2016 Silver Automotive

Agency Weber Shandwick

Client Vauxhall

Campaign summary

A dog does parallel parking

Campaign overview

With first-time drivers dreading parallel parking, Vauxhall combined this fear with what they love - irreverent videos.

But the challenge was to get new drivers not just noticing the impressive tech in the new just noticing the impressive tech in the new Corsa - but sharing it.

Strategy

Vauxhall found people talking about how worried they were about parallel parking through social listening, through people talking about the features of the Corsa and by learning about the conversations amongst new and learner drivers.

Since Advanced Park Assist means the Corsa can park itself, this was clearly an angle that would resonate.

The idea was to produce a campaign showing how easy the Corsa is to park, however inexperienced a driver may be. Even if, in fact, you’re a dog.

Creativity

The creative idea was to produce a piece of original video just for a social media audience - lovers of memes, viral videos and cute animals - demonstrating how easy the Corsa makes this challenging mavouevre.

They placed canine talent, a boxer called Gerty, in the driving seat of a Corsa and used hidden cameras to record him parallel parking the car (or rather, the car parking itself). To the amazement of onlookers.

After posting a teaser (a paw pulling car keys off a table), Vauxhall launched the 58-second film #ParallelBarking across social channels, supported with paid social.

The conversation extended with shared content released over the next two weeks, and with Gerty in charge of Vauxhall’s social channels.

Results

This was Vauxhall’s biggest and most successful social campaign ever.

Reach: three million video views (more than 100,000 organic views within one hour); media pickup including the Daily Mail, the Mirror, the Express and Top Gear magazine.

Engagement: posts shared more than 5,000 times; engagement rate of 5.3% vs. a target of 2.7%.

Click through rate to Corsa page: 4.8% vs. a target of 2.3%.

Out of all traffic to the Vauxhall website during this period, those referred from this campaign spent, on average, two minutes longer on the site.

Team

Luke Walker (Creative Head) • James Nester (Executive Creative Director) • Danny Whatmough (Head of Social) • Sophia Ratcliffe (Project Manager) • Nadia Saint (Account Manager) • Jo Bromilow (Editorial Lead) • Filsan Yusuf (Community Manager) • Justine Goldzahl (Account Executive) • Magda Wynne (Paid Media Manager) • Scott Jackson (Director) • Liam Simpson (Producer) • Ben Taylor (Editor) • Karen Standen (Head of Digital Marketing) • Richard Burgess (Social Media Manager)

Contributors

Kaper (PR agency) MRM (Digital agency) Carat (Media agency)