Sweden. Birthplace of Spotify, Skype, iZettle, Minecraft/Mojang, Dice, Tictail and many others; an amazing fountainhead of innovation in relation to its size. You would think that a company like Uber, after having launched successfully in 30 or so countries would be extremely well received in a country like this one. [...]]]>

Sweden. Birthplace of Spotify, Skype, iZettle, Minecraft/Mojang, Dice, Tictail and many others; an amazing fountainhead of innovation in relation to its size. You would think that a company like Uber, after having launched successfully in 30 or so countries would be extremely well received in a country like this one. And it was. Uber grew faster in Sweden than in any other market to date. But then suddenly the police began stopping Ubers in the street and two of Uber’s applications for exemptions from the meter-legislation were denied. 

What Uber Brings To Sweden

I believe that Uber is indeed a superior service. Here are my reasons why:

Security

Uber raises the level of security for both passenger and driver. For the passenger, you know in advance exactly who is going to pick you up. Your ride is tracked via the app and after the ride you receive a map of your ride on your electronic receipt. Expensive detours are hereby made difficult thank you very much. On the more serious scale of things this would make an Uber-car a really bad choice for the would be rapist/robber-driver. On the smaller side of things a lost wallet would be an easy thing to trace.

When it comes to driver-security, the driver also knows in advance who he/she is going to pick up. The passenger is identified via a credit card and a mobile phone which also makes an Uber-driver a poor choice as a potential rape/robbery-victim.

Quality

With Uber you get a clean and orderly quality car. On a good day this car could be a Mercedes S-class or Audi A8. On a bad day it’s a Mercedes E-class. So what do I do on a bad day? I report the succer! Instantly after my Uber-ride I’m asked in the app to rate my ride. If my rating drops to 3 stars (often the case when I get a “disappointing” E-class) I report “car quality” (one of 5 or so options given) as the reason for my “disappointment”. (I use quotes here because the cars are still 5-star compared to any other taxi experience I’ve had in Sweden, or any other country for that matter). If I’m disappointed after riding with another company I’m left with the choice to blog/tweet about it or call the company. This almost never happens because it’s not worth the hassle. Does this low threshold for feedback help raise the quality of the Uber service? I think so.

Also, the drivers are properly dressed in black suites, very polite and treat me like royalty. Most of the time they truly deliver on their promise of being “Everyone’s private driver”. The complimentary water bottles in the backseat armrest is a nice touch.

Price

I’ve not noticed Uber being more expensive than the other company I usually ride with, except for the flat rate to Arlanda which is considerably more expensive.

Ease of Use and Control

Ordering an Uber via the app is simple. You also have much better control over where your Uber is through the map. The entire confusion of who ordered what car and people “stealing” your pre-ordered car is gone.

The payment is taken care of through a pre-registered credit card so you don’t have to bother with payments at all. It’s completely automatic which makes it secure (skimming cases have been reported in regular cabs in the media lately) and it saves you time and hassle. You can even register two cards, one for your private trips and one for your company trips which is a feature I use all the time.

“Big Accountable Brand”

Sure, Uber may not be a big brand in Sweden, but it’s big enough and has enough money invested in it worldwide to be valuable. This means that they are sensitive to brand criticism. Which means that they have to treat customers honestly and fairly in order not to commit brand suicide – or death by twitter to be precise. This is one of the key differences in customer security and trust compared to independent taxi in Stockholm (which has a bad and sometimes well deserved bad rep).

Cons

Uber has four drawbacks. First, you can’t pre-order an Uber for a specific time. Second, you can’t order more than one Uber at a time from a single app. Third, you don’t get a real proper meter in the car – wait a minute – wouldn’t that take away some of the private driver feel? Perhaps they should instead have live meter tracking in the app. Yeah, that’s it. Please add that feature. Fourth they don’t have a price sticker in the car. Again, I would much rather have that in the app.

All in all the sum of these things make Uber the number one “taxi service” (they are actually a pre-order limousine service for the masses) in Sweden in my opinion.

How Uber Clashes With Swedish Legislation

A taxi car in Sweden is required by law to be equipped with a meter according to certain specifications. You can apply for an exemption from this rule if you meet certain requirements. These requirements come in two levels of severity, the milder “särskilda skäl” and the more strict “synnerliga skäl”. The requirements were raised in 1997 from “särskilda” to “synnerliga”.

