The Brief

The Holden Barina range had a perception issue with our younger audience; they felt it was a Nana’s car. Our objective was to change that perception and stimulate consideration/purchase.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

We knew the sporty new Holden Barina RS would quicken the pulses of our younger market so we crafted our entire promotional campaign around that insight. Introducing the Barina RS Heartracing challenge. The rules were simple. Keep your heart rate lower than anyone else during a hot lap with Supercar driver Greg Murphy and you get to keep the car. The campaign launched on TV, radio and digital and the concept immediately grabbed the attention of our audience, and the media, which fueled social engagement.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

We’re we successful? In a small market with a target audience of only 700,000 people, over the 4 week campaign period we reached 85% of them - leading to over 100,000 visits to the campaign website, 112,000 video views and over 36,000 votes. Visits to Holden.co.nz Barina pages during the campaign increased by 356% compared to the previous period and more visits during the campaign than there had been for the entire year previous. Better yet, demand for Barina RS outstripped Dealer supply within the first month, and the halo effect of the campaign saw a 200 % increase in sales across the range in the following months.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

With a racetrack, a pro driver, and state of the art biometric monitoring systems we showcased the Barina RS in a completely new light to a highly involved audience. By putting it on the track and demonstrating it’s exhilarating performance it ceased to be a Nana’s car. In our target markets own words “The Barina RS is not a vehicle for the faint of heart”. Metaphorically speaking they pulled a handbrake and did a 180.