Five original automotive campaigns driven by unconventional thinking

Success in automotive advertising isn’t just purely hinged on creative ingenuity, however coming up with an intelligent concept that can resonate on the ‘petrol-head’ level as well as with basic motorists is so often the key to a memorable campaign.

That’s why we’ve decided to pay homage to five very different recent campaigns that stand out purely because they’ve been approached from a different angle.

These ‘outside-of-the-box’ concepts span across a range of different media – including print, social, online and television.

Jaguar Land Rover – All Routes Open

A car ad without a car in the ad?

While the lack of a visible product goes against the grain of traditional advertising (irrespective of the industry), it certainly works in Land Rover's favour in this case.

This campaign ran during the time the UK was experiencing ‘Snowmageddon’ – highlighting the reliability of the vehicle, and how it comes into its own during extreme weather.

Essentially, timeliness and simplicity coupled with a striking image and powerful copy enabled the creative team at Spark44 to deliver an effective and tactical automotive campaign.

GoCompare – Next Gen Cars

Although GoCompare are not an automotive brand, they channelled the ideas of a very specific audience to generate a unique landing page experience all about the cars of the future.

The audience in question? Ten schoolchildren.

Their weird and wonderful ideas were captured and then developed further by a graphic designer to bring the concepts to life, forming a gallery of next gen cars.

The user can explore each idea to get a feel of how the kids of today see the future of motoring. All in all – a fun campaign designed to play on the nostalgia associated with the limitless imagination of youth.

AutoTrader – #KnowYourNumbers

Upon the launch of their new online car finance calculator tool, AutoTrader decided to make things easier for their customers – with the help of Countdown’s Rachel Riley.

In a series of videos, AutoTrader have leveraged TV’s go-to number-cruncher to help people work out their monthly car budget based on a range of unique lifestyle scenarios – from financing a vehicle in retirement to managing a mid-life crisis.

Influencer marketing of this kind works wonders for brand engagement, enabling AutoTrader to expose their main product offerings in an authentic way while providing the user with useful guidance on how to manage their finances effectively

Comfort Insurance – Reimagining iconic cars as campervans

Comfort Insurance, specialist providers of cover for caravans, campervans and motorhomes, certainly let their imaginations run wild to produce these weird and wonderful designs.

This quirky content marketing piece combines fact with fiction – exploring how the best-loved and most recognisable features of Rolls-Royce, DeLorean, Aston Martin, Porsche and Lamborghini might be used to inform the creation of five hypothetical campervan models.

Littered with pop culture references and outrageous modifications throughout, the piece is clearly designed to initiate discussions within online communities of motor enthusiasts – exposing the Comfort Insurance brand to a highly engaged audience.

Audi – Cooling Down

This commercial for the Audi RS 4 Avant is all about the power of sound.

What makes it unorthodox however, is the fact that this isn’t the sound of the car racing round a track. In fact, the car remains in a stationary position for the entirety of the ad.

This is actually the graceful sound of the engine cooling down after it’s been raced hard on the track.

Again, the success of this creative is its confident simplicity – not being afraid to try something different, essentially letting the product sell itself.

Daniel Wright, creative executive, Latitude Digital Marketing