The Choice We Have To Make

Now – nor am I a lawyer nor a politician, perhaps this is why I don’t understand how the discussion about the discussion became more important than the discussion, but when innovation comes along that raises the bar for an industry in all the ways listed above, a bar that the entire industry needs to measure themselves by or perish, this should be considered “synnerliga skäl” if anything in my mind. Ultimately, it comes down to how we value innovation in our country. We could also ask ourselves how smart it was to move from “särskilda” to “synnerliga” in our legislation in 1997. But unless we are smart and practical about this now in 2013, customers will have to settle for a lesser quality service, the industry will see its evolution being hampered and Sweden will see its brand as an innovation leader being soiled. Keep in mind that 30 other countries, including Germany, Singapore and the United States allow Uber.

When I look at the petition that Uber communicated in Sweden yesterday I agree that it was overly aggressive, perhaps even bordering on juvenile. It put some people off that I think actually like Uber and might have defended the service were it not for the aggressive tone. Then again, perhaps I would have been equally aggressive if my existence in Sweden was at stake. Keep in mind that these people are also entrepreneurs rather than politicians and that they LOVE the company they’ve built, cared for and poured their hearts into. But when looking past this issue of wording, tonality, passion and temperament the core issue remains – should we kill off a superior service by interpreting our legislation in this way, or should we make an effort to let evolution run its course and let the best cab win?

There is something about Twitter’s new video sharing app Vine that appeals to me. With Vine you share 6-second video clips that loop; perfect for cute baby videos, stumbling puppies and other world changing events that feed the re-tweet beast. I think it might take off.

The only thing that bothers [...]]]>

There is something about Twitter’s new video sharing app Vine that appeals to me. With Vine you share 6-second video clips that loop; perfect for cute baby videos, stumbling puppies and other world changing events that feed the re-tweet beast. I think it might take off.

The only thing that bothers me is that there is one super dangerous competitor lurking in the shadows. I’m talking of course about Facebook-backed Instagram. Because what will happen if (when?) Instagram adds looping video functionality to their service?

People are already manically checking their Instagram-feeds and there is a big hurdle to get people to habitually check yet another service. Don’t be surprised if this happens in an upcoming update, not least because Facebook are obviously stalling Vine by blocking their ability to make Facebook requests. Look at this:

Facebook blocking Vine from making requests.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Instagram already have a working version of this up their sleeve. We’ll see.

The first time I heard of Uber I was overjoyed. I’ve felt for a while that the taxi system is long overdue for an upgrade and that the tools are certainly here to make it happen. I’ve even had a few taxi-related ideas penned down in my idea-notebook that I could [...]]]>

The first time I heard of Uber I was overjoyed. I’ve felt for a while that the taxi system is long overdue for an upgrade and that the tools are certainly here to make it happen. I’ve even had a few taxi-related ideas penned down in my idea-notebook that I could now retire thanks to Uber. But at the same time I was not sure how well the service would stack up to all the hype and I wanted to try it out for myself before writing anything about it. I also “knew” that this might take some time as it would take close to forever for Uber to ever reach Sweden. Why would they? It’s a tiny market where at least a few competitors work reasonably well.

But now they’re here! They’re only in “soft beta”, but I have completed half a dozen or so Uber-trips in Stockholm and let me tell you – I’m not going back to Taxi Stockholm after this.

Not that there is anything wrong with Taxi Stockholm. In fact, they have up until now been the far superior brand of taxi in this city. I never ride anything else and my company has a non-exclusive contract with them that might as well have been exclusive. We never ride anything else. Until now.

Uber’s cars are far superior with their Mercedes S-Class cars topping the list. The drivers deliver a completely different level of service – you can think of the difference as the difference between a good fast food experience and a good restaurant experience. (There is nothing wrong with fast food… but it’s fast food). Not to mention the nice feel of never handling money or credit cards in the car.

The Uber app is also superior to the Taxi Stockholm app with real time maps showing the whereabouts of the cars, pics and ratings of the driver, make & color of the car picking you up, maps of your route (something that those afraid of going by taxi late at night for example will love) and just an overall more attractive experience.

Taxi Stockholm still has two or possibly three advantages:

1. You can pre-order Taxi Stockholm. Not so with Uber. Yet.

2. There are more Taxi Stockholm cars out there. This hasn’t been a problem for me now that we’ve been so few customers in the Uber beta phase, but could possibly become a problem if the service doesn’t scale fast enough.

