2024 Gold Automotive

Agency: TMW

Client: Suzuki

Entry Title: The Best Kept Secret

Executive Summary

Despite making what had been called the ‘Best Affordable Hybrid on the market’, the Suzuki Swift wasn’t getting the positive attention it deserved. The campaign needed to overcome neutrality and put Suzuki on people’s shortlist to test drive.

Strategy

While other brands were abandoning their Supermini drivers by discontinuing the likes of Fiesta, Micra and Rio to focus on electric vehicles, the team saw as an opportunity to win the hearts of a new audience with Swift: The Sweet Spot Seekers. These are Supermini drivers who crave value without compromise.

Overcoming their neutrality required a shift. From focussing on the love that goes into cars in the Suzuki factory, to celebrating the feeling owners get from their Suzuki in the real world. Speaking to Suzuki owners revealed real pride in being part of an exclusive club.

The team doubled down on the insight that there is magic in being one of the select few in the know and when you discover something this good it’s human nature to want to keep it to yourself, or it loses its magic. Introducing...The New Suzuki Swift. ‘The Best Kept Secret on the Road.’

Creativity

The creative dramatises the imaginative lengths Suzuki owners will go to, to keep their beloved Swifts a secret. TV saw one owner shake a tree burying her Swift under a mound of autumn leaves. Another playfully snuffed out a streetlight hiding it in darkness, while elsewhere a Swift parked behind a perfectly trimmed hedge, in the shape of a Swift.

In radio, a reluctant Suzuki owner mischievously ‘showed’ photos of his Swift to the listening audience. On social and digital, owners were witnessed sabotaging the photoshoot, pulling the power, flipping the camera and even reversing the car out of frame. YouTube viewers were enticed to press the skip button, with an ad Swift owners would rather they didn’t see.

Committed Suzuki prospects were then welcomed to the Suzuki fold: congratulated on discovering the best kept secret on the road.

Results

Consumer pre-testing performed way above benchmark at capturing attention (84%), enjoyability (84%) and memorability (86%). The work successfully shift neutral perceptions of Suzuki among the audience: “I’m interested and intrigued, it’s not a brand I would think of but it makes me want to find out more.”

Brand tracking studies revealed significant ad recall, with both UK and Ireland surpassing category benchmarks by over 190%. OOH gained 138.5 million impacts across nearly 1,250 sites: 23 million people viewing billboards an average six times each.

All of the activity has helped overcome Suzuki’s neutrality issue, with brand tracking studies revealing significant uplift in affinity scores towards Suzuki vs category benchmarks both across UK (20% uplift) and Ireland (333% uplift). Sales exceeded predicted forecasts by 32%, contributing to 7.5% growth in total company sales vs 2023.

The Team

Suzuki - Alex Key, General Manager - Marketing - Jodie Brooke, Senior Brand Communications Manager - Carys Stovin, Brand & Digital Communications Executive

TMW - Graeme Noble, Chief Creative Officer - Mark Urey, Creative Director - Neil Matthews, Associate Creative Director - Stuart Woodall, Associate Creative Director - Phoebe Rodgers, Senior Planner - Dan Bowers, Chief Strategy Officer - Karen Morris, Client Services Director - Struan Bourquin, Business Director - Sophie Maher, Group Account Director - Lucy Bence, Group Account Director - Emma Jacob, Account Manager - Sophie Finch, Account Manager - Sam Pickett, Group Account Director - Becky Yates, Project Manager - Nick Raven, Lead Designer - Joe Cottam, Designer - Ivan Langham, Senior Designer - Victoria Henderson, Artworker - Lucy Yong Designer - Amy Henderson, Copywriter - Liz Hickson, Head of Studio - Stelios Theocharous, Senior Agency Producer

Move Studio - Millie Graham-Campbell, Head of Move Studio

Traktor - Andrew Levene, Executive Producer & Managing Director - Ed Bellamy, 1st Assistant Director

Stink - Ben Roberts, Producer - Kelly Brown, Production Manager - Franz Lustig, Director of Photography - Nicholas Foley-Oates, Production Designer - Michelle May, Costume - Mark O'Hanlon, Locations

Final Cut - Ryan Beck, Editor - Hannah Burger, Assistant Editor - Nikki Porter, Senior Edit Producer

Framestore - Kamen Markov, VFX Creative Director - Murray Butler, VFX Shoot Supervisor - Luigi Russo, VFX Supervisor - Ben Stell, VFX Producer - Jamie Scott, VFX Assisstant - Benjamin Lilley, Compositing - Guy Lubin, Compositing - Aitor Echeveste, Compositing - Simon Stoney, Compositing - Maxwell Lane, Compositing - Humberto Reynaga, VFX Editor - Chelsea Aston, Digital Matte Painters - Ivo Horvat, Digital Matte Painters - Billy Butler, VFX Asset Lead - Antoine Barbannaud, CG Lighting - Oliver Cordwell, Layout Artist

Company 3 - Jean Clement, Soret Colourists - Matthieu Toullet, Colourist - Santino Napolitano, Colour Assistants - Jack Kennedy, Colour Assistants - Karl Pasamont, Colour Assistants - Edwin Elkington, Senior Producer - Colour - Ellora Soret, Executive Producer - Colour

Factory - Josh Campbell, Sound Design and Mix - Ciara Wakley, Audio Producer

Freelance - Alex Howe, Photographer - Drew Deas, Photographer's Assistants, Freelance - Thomas Sedgewick, Photographer's Assistants

Daybreak Creative - Russel Day, Retoucher

Move Studio - Tom Rees-Kaye, BTS Videographer and Editor - Julia Olsson, Editor Cutdowns