Auto Trader relaunches with new ‘Tell New Zealand about your car’ campaign via 4AM, Lassoo, The Sweetshop and Unbound
Forty years since the first Auto Trader magazine was published, the iconic Kiwi business, now online only, has re-branded and re-launched with a new campaign – the first of its kind. The campaign has been created by 4AM, Lassoo, The Sweetshop and Unbound.
Tell New Zealand about your car, originated from the simple insight that private sellers just want as many people as possible to see their listing.
Rolling out across TV, online video, digital OOH, cinema, radio, PR, performance media and partnerships, the new campaign plays on Kiwis unique sense of humour.
Auto Trader is also encouraging New Zealanders to become a part of the campaign by selecting 10 winners each month based on their listing creativity.
The winners will then receive a nationwide billboard campaign and free exposure for their car sale.
Says David Thomason (DT), strategic lead: “It’s actually a campaign about advertising. The TVC shows people trying to write an ad, but they forget the brief. We got quite confused working on it. It’s a brand awareness campaign, but it thinks it’s a promotion.”
Says Ross Logue, managing director of Auto Trader: “We’re looking for listings that are witty, talk to a deeper truth, make you laugh… anything that helps people tell New Zealand about their car.
“Kiwis love to tell stories about their cars, we actually get emotionally attached to them.”
Says Kurt Bradley from 4AM: “Being a nostalgic Kiwi brand, Auto Trader is perfectly placed to incorporate our culturally nuanced humour into the campaign in a new way.
“Expect to see some catchy one-liners like ‘may contain traces of child’ and ‘it’s 23cm too long for my new garage,’” continues Bradley.
Adds DT: “In line with sustained advertising effectiveness principles, distinctive brand assets will feature prominently across all channels.
“But the most memorably distinctive asset will probably be the half-eaten hairy jet plane.”
Says James Roberts, head of strategy and investment at Lassoo: “It’s a privilege to work on a brand that is genuinely working to ambitiously challenge the market.
“No doubt it’ll be a highlight for those working on it and those engaging with it.”
Auto Trader was established in 1981, moving three years ago from print to online after a management buy-out by Ross Logue and Richie East when they acquired it from Bauer Media.
Logue and East had a clear vision for the brand after their acquisition, and for the past five years have re-established Auto Trader back into the hearts and minds of New Zealanders as the number one dedicated automotive marketplace.
Recently Logue and East sold a majority stake to Optimus Group, a Tokyo Stock Exchange listed company, but remain at the helm locally.
Client: AutoTrader
Managing Director: Ross Logue
Dealer Manager: Richie East
Creative & Brand Agency: 4AM
Founder, ECD: Steve Thomson
Managing Partner, ECD: Kurt Bradley
Strategy & Creative: David Thomason
Strategy: Emma Popping
Creative Director: Guy Roberts
Client Services Director: Helen Prangley
Design Director: James Nielsen
Senior Designer: Imogen Temm
Media, PR & Social Agency: Lassoo
Head of Strategy and Investment: James Roberts
Communications Director: Kimberly Kastelan
Business Director: Dani Geraghty
Social and PR Account Director: Océane Chouet
General Manager: Daniel Currin
Production Company: The Sweetshop
Director: Damien Shatford
Managing Director, EP: Ben Dailey
Producer: Jimena Murray
Cinematographer: Marty Williams
Editor: Luke Haigh
Photography: Troy Goodall (Match)
Music and Sound – Liquid Studios
Performance Media Agency: Unbound
Founder & CEO: Quentin Weber
Account Manager: Lyndal Whiting
23 Comments
The boyfriend is hilarious in this
This is so good. Well done all involved.
Funny! And such a good idea
LOVE the TVC, but the typography and design is too similar to Trademe….
Did I say I loved the TVC?
Otherwise very funny spot!
Didn’t DT do the strategy for Tina too?
Thanks for noticing.