3. Uber and Taxi Stockholm prices are still similar. I’m not sure if this will change after launch, but if it does it will keep Taxi Stockholm in the game.

But overall – I’m sold. Good bye Taxi Stockholm, hello Uber.

Today we’re upgrading Honesty 1.0 to version 2.0, and in doing so we remove all digital roles from the agency. It just doesn’t make sense anymore to have separate staff to handle a separate area which is inherently impossible to separate from anything else. Instead, all roles at the agency will [...]]]>

Today we’re upgrading Honesty 1.0 to version 2.0, and in doing so we remove all digital roles from the agency. It just doesn’t make sense anymore to have separate staff to handle a separate area which is inherently impossible to separate from anything else. Instead, all roles at the agency will approach their work from a digital and mobile perspective.

Honesty 1.0 was all about combining technology and traditional advertising experience, and while that was unique and fresh at the time, it’s really what everybody should be doing these days. Honesty 2.0 will instead handle the effects that the internet has had on communications by adopting a new way of working.

The most profound difference that the internet has had on the world of marketing is that it has made it much faster, and thus speed and agility will be the main focus of Honesty 2.0. To achieve speed we attack organizational overhead and inertia by putting all our efforts into integrating strategy, storytelling, design, advertising, PR and production under one roof, one strategic account director and one creative team. Our vision is to become Sweden’s fastest and best integrated agency. To our clients this will mean better results in shorter time and at better prices. To Honesty it will mean a lot of new learning, more creative control, better output and further improved profitability.

I’ve been working on this for a while now and I’m really excited to finally put this plan into action!

Read more about Honesty 2.0:

Resumé writes about Honesty 2.0 (in Swedish).

AdAge writes about Honesty 2.0 (in English).

Digiday writes about Honesty 2.0 (in English)

Last week we received our first batch of Honesty Roast coffee, the first in our series of Honesty-products. We felt that the pod-coffee that we had before, while practical and ok-tasting, was soulless and dull and that we needed to do something about it.

We set out in search for the best brewing [...]]]>

Last week we received our first batch of Honesty Roast coffee, the first in our series of Honesty-products. We felt that the pod-coffee that we had before, while practical and ok-tasting, was soulless and dull and that we needed to do something about it.

We set out in search for the best brewing equipment on the market, and once that was installed we tried to find beans to match. The whole enterprise ended up with us going out to Johan & Nyström’s roasting house in Tullinge to find the perfect bean.

We finally ended up with an ecological and fairly traded coffee from the Yirgacheffe-region in Ethiopia with hints of blueberry in it’s taste. We loved it. But also, Honesty and Honesty Roast is all about constant change and movement and this first 72 kg batch of  Yirgacheffe Honesty Roast will be a limited edition soon to be replaced by Honesty Roast Batch 2 which will also be limited to 72 kg and is likely to be from a completely different region and country.

Stop by and try a cup or pick up a limited edition bag of beans (ground or whole) in a store near you.

Game day. After a good breakfast at the Hyatt Grand we head down to a garage that is just jam-packed with premium Audis, most by my estimate setting you back upwards of €100000 if you’d be interested in one. For this mornings drive out the the race track we are given the keys to [...]]]>

Game day. After a good breakfast at the Hyatt Grand we head down to a garage that is just jam-packed with premium Audis, most by my estimate setting you back upwards of €100000 if you’d be interested in one. For this mornings drive out the the race track we are given the keys to brand new Audi S7-cars. These feature a 4-liter bi-turbo V8 engines producing 420 hp and 550 Nm of torque. Trust me – they’re fast. The route we are taking to the race track will take a couple of hours, so we’ll definitely get to try these cars out. Can you tell I’m excited?

After leaving the city we hit Autobahn for a while. Turns out these cars are not limited to 250 km/h as the production models are, and the car hits 284 km/h without flinching. It probably would’ve kept going for a bit above that as well, but that would require better traffic conditions. Since driving at these speeds is a bit demanding we don’t have photos or video of us hitting our top speed, but here’s a pic a and video so you can get some feel for the power of this car.

