SUMMARY

carsales’ AutoAds is a breakthrough example of data driven creativity and video personalisation at scale. A platform where anyone trying to sell a second-hand car got a one-of-a-kind, expensive-feeling car ad. For free. In the first week alone over 400,000 films were created.

BACKGROUND

carsales.com.au is Australia’s largest online classifieds for second-hand cars with more inventory and more visitors to the site than anyone else in the market. Their challenge? More competitors were entering the market and the only innovation in the category over the past 20 years was that you could now sell your car online.

On top of that, ‘new’ car sales in Australia were off the charts. Record low interest-rates have made new cars even more accessible as Australians are using their hard-earned savings to upgrade to that ‘new car smell’. And not surprisingly, the global car brands continue to spend big with big TV campaigns and even bigger media budgets. Your average Joe trying to sell their second-hand car has a lot going against them.

That was until carsales.com.au decided to take on those big brands with their big TV ads by giving every second-hand car seller their very own expensive-feeling, personalised car ad.

IDEA

Enter carsales’ AutoAds. A platform that transforms the standard data of a static classified ad into a unique, expensive-feeling car commercial in no time at all, for free. Available for users to share with the world, to help sell their car faster.

 

To make it work, AutoAds scraped the standard classified forms that sellers were filling out. As sellers tapped the keys, a bespoke algorithm started working in the background, automatically ingesting data into our video creation platform.

The data informed over 5,000 audio and video clips. Every photo, every possible odometer reading, every seller’s name, every price variable was stored in a huge library, ready and waiting for our purpose-built tech to generate the next ad in real time.

Sellers’s didn’t have to lift a finger – being served five options for their unique commercial – each playing off a classic theme: Adventure, Luxury, City, Tough and Family.

 

The AutoAds platform is capable of generating over 1.2 trillion possible combinations ensuring that no two ads will ever be the same.

IMPACT

·        A week into the campaign, over 435,215 AutoAds were generated.

·        AutoAds reduced the ‘time to sell’ a car on the platform by 3.5 days.

·        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 among others, 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!