Tell Auto Trader about cars

The online platform will be choosing 10 winners each month based on their listing’s creativity. Those people will then receive a nationwide billboard campaign and free exposure for selling their car.

“We’re looking for listings that are witty, talk to a deeper truth, make you laugh – anything that helps people tell New Zealand about their car,” says Ross Logue, managing director of Auto Trader.

“Kiwis love to tell stories about their cars. We actually get emotionally attached to them.”

Being dubbed as a “first of its kind”, the campaign – called “Tell New Zealand about your car” – has originated from the “simple insight” that private sellers just want as many people as possible to see their listing.

Rolling out from September 1 across television, online video, digital out-of-home, cinema, radio, performance media and partnerships, it plays on Kiwis’ sense of humour.

“It’s actually a campaign about advertising,” says David Thomason, strategic lead at creative and brand agency 4AM.

“The TV commercial shows people trying to write an ad, but they forget the brief. We got quite confused working on it. It’s a brand awareness campaign, but it thinks it’s a promotion.”

Kurt Bradley, 4AM’s managing partner, adds: “Being a nostalgic Kiwi brand, Auto Trader is perfectly placed to incorporate our culturally nuanced humour into the campaign in a new way. 

“Expect to see some catchy one-liners like ‘may contain traces of child’ and ‘it’s 23cm too long for my new garage’.”