Just to make sure nobody was fooling us with the specs we also completed a few not-so-scientific-0-100-tests. We could actually confirm the 4.9 second claim, even if our clock stopped on 4.7 seconds in this video:

We finally reached the race track which was actually an ex-Soviet airbase. Formerly the largest airbase in Europe, it was now undergoing conversion to becoming a solar energy plant. But today it was a race track. In the pic below you can also see the cool and very useful heads up display (HUD) projecting the speed and speed limit (and whatever else you might prefer) in the wind screen ahead of you. You can also see one of the speakers from the über-premium Bang & Olufsen sound system.

After having lunch we headed out to the race track where they had lined up S7s and S8s for us to try out. The instructors rode ahead of the group in V10 R8s. Not that they needed to have faster cars than we had to stay ahead of us, but they sure were nice to look at.

I didn’t get any film of me driving on the race track but I filmed my driving colleague of the day Fredrik in first the S8 and then the S7. The rain had now hit us with full force which slowed us down considerably on the race track, but such is life somtimes, you can’t control the weather. First the S8:

Then the S7. If you know Swedish by the way, note the instructor on the radio urging us to go faster. Funny as hell.

We then did a bunch of other stuff like trying out the S6, S7 and S8 on a slalom course. They also threw in a BMW 550 X-Drive for comparison. And I understand why. The Audis were all a marvel of agility and balance in comparison to the spongy BMW.

We also got to try out technology for automatic emergency breaking and adaptive cruise control which was nice and all, but I think we will all have stronger memories of precision handling and g-force from this day than anything else.

For the ride home the provided us with the mighty Audi S8. Weighing in not much heavier than the S7, this monster also sports a 4-liter bi-turbo V8 engine, but with a whopping 520 hp and a ridiculous 650 Nm of torque. We reach 0-100 km/h in 4.2 seconds in this super luxurious limousine, which is a joke really considering that this is faster than the standard R8 and many Porsche 911s. All this while having air-vented super-plush seats with built in massage. This car is a monster. Funny to see how they lined up these €140000-cars like play cars in a toy store.

The Final Verdict: Which Car To Take Home?

So which car did I like most and why? Well – I really have two answers to that question. Without a doubt the mightiest driving experience came from the S8. With all that power sending off this huge car like a bullet from a slingshot, it was one of those experiences that stays with you. Our colleague brought it up to 290 km/h on Autobahn the way home. Crazy. The car is also comfortable beyond your wildest dreams with seats that more resemble business class airliner seats than car seats. Plus the massage and vents of course.

On the downside, the car was not as fast and agile on the race track as the S7. This is not to say that it wasn’t amazingly good compared to most other cars, but the S7 felt quicker and more stable. More surprisingly I also felt that the S7 was more stable in high speeds on Autobahn than the S8. I didn’t manage to reach the same speeds with the S8, but this might just well have been because of winds and rain that hit us on the afternoon.

The car that I would bring with me home is a car that I haven’t talked much about here – the S6 Avant. Call me boring as it’s the exact same car I’m driving back home, only I’m driving a 245 hp diesel V6 instead of this 420 hp gasoline V8, but in my mind the S6 Avant was the fastest and best handling car through the slalom course. It’s comfortable and quick and being a station wagon I can pack it full of sports equipment, strollers or whatever else I might need. It’s just the perfect mix of sports car and practical every day vehicle. If you ask me again in 10 years or so, I might answer the S8. It’s more of an adult persons car and the brutal power makes it a driving experience beyond most that you can find anywhere. The S7 fell in between these two use cases for me. It’s very similar to the S6 in handling but without the practical format so that’s not the car for me. S6 Avant is.

Let’s Do it Again Sometime

All in all this whole event was amazing. Great ordnung, great people and great great great driving. Thanks Audi. Let’s do it again sometime.

I have a feeling the S8 will become a favorite. We’re talking about a car the size of a limousine that will leave a Porsche behind when the lights turn green. 0-100 in 4.1 seconds here:

One nice thing about going to a car event is that they pick you up at the airport in… well… nice cars. In this case an A8L Limosuine.

Ok. So I just boarded the plane to Berlin. I’m on my way down for the premiere of the new super fast S6, S7 and S8 models, and we are not going down just to look. Or even to test drive on the streets. We are going down to Berlin to drive these [...]]]>

Ok. So I just boarded the plane to Berlin. I’m on my way down for the premiere of the new super fast S6, S7 and S8 models, and we are not going down just to look. Or even to test drive on the streets. We are going down to Berlin to drive these monsters on a proper race track. This, ladies and gentlemen is going to be FUN!

Stay tuned for more updates, pics and videos. Wish me luck!