Carsales’ In-House Rebrand Designed to Both Reflect Maturity and Attract Gen Zs

Leading Australian auto marketplace carsales has refreshed its brand identity and launched its “biggest campaign in years”. The in-house work is designed to unify the brand’s creative identity across its family of marketplaces, including: carsales, bikesales, boatsales, caravancampingsales, trucksales, farmmachinerysales, and constructionsales.

The updated identity features refined logos, updated colour palettes, and a cohesive design system, aiming to improve accessibility while keeping the network recognisable.

carsales’ executive general manager of marketing, content, and customer, Rafael Constantinou, told LBB the decision to rebrand and do it in-house was connected.

“It wasn't just the new logo,” he said.

“We wanted to have a brand that reflects how the business has evolved from startup to a mature tech business … we wanted to have something that could reflect what we were selling, what we were offering today, and then at the same time, connect with new audiences.

“We wanted to evolve like all of our product experiences, not only for cars, but for all of our other marketplaces. We started discussing colours, graphic devices, fonts, all this sort of thing that would impact product experience at the end, also tackling accessibility issues and consistency across different brands.

“We developed technology solutions internally -- we are a tech company, so product and technology are all done in-house, and the bulk of changes would be on the product. That’s why internally [made] sense.

“Logo changes, colour changes, and so on… these sort of things we can, and do, tap into external partners when needed.”

Rafael stressed Gen Z is a key growth demographic for the brand.

“What we see as growth opportunities into the future would be Gen Z, for obvious reasons, like that they're the constantly growing audience. They're the buyers, and by 2030 they'll make 30% of the market. [Knowing] our brand would be compared to the other brands that they're using on a daily basis … we felt this could be an opportunity to refresh the brand.

carsales used internal user data, including language preference and consumption habits, to inform its choices.

“We know there might be different behaviours whenever people are buying different makes, models, even different types of cars. From a family buying a bigger SUV to a younger person buying a compact EV, for example. Those are the variations and opportunities we have to both target and tailor content and ad creation to.

“If you think of all of our verticals, one of the data points that supported [the rebrand] across all marketplaces is that there's a lot of cross usage as well between our brands. People might be selling a car today, and then in three months be buying a car, researching for a bike, or even buying a boat.”

The tagline ‘Buy it. Sell it. Love it’, Rafael added, reflects the support carsales provides its partners through “smart tools” and “seamless integrations”.

Leading the brand refresh is a suite of TVC and OOH creative, including three 15-second comedic spots highlighting the brand’s usability and convenience in a series of everyday encounters.

"And this is just the beginning. Beyond this campaign, we’ll continue to evolve how we show up across every touchpoint – from diverse marketing initiatives to a stronger, more accessible editorial presence -- helping our partners connect with today’s consumers and reinforcing the trust that’s always defined carsales.”

Billing the company as a tech-first business, carsales’ managing director Craig Fraser added the rebrand and campaign reinforces the business’ “strength and scale”.

“From the early days of dial-up internet to today’s always-on digital world, carsales has been a household name for over 25 years,” Craig said.

“We don’t just adapt to change, we drive it -- by developing proprietary, industry-first tools that keep our customers and partners ahead and shape the future of online buying and selling.

“This rebrand reinforces the strength and scale of our network. While the look may be new, our focus remains the same: delivering high-performing, trusted marketplaces and solutions that help our customers succeed.

“By bringing our brands closer together, we’re creating an ecosystem where listings and campaigns stand out in a connected, familiar environment -- driving stronger results from the very first click.”

The multi-channel campaign will run across digital, social, video, connected TVs, and out-of-home in the coming months.

carsales has also been working with influencer marketing agency Looksee to collaborate with a number of creators across TikTok and Instagram, with influencer content from Chloe Dillon, Seb Laz, and Georgie Sian to launch from next week.