CHE Proximity

Client: carsales.com.au
Product: Online automotive classifieds
Title: AutoAds
Media: Digital, Owned Channels, Social, TV
Country: Australia
Date Of Campaign: 27 February - 30 April 2018

Background: The auto industry is driven by innovation. From greener cars, to faster cars, to cars that drive themselves. There has been no shortage in innovation over the past twenty years.Unless you’re trying to sell your second-hand car. That hasn’t changed at all. New car manufacturers in Australia were seeing record sales YOY. And continuing to invest more and more into creating bigger, better and shinier TV ads. In 2017, their advertising expenditure increased YOY by 7.1 per cent to $756.4 million.As Australia’s largest online car classifieds and the number one place to buy or sell a car, carsales was looking for ways to innovate their customer experience and help Australians to sell or buy second hand cars quickly and easily.Inspired by the big car brands, we created carsales AutoAds. A tool that gave everyone selling their second-hand car their very own one-of-a-kind, expensive-feeling car ad. For free!

Idea: Every Australian selling a second-hand car now gets a one-of-a-kind, expensive-feeling car ad, for free.carsales’ AutoAds is a cloud-based ad generating platform that uses car listing data to automatically create completely unique car commercials.Sellers don’t have to lift a finger. All they have to do is list their car as they normally would, and the data (the information they enter about their beloved second-hand car) is seamlessly used to create a big, unique TV ad. After listing their car, sellers receive an email with five personalised car ads. They then select which ‘car ad theme’ they’d like to use to promote their car - Tough, City, Adventure, Family or Luxury.The AutoAds platform is capable of generating over 1.2 trillion possible combinations ensuring that no two ads will ever be the same.carsales even selected some ads to put on national TV, surprising sellers and helping get their cars off their hands faster than expected.

Results: A week into the campaign, over 435,215 AutoAds were generated.Over 5,000 AutoAds are still being generated every day.In a country where the population is just over 24 million, we managed to reach 16.8 million people via earned (PR) and paid media (TV). And Carole Smith’s ad for her 2001 Toyota Corolla was beamed into a million lounge rooms across Australia. It must be the most far reaching second-hand car ad ever!