Opel Says Guten Tag Australia
Opel, General Motors’ esteemed German car brand, launches in Australia with a multi-faceted campaign from M&C Saatchi Melbourne.
The campaign embraces the German heritage of the 150-year-old auto marque whose launch here is spearheaded by the return of one of the nation’s best-loved cars, the Astra.
Not sold in Australia since 2009, the Astra was previously manufactured by Opel in Europe and sold locally by Holden. Until now.
Print and large format outdoor across the country proudly proclaims “auf wiedersehen Deutschland. Guten Tag Australien”.
The TVC, which went to air at the weekend, features ‘Guten Tag’ written large in the opening shot.
The VO explains that in all its 150 years Opel has never been to Australia, “but one of our family, the Astra, has”…And it loved it so much it’s coming back and bringing the rest of the clan over. Each family member is then introduced.
To help bed the range in the campaign has also gone to where we knew auto fans reside: Facebook.
M&C Saatchi Melbourne created ‘The Opel Advent Garage’ app, a take on the traditional German Advent Calendar: http://on.fb.me/ONiJa5.
The 30 Garage doors count down the days to when one lucky Australian will win a new Astra, amid many other mini-promotion prizes.
Fans unlock each of the doors to access an array of rich media about the Opel company, cars in the range, what Opel is looking forward to most about coming to Australia and what its going to miss about Germany.
To encourage sharing, if the winner of the Astra is someone you shared the app with, then you will win a new Opel Corsa.
The humourous and self-depreciating tone is quite a departure from the typically earnest treatment of European car brands, especially out of Germany.
The Advent Garage taps into an Australianesque German irreverence such as a German version of ‘Neighbours’ and ‘The Hoff’ crooning a German ballad.
Also included is a quirky ‘silent movie’ video cut with original footage of Fritz von
Opel, grandson of the company founder, setting a new speed record of 238 km/h in his rocket-powered Opel in 1928 and another features German executives being given Aussie comedy lessons.
M&C Saatchi Melbourne Creative Director Doogie Chapman said…“The campaign you’re seeing in print, online and on television is the same brutally simple thought we presented in the pitch. It’s always heartening when a new client embraces an idea with such gusto.”
Credits
Client: Opel Australia
Agency: M&C Saatchi Melbourne
Creative Director: Doogie Chapman
Art Director: Phil Van Bruchem
Copywriter: Nick Weller
Group Account Director: Kylie Wilkinson
Agency Producers: Eliza Malone, Zoe Rixon
Production Company: Mr Smith, Somone*
Director: Craig Maclean
Digital Production: Make
Media: Carat
