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Citroën Ireland

Helping national Citroën sales increase by 67% by focusing on the essence of the brand.

Helping national Citroën sales increase by 67% by focusing on the essence of the brand.

In Ireland, the first quarter of the calendar year generally represents around 60% of sales for automotive brands, with new registrations on January 1st helping to generate approximately 30% of those sales. With the release of the 201 plate in January 2020, Citroën was looking to build on a positive 2019 with a campaign that could successfully combine rational and emotional elements to appeal to car buyers and van buyers alike, and continue the brand’s rise in Ireland.

“I have worked with many different brands and creative agencies during my time in the Automotive Industry and the current relationship between Citroën and Acuity is the best I have ever experienced.”

Cathal Kealey - Head of Marketing

Challenge

With every car brand looking to make an advertising splash to kickstart the year, Q1 would be a very busy time in the press, on the radio and across social channels. To rise to the top, the 201 campaign would need to feel unique, and tap into the many things that have helped the Citroën brand stand out throughout its long history. The campaign would also need to be flexible enough to cover diverse features such as the Citroën Advanced Comfort Programme, an unlimited mileage warranty, the toughness of its vans, design flair and its low emissions, all within an instantly recognisable framework.

Insight

With all of these competing qualities, it suddenly became clear that whatever you were looking for in a new vehicle, you would find it in a Citroën. We realised that we could leverage one of the premium Citroën characteristics to talk about all of the others.

 

With the Citroën Advanced Comfort Programme focused on developing technology to provide an unrivalled experience on every journey, we realised that the ‘comfort’ wasn’t the only thing a potential Citroën owner could take comfort in. From the heritage, to the innovations, from the warranty to the low emissions, whatever you were looking for, you could take comfort in the fact that a Citroën had it.

take-comfort-assets-RS

Solution

Acuity developed the powerful ‘Take comfort’ campaign which, through a simple but flexible execution across multiple media, allowed us to make the point that comfort was in fact only one of many reasons to consider a Citroën, for business or pleasure.

 

The core of the campaign was the ‘Take comfort in…’ construction, which then opened the way for us to talk about many of Citroën’s strengths, both emotional and rational. The flexibility of the approach even let us celebrate an awards win along the way, with the ‘Take comfort in a proven winner’ execution for the Irish-Van-of-the-Year-winning Citroën Berlingo.

 

Radio advertising was a core part of the campaign, so our flexible and repeating line was the glue that kept everything connected, whether talking about scrappage for vans, or 0% APR.

 

Visually, we created a unique typeface that brought ‘Take comfort’ to life, with a soft-cushion effect that was used on everything from print and social to dealership POS, tying the whole campaign together neatly.

 

CIT-Take-section-3-1

 

Deliverables included:

 

Radio

3 x 30-second ads covering brand, finance and commercial strands.

 

Press

A range of designs covering SUVs, passenger cars and the commercial van range.

 

Social

21 digital formats covering C5 Aircross, C3 and the van range.

 

Web and mobile

6 x variations

 

VOD

20-second C5 Aircross film

 

POS

Campaign-branded items including decals, mirror hangers, posters, bunting, dealership window graphics and even branded Toblerone!

 

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Results

The campaign ran at a national and dealership level, ensuring that customers were receiving a consistent message, no matter at what stage of the purchase journey they were currently.

In a market that actually shrunk by 3.5% year on year, Citroën’s January 2020 sales figures leapt forward a staggering 67%, making it the fastest-growing mainstream passenger brand in Ireland during the period of the ‘Take comfort’ campaign.

 

If you’d like to talk about your brand’s local marketing why not schedule a FREE 30-minute assessment today here? It will be well worth your time.

Or alternatively read more about Local Marketing on our blog page "Local Thinking': https://www.weareacuity.com/local-thinking-our-blog

 

+42% Commercial Vehicle sales.
(outperforming a market up just 2%)
+49% Citroën Berlingo van sales
2.23% Market share
(higheset recorded since 2007)