Round-up of best automobile campaigns of 2020

It feels like just yesterday when we were still coming to terms with our world being hit with the unprecedented coronavirus. Most of us spent our times frantically moving our thumbs over every latest repost we can catch hold of regarding the virus. Every whatsapp forwards, memes, advertising campaigns were revolving around this despicable virus. Last time the world was this close to panic mode was, I reckon, in 2012 when the world was supposedly going to end. And look where we’re today – already on the first day of January 2021 when we haven’t even completely processed March 2020.

While 2020 had been about a lot of unprecedented changes, uncomfortable situations and dwindling economy, the graph of creativity had never soared higher. The content creators jumped on the bandwagon to create content at every phase of the lockdown. The advertising landscape had been ahead of the race too with some brilliant campaigns at work in the last few months. A lot of campaigns distinctively stuck with the ‘pandemic’ theme, there were others who continued with campaigns showcasing a world that existed before the ‘corona’ era. What we definitely got to see were some exciting bouts of creativity and innovative solutions to maneuver around a messy 2020 to drive one’s business forward.

Being an avid follower of the automobile sector, my eyes constantly pursued anything remarkable happening in the automobile sector. And I am happy to report that the lockdown seemed a lot more bearable because of some incredible marketing campaigns by automobile brands. Varied shades of narratives were played out ranging from humor, emotional, serious to dark. There were, however, some automobile campaigns of 2020 that really stood out for me for their sheer brilliance and commendable creativity. I would like to share my top favorite campaigns by automobile brands and why I think it worked and garnered success.

1. https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/film/seat_are_we_there_yet

Never ever have we anticipated for New Year like we have for 2021. Conceptualised by DDB Spain for Automobile Manufacturer Company SEAT, this commercial perfectly captured the sentiment in just one catchphrase –“are we there yet”. The execution is simple in the sense that there are no over-the -top settings or a fancy plot to drive the story forward. However one look at the scene and one can tell it is for an automobile company because of the setting being inside a car. One is also curious to know what happens next which makes the commercial all the more exciting. What I love the most about it is that it asks us to stop whining about what we’ve been through in 2020 and prepare for fresh beginnings. And it takes a kid to give us that blow of reality. The narrative lies in the brilliant cuts of editing that shows varied families driving in car desperately waiting to arrive in a particular destination.

2. https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/film/toyota_the_journey

With so many long format ‘emotional’ stories crowding the digital feed and equally diminishing attention span, sometimes it gets increasingly difficult to set your brand apart. However this endearing video content for Toyota does manage to capture attention because of its high-quality animation. The bursts of warm colours in every frame and spectacular cinematography automatically forces your thumb to stop scrolling down and pay attention. The best part about the commercial is the effortless blending of the Automobile brand and Christmas festivity into the narrative without making it look forced. It beautifully expresses the emotion of a child longing for time with their busy dad – something very relatable to the cosmopolitan fast-paced culture we live in. Which is why I think this commercial works. It pulls the right strings and strikes the perfect chord. The film advertisement is created by Publicis, United States for Toyota.

3. https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/integrated/audi_age_is_just_a_number

How do you make second-hand things desirable for the audience? Romance Advertising Agency based in France articulated the answer to this question beautifully with this smart and cleverly executed video campaign for Audi. The agency explains the idea as “Based on the concept -Age is just a number, the new campaign has been launched with a film that mischievously takes up the usual launch codes of new cars and creates the surprise with a particularly unexpected twist-ending.” To drive the point forward and demonstrate the desirability of second-hand Audi, they cleverly leveraged on old videos of iconic gigs, concerts or events on YouTube that are watched by millions even today. Several hundred videos have been targeted to remind users of the attractiveness of Audi. This is what I call an out of the box campaign done right.

There were so many campaigns around the lockdown that “stay home” was the trending buzzword every day. Every creative streaks shone bright as we saw numerous innovative and clever campaigns around social-distancing and self-quarantining. Many iconic logos like Volkswagen, McDonalds, and BMW distanced their elements to demonstrate the same. While it is difficult to place my finger on a favourite, this print or static ad campaign by Hyundai really stuck with me because of its clever execution. When we had nowhere to go, the only place we travelled to were the rooms within our home. I loved the concept however I also think that this could have been a campaign better chosen or apt for a real estate brand because of the visual of a floor plan commonly associated with real-estate. 

5. https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/digital/tata_tigor_skip_the_clutch

Automobile campaigns are mostly littered with high Adrenaline themes with vehicles manoeuvring through harsh environments- whether in deserts or hilly roads and sometimes even water. Then there are some with high drama and emotional storytelling. But who would have thought humour can be a great appeal for automobile campaigns as well. Tata Motors ‘Skip The Clutch’ campaign is wonderfully conceptualized by WATConsult, Mumbai. The campaign personalizes the clutch making him an obnoxious ‘kabab mei haddi’ between a couple - ‘Mr.Accelerator’ and ‘Ms.Clutch’. The viewers are then cleverly led to the product widow- a stylized shot of the Tigor Automatic cruising smoothly on the road. Skip-The-Clutch smartly mimicked our Youtube viewing behaviour when we often ‘skip-the-ad’. This campaign works majorly because of the humour. The music, the stylized shots and the ‘kabab mei haddi’ narrative makes it so relatable that it immediately captures attention. As per reports, this resulted into 10 Million + video views, 29 Seconds Average View Duration, and contributed to a 370% Increase in Sales in the following Month.

I think the key to a successful marketing campaign is the story you are telling and how creatively you are telling it so that it lingers on people’s minds even after consuming hundreds of content a day. One needs to be bolder, different than the rest and engaging to let consumers in.

If 2020 taught us anything then it was to keep moving no matter how bumpy the road is. And I think, this stands true even for the advertising community who continued to dole out one creative content after another, keeping their marketing operations moving one way or the other. We also saw how brands took it upon themselves to amplify the social safety message during these difficult times. They made their presence felt on Social-media and how!

Just getting started

Rahul Thakur