The dealers want Autotrader to grow because they use it to advertise their cars.
So both clients are happy.
The sharpest work on this blog in a long time.
Otherwise awesome stuff! Boyfriend character just wasn’t believable
I’m not getting the strategy. Why would I use Autotrader over TradeMe or FB marketplace? What’s in it for the punter? More eyeballs on your listing? More depth and detail in the listings copy? What’s the reason to list with Autotrader? I like the promo of getting your listing on a billboard but it’s not connected to a brand thought.
Why would I use Auto Trader over TradeMe or FB marketplace?
Because you remember and like this ad and it makes Autotrader more salient.
What’s in it for the punter?
You could win your own billboard.
More eyeballs on your listing? More depth and detail in the listings copy? What’s the reason to list with Autotrader?
It seems like you subscribe to the ‘salesmanship’ model of how advertising works.
Recommend you read Paul Feldwick and check out the ‘showmanship’ model.
I like the promo of getting your listing on a billboard but it’s not connected to a brand thought.
It’s all connected through the brand thought – ‘Tell NZ about your car’.
You can ‘Tell NZ about your car’ through Trademe & Marketplace. And to a lot more people. So why choose Autotrader? Just because their ad made you smile? Why wouldn’t you try and find a point of difference, or something ownable, even if just a point of view?
The belief that a campaign idea needs to be based on an ‘ownable’ ‘point of difference’ to be effective is a dangerous one to carry. And there is a mountain of evidence out there that proves otherwise. Good luck out there town planner.
I have a strong feeling you’re a planner who worked on this.
I wish I did.
Not me. But I’ve been following this conversation with interest.
Thanks.
“Tell New Zealand about your car, originated from the simple insight that private sellers just want as many people as possible to see their listing.” So how about messaging that says ‘Get your listing seen by as many people as possible’? Or ‘Get noticed more’. Something vaguely competitive or differentiating. A bit of sell is not a dangerous belief.
Thanks Town Planner. I agree with a lot of what you are saying here and believe we may not be as far apart in our opinions as I initially thought.
‘Get your listing seen by as many people as possible’ and ‘get noticed more’ is a great strategic thought to build a campaign on.
In fact, it’s the whole reason I love this work – because it is the campaign message and idea. You can win a billboard to tell New Zealand about your car (as many people as possible) and get noticed (by getting creative about how you talk about your car).
Perhaps it’s the brand line that we don’t see eye to eye on? I personally like it. I reckon ‘Tell New Zealand’ is a pretty good way of landing ‘as many people as possible’ – perhaps with more style. And this line invites people to actually do something which is always a bonus.
But what do I know? I didn’t work on this campaign. I’m just some anonymous campaign brief comment-writer.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see on what the public think and do.
I think what’s more interesting is doing something big and challenging that aligns perfectly with a market sick of the trademe ‘monopoly’ on selling anything second hand and the clusterf7ck that is marketplace. No one going through the car selling process wants to deal with that – I’ve abandoned it more than once on those platforms, but at $30 bucks I’m going to give this a hack to sell the two POS in my driveway. Autotrader has currency as a platform, or had, albeit dated, but this gives it fresh life, and a scale that suggests they’re a viable alternative. So now I’m going to check it out, and I hope that the quality of the UX is as good as the campaign investment suggests.
Why do planners always make it so complex.
Insight: Today people currently don’t think about AutoTrader when listing their car.
Objective: Get Autotrader on the radar of people selling their car.
Result: great creative work that meets the objective with a integrated offer to drive conversion/trials
Future: build some more reasons to believe once AT is at least in the recognition/consideration frame.
Yup, that was pretty much our strategy.
Before I list on Autotrader, Trademe or book some OOH
Got a beaut 99 Nissan Terrano, diesel chugga
Why aren’t the actors credited in this list of credits? As a director myself, I have come here to see who they are… Crediting everyone else except the onscreen talent is poor form imo.