Daewoo - famous for dealing direct rather than through franchised dealers - changed its retail strategy to a conventional one and shifted its marketing focus from ownership and after-sales service to communicating about its products. We analysed Daewoo’s customer base to understand the shift in targeting that this change required. Our analysis revealed two distinct groups of ‘city’ car buyers:young, urban adults‘empty nesters’While their rationale for buying the car was different, purchase motivations were the same for both audiences: the ‘oldies’ were buying the car because it was an aspirational, ‘younger’ choice, as well as obviously being practical and economical. Target group Rationale MotivationYoung, modern, urban adultsAll the car I can affordCute, trendy carOlder/ empty nesters All the car I needCute, trendy carThe creative, developed by DFGW, centred on the Matiz - ‘The Car You Can Park Anywhere’. Creative treatments used a highway painter painting double-yellow ‘no parking’ lines in small and obscure places to prevent the Matiz parking there.As a medium, cinema provided ideal access to both target groups:The younger audience has always been the heartland audience for the medium.

The ‘young at heart’ segment within ‘empty nesters’ are a rapidly growing group of regular cinema-goers.

The specific objectives we set within the medium were:Overcome advertising clutter (especially from other car manufacturers)Use the cinema environment to bring to life ‘the car you can park anywhere’. We wanted to achieve both of our media objectives in the most dramatic way possible. The on-screen solution was simply to blitz the ad reel: a 60 second ad in the middle of the ad reel, a 30 second ad for the Daewoo Tacuma, with ‘optional Sony Playstation on board’ version a couple of ads later and a 20” Daewoo Matiz ‘tail’ at the end of the reel. The first and the last Daewoo ad portrayed ‘The car you can park anywhere’ positioning and followed the ‘Yellow Lines’ theme.We then explored opportunities to extend the double yellow line theme off-screen: - a) We challenged cinema chains to park the car, not simply within the cinema but as close to the screen as possible. Pearl and Dean, with their client Warner Village Cinemas were the most keen to get involved.Health and safety regulations prevented us from parking the car in the auditorium itself, but in several instances we were able to park the car directly outside the auditorium doors. We had stick-on double-yellow-line floor graphics specially made to follow the car right around the cinema foyer.Additionally we had freestanding six-sheets in the foyers, quad posters on the wall around the cars and double yellow lines on the backs of all tickets dispensed in the cinemas. In the flagship ‘Warner West End’ in London’s Leicester Square we even got the counter staff to serve double yellow lines of mustard along every hot dog served.

b) We hired staff to dress up as traffic wardens to distribute parking tickets (and in a couple of instances fake cardboard wheel-clamps) as a reminder of the on-screen message when patrons left the cinema.This provoked some extreme reactions from the cinemagoers, but those who took time to scrutinise the tickets quickly realised not only that they were a fake, but that they actually contained free cinema tickets. Many award entries will talk about media firsts and ground breaking media-lead solutions; this one does not. The campaign was developed out of a strong, simple creative strategy.

Working imaginatively in partnership with the client and creative agency, we were involved sufficiently early in the creative process to develop a strong media strategy that further brought the campaign to life.We undertook the targeting work, which produced the consumer insight, which lead to the selection of cinema as the main communication channel for the campaign, which sparked the idea of using the cinema foyer and building to demonstrate the theme - ‘the car you can park anywhere’.Thankfully the client was brave enough to commit a large portion of the media spend to a medium that they had not tried or tested before and also was sufficiently brave to indulge the eccentric ideas of their media agency. This leap of faith also involved a serious commitment of time and effort in providing cars, staff and PR resource to make sure it all happened. The campaign is a demonstration of how great work can result from genuine partnerships between client, agency, sales house and media owner.From a strategic perspective it is a strong idea, as the backbone of the campaign is about communicating with the audience in a manner and through a channel that takes account not just of their demographics but importantly of their attitudes and mindset too.What makes it unique is the fact that we broke the boundaries of off-screen activity. Not just because we did something that hadn’t been done before but because we achieved ultimate standout and provoked an audience reaction of which many more controversial brands would be envious.

Many award entries will talk about media firsts and ground breaking media-lead solutions; this one does not. The campaign was developed out of a strong, simple creative strategy.

Working imaginatively in partnership with the client and creative agency, we were involved sufficiently early in the creative process to develop a strong media strategy that further brought the campaign to life.We undertook the targeting work, which produced the consumer insight, which lead to the selection of cinema as the main communication channel for the campaign, which sparked the idea of using the cinema foyer and building to demonstrate the theme - ‘the car you can park anywhere’.Thankfully the client was brave enough to commit a large portion of the media spend to a medium that they had not tried or tested before and also was sufficiently brave to indulge the eccentric ideas of their media agency. This leap of faith also involved a serious commitment of time and effort in providing cars, staff and PR resource to make sure it all happened.