBooks.
The full list of Penguin Random House UK titles available through the #BlackCabBooks
experiment is:
Queen’s Gambit, Elizabeth Fremantle
Dead Man Talking, Roddy Doyle
The Martian, Andy Weir
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Susan Jeffers
Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success, Arianna Huffington
The Chimp Paradox, Prof Steve Peters
Stuffocation, James Wallman
Honour, Elif Shafak
All Hailo news can be found at our Digital Newsroom
Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons in Life and Business, Richard Branson
ENDS
For further information:
Katie Bawler & Harriet Evans, Manifest
0203 1379270 07799130187 hailo@manifest.london
Hannah Robinson: Group Communications Manager, Penguin Random House UK
+44 20 7840 8827
+44 7769 617881 hrobinson1@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk
Notes to editors:
Hailo is the evolution of the hail a free smartphone app which puts people just two taps away from a licensed vehicle,
and lets drivers get more passengers when they want them. A Hailo hail is accepted around the world every two seconds
from Hailo’s global network of over 60,000 drivers and more than a million passengers. Launched in November 2011,
Hailo is available in London, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, all across Ireland, Madrid, Barcelona, Osaka and Singapore.
Hailo has carried over twenty million passengers and grown to annualized sales of well over $100M. Founded by three
taxi drivers and three internet entrepreneurs, Hailo has raised $100M from the best investors anywhere, including Union
Square Ventures, Accel Partners, Wellington Partners, Atomico Ventures and Sir Richard Branson. Hailo is available as a
free download from the iTunes App Store and Google Play. Simply search on "Hailo".
Penguin Random House (http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/) is the world’s most global trade book publisher. It
was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their
respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin, with the parent companies owning 53% and 47%,
respectively. Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade
book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and
South Africa, and Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia and Brazil; DK worldwide; and Penguin Random House
Grupo Editorial’s Spanish-language companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile. Penguin
Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally across almost 250 editorially and creatively independent
imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include
more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.
About World Book Night: World Book Night operated as an independent charity since it was launched in 2011,
in partnership with the BBC and The Reading Agency but has been run as one of The Reading Agency’s
programmes since 2014. Since 2011 an extraordinary 46,000 volunteers have given books to more than 2
million people who don’t regularly read on World Book Night.
About The Reading Agency: The Reading Agency now runs World Book Night as one of its programmes. The
charity was a founding partner of World Book Night and took on full running of the programme in 2013. In
2014 250,000 books were printed and given away to the 35% of the population who do not read for World
Book Night, with the support of publishers. The Reading Agency is the UK’s leading independent charity
whose pioneering work brings the joy of reading to the widest possible audiences across the UK, in
partnership with the public library service. The charity’s mission is to create and deliver innovative reading
All Hailo news can be found at our Digital Newsroom
opportunities inspiring more people to read more; encouraging them to share their enjoyment of reading
with others and celebrating the difference that reading makes to all our lives. The Reading Agency is funded
by the Arts Council. www.readingagency.org.uk
Featured titles include:
Queen’s Gambit, Elizabeth Fremantle
Dead Man Talking, Roddy Doyle
The Martian, Andy Weir
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Susan Jeffers
Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success, Arianna Huffington
The Chimp Paradox, Prof Steve Peters
Stuffocation, James Wallman
Titles also available as audiobook extracts:
Queen’s Gambit, Elizabeth Fremantle, read by Georgina Sutton
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce, read by Jim Broadbent
Thrive, Arianna Huffington, read by Agapi Stassinopoulos
The Chimp Paradox, Prof Steve Peters, read by Prof Steve Peters
Honour, Elif Shafak
All Hailo news can be found at our Digital Newsroom
Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons in Life and Business, Richard Branson, read by Adrian
Mulraney
All Hailo news can be found at our Digital Newsroom