Kwik Fit promises to make the roads a happier, and safer, place with its drive away happy, every time assurance. The brand has supported safe #TRIPS with lifesaving safety tips, provided a guide on how you to get the most out of your car, and last year tested humour to explain why customers will leave satisfied after every visit. This new campaign is completely different. Humour has been retained, but it’s a collection of dad jokes.
The VCCP digital OOH campaign, Road Happy, uses Ocean Outdoor’s vehicle react technology to scan cars anonymously as they are stuck in queues at traffic lights, serving drivers with a joke according to the make, class, colour or fuel type of their vehicle. The creative revolves around 10 different jokes which are served depending on the data trigger and the location concerned. For example, “Hey you in the Italian car. Why should you always use a sat nav? Because otherwise you’ll just Rome around”; “Hey, driver in the white car. Why does it cost so much to put air in a tyre? Inflation!”; and “Hey cab driver. What’s worse than raining cats and dogs? Hailing taxis!”
The ads conclude with the uplifting message, Happy drivers are safer drivers.
Tony Hector, creative director at VCCP, explained, “When a purpose brief like this lands, the instinct is often to go heavy – to make it worthy and serious. But with a thought like ‘Drive away happy every time’, you realise you can still land a meaningful message by being engaging, even funny. That’s the creative leap: using humour to say something serious is what makes this work stand out.”
The campaign is live across six roadside locations that are enabled with Ocean vehicle react technology in London (Holland Park Roundabout and Gypsy Corner); Birmingham (Bullring South); Manchester (Princess Road); Newcastle (The Screen on the Tyne); and Southampton (The Screen on West Quay). It plays out until each location hits 6,000 play outs.
The campaign was a silver winner in Ocean Outdoor’s annual Digital Creative Competition which fosters original ideas in digital out of home.
Harry Neale, strategist at VCCP, stated, “Kwik Fit exists to keep Britain’s drivers safe on the roads and ensure that they drive away happy, every time. That isn’t just when they leave a Kwik Fit centre, but whenever they are on the road. This campaign helps to do just that, with the opportunity to have a positive impact on drivers beyond just the physical service provided. Road rage is no joke, but by using Ocean’s vehicle react technology to grab people’s attention with an extra layer of relevancy, we can turn it into one!”
Ocean Outdoor UK head of marketing Jennifer Bell, added,“This campaign is a positive reinforcement of the brand. A refreshingly simple creative idea which is right where Kwik Fit positions itself. As a motorist, you do not know that you are being teched – and it would be hard not to crack a smile at the ‘dad jokes’.”
Credits
Client: Kwik Fit
Creative Agency: VCCP
Creative Director: Tony Hector
Creatives: Ed Rees & Kat Lwahas
Account Lead: Joe Humphries
Account Manager: Stella Wharmby
Integrated Creative Producer: Eleanor Hardy
Media Provider: Ocean Outdoor
Creative Director: David Tait
Creative Client Director: Xavier Keenan
Project Manager: Joseph Banning
