Vauxhall Commercial Vehicles (VCV) seamlessly integrated its messaging into talkSPORT’s sponsorship of the Premier League to build a close relationship with football fans could be fostered and alter its brand perception which lagged behind impressive sales figures.
To raise awareness of the VCV range each model is assigned a unique on-air programming feature. These included:
- ‘Clash of the Weekend’ – Movano
- ‘Voice of the Fans’ – Vivaro
- ‘Key Drivers’ – Astravan
The ‘Man of The Match’ radio segment communicates the overall VCV brand message of ‘Wheels of Business’.
The activity culminated with one listener getting the chance to win a Vauxhall mini bus for their local football team at the end of the season.
The campaign also gave fans across the country the chance to vent their views from the comfort of a British-built Vivaro Doublecab. A specially-liveried Vivaro is touring the UK during the football season, with talkSPORT’s presenters carrying out live interviews with fans on their way to matches to build up the atmosphere in the prelude to a big game.
‘Fan in the Van’ participants will be given the opportunity to air their opinions on their team’s performance throughout the season, and to predict the outcome of matches live on talkSPORT’s Saturday Match Day Live programme.
The Luton-built van was presented to talkSPORT by Vauxhall as part of the three-year sponsorship deal between Vauxhall and talkSPORT, which began last season and towards the end of the season a Vivaro similar to the ‘Fan in the Van’ one will be given away as part of a talkSPORT listener competition.
The background to the campaign was based on research showing that over the previous two years sales of VCV had steadily grown establishing the brand as number two in the market. But brand perception lagged behind this change so the objective was to boost this via a combined quality and value-for-money message. So the aim was to increase awareness around specific VCV models to redress and revise customer perception.
VCV aimed to develop an emotional connection with their target audience of C1, C2 D and E men, so media data showed that radio was the right medium to connect with this demographic group over the long term. Research again showed football to be a uniting emotional driver for the group so VCV wanted to gain leverage with and access to the Premier League
Radio brand talkSPORT has just acquired the rights to broadcast live coverage of the Premier League so seemed a good fit for the VCV objective.
“Our sponsorship of talkSPORT is working for several reasons and it’s clear from the research we carried out that the sponsorship has cut-through, with strong brand awareness which is above the radio norm, along with above average brand perception from those aware of our sponsorship; customer take-out is also very positive,” says VCV marketing manager Simon Culley.
Comment:
Results suggest that the deal is enabling VCV to reach 2.4m C1C2DE men throughout the Premier League season. Research shows a major shift in listener’s perception of the brand.
Awareness of the sponsorship is very high 72% whilst increasing overall model awareness. CV is also perceived by 63% of those surveyed as being ‘good quality’, and that a Vauxhall van ‘helps me do my job well’ by 60%.
In terms of consideration VCV moved from third to second place amongst its competitor set.
Understanding the motivations of an audience is key to engagement and to changing perception, while a long term partnership like this is important to gaining the desired effect of generating cut-through from their competitors and improving preference scores.
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