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Brand Purpose Brand Strategy Electric Vehicles

Carwow responds to petrol crisis by dropping electric vehicle ad campaign

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By Hannah Bowler, Senior Reporter

October 11, 2021 | 3 min read

Online car dealership Carwow has pushed out a quick-turnaround campaign promoting electric vehicles (EV) off the back of the UK’s fuel shortages.

Carwow drops "Don't be fuelish Go EV!" ads

Carwow drops ‘Don’t be fuelish, Go EV’ ads

Carwow, which saw a 59% surge in searches for EVs last week, designed the ‘Fuelled Off’ campaign in-house in an attempt to capitalize on increased demand.

Last week, The Drum reported that SEO searches for EVs had skyrocketed after a weekend of petrol station panic, and questioned whether companies would use the surge to its advantage.

“When the opportunity struck for some fun, we moved fast to get a fresh creative live faster than the government could deploy the army to drive fuel tankers,” said Roey Rafael, chief growth officer at Carwow.

The site, which hosts car dealerships, has already seen searches translate to sales. In September EVs accounted for 21% of cars sold, and in the first week of October this had grown to 29%.

For its campaign Carwow tapped the face of its YouTube channel, Mat Watson, to front the ads, which say, ‘Don’t be fuelish, Go EV.’

The ads have been placed on digital billboards across the country. Major trunk roads in and out of Manchester and London are the primary placements.

The reactionary campaign builds on Carwow’s longer-term marketing strategy to be the number one channel for EV buying advice. Demand for EV guidance remains high, with Carwow’s EV advice hub registering a 96% increase week-on-week during the weekend of October 1.

EVs are now on track to make up one in three new car sales on Carwow in October, and the company expects combined EV and hybrid sales could make up half of all new car purchases by the end of 2021.

Rafael added: “The future of driving is electric, and people want to use the web to research and buy. Our job is to capture that consumer demand and channel it toward our trade partners.”

Brand Purpose Brand Strategy Electric Vehicles

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