ŠKODA subverts the car advertising clichés in new campaign via DDB Sydney launching tonight
A car ad campaign that subverts the clichés while cleverly making use of them is the centrepiece for ŠKODA Australia’s new ad campaign via DDB Sydney and production partner Finch.
Airing from tonight on free-to-air and pay television, the four TVCs were filmed amid the wintery scenic splendour of New Zealand. Featuring actors whose appearances embody the inevitable type casts of car commercials, the ads initially appear to be cast from the same mould as these.
Since taking on the ŠKODA business in May 2015, DDB Sydney has had a clear vision for the brand that is both disruptive and authentic and this latest instalment is true to form.
Says Amanda Wheeler, managing partner, DDB Sydney: “The ŠKODA brand in Australia has a low market share and limited recognition. Our challenge is to create both disruptive and stand out creative that cuts through a very cluttered genre. This latest instalment does not disappoint.”
Following the highly successful Skoda Superb Reverse Test Drive content film and social film Dog Seat Belt, the latest work for the new Octavia campaign are calculated both to bring a smile to the viewer while positioning ŠKODA as a smarter choice.
Then, startlingly, the female lead breaks the fourth wall in the manner of the US drama House of Cards, speaking directly to the viewer asking “You’re not buying this, are you?”
A conspiracy is formed between the actor and viewer. You’re too clever to be taken in by the clichés and recognise that a ŠKODA relies on its substance and can do without the pretense.
Says Wheeler: “It’s not anti-category, it’s anti-cliché.”
Says Andrew Younis, marketing manager, ŠKODA: “We know people most likely to consider a Skoda aren’t looking for the predictable, they do their own research, they look for brands that stand out and stand for something. We think the Octavia delivers on that and has the substance to match. As a result,we have created a campaign to appeal to that sensibility.”
Agency – DDB Sydney
Chief Creative Officers – Toby Talbot/Ben Welsh
Creative Partner – Steve Jackson
Creative Partner – Ant Melder
Creative Partner – Michael Barnfield
Art Director – Jason Woelfl
Copywriter – Sam Pascoe
Managing Partner – Amanda Wheeler
Producer – Jacqui Gillies
Production House: Finch
Director: Jae Morrison
Producer: Sarah Cook
Editor: Tim Mauger
Post Production: Finch
Sound: Stuart Welch
Sound Studio: Nylon Studios
Music Composition: Nylon StudiosProduction House: Finch
Director: Jae Morrison
Producer: Sarah Cook
Editor: Tim Mauger
Post Production: Finch
Sound: Stuart Welch
Sound Studio: Nylon Studios
Music Composition: Nylon Studios
Skoda Australia
Marketing Manager – Andrew Younis
Emma Ireland – Marketing Communications Manager
Media agency: Mediacom
35 Comments
So Finch is a post house too.
Like the ad by the way.
Nice. Really nice.
Nice, this is great. Well done DDB
They all seem to be driving here…but never arrive. 🙁
Real Dave Trott thinking from Toby Talbot.
Like the cynicism, but no payoff from the car.
For people who buy the car, not the ad is pretty strong brand payoff. I like it.
Cynicism is hardly attractive. Can’t help but feel there is an underlying sense of negativity in these.
…means you like the protagonist in this less and less as the series rolls out.
I like the idea, but the way it’s done could have been cleverer, I think.
Really nice work for a brand with nothing to lose and so much to gain by tapping into Aussie’s cynical side really well. When you are ranked no 25 in new car sales*, why not roll the dice. More brands should.
*http://www.caradvice.com.au/category/statistics/
I agree it’s a great idea, but the execution gets really ham-fisted.
Nice work. I like it. It’s come a long way since The Works. Why didn’t they do TV for Skoda?
@ old CD gay.
Can you and me just take this out the front and sort it out? I just wanna belt you so hard dude. Like, flog the living specimen out of you.
@420blazeit
Boxingfit Port Melbourne 6.00PM
See you there, champ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkFC05bTXso
Please film and upload.
I hope this is the last patronizing, cynical ad from the previous creative regime at DDB.
do it.
How about we make it a fund raiser thing?
You know for all the people hurt by bad CB comments.
The real problem with this, beyond being a cliche of the current self-loathing ad-bashing trope, which is crime enough, is that it’s at complete odds with the overall VW group business strategy.
That strategy is one of successive acquisition. Start with a Skoda, trade up to a VW, then really let the neighbours know you’ve made it with an Audi.
VW make little, if any, margin on an Octavia, but that’s okay because their role in the portfolio is loss leader to a lifelong acquisition to the brands with higher margin by way of their badge value.
Having bought a Skoda I can tell you the sales staff make no bones about this either.
Reinforcing the idea that trading up along that brand chain, and staying with the zero ROI brand is great way to shoot your own dick through short-termism
Hey @ A bloody planner it is exactly everything you say which allows this ad to work.
I’ll let you in on a secret, most people hate ads. Yep. Despise them. Unless they’re really good as sheer entertainment or storytelling, which very few are.
This industry internally celebrates work most people in the real world wouldn’t piss on if it was on fire. Which is why they’ll probably like an ad that takes the piss out of advertising.
Just so you’re aware, they also tend to not really like people who work in advertising either. That may shock you, but it’s the truth and your post just about sums up why, so thanks for sharing.
The subtlety of a sledge hammer. Spelling out the creative is so patronising. The dialogue sounds like what the creatives said when they pitched the idea.
Thank you for surmising the business strategy of a multi billion dollar car company based on your interaction with a dealer sales team.
A++ would read again.
I’d bet a slab of VBs you’re a pom.
We still have something of a middle class in Australia, unlike the UK, to whom an Audi would be too…ostentatious.
They’d prefer the Skoda, and the savings and the lack of ribbing from their friends.
These are very good. They make me feel smart. Like I’m on the inside of something. Like I know something you don’t. I’ve got a feeling they’ll make a lot of people feel something like that. I think they’ll appeal to the don’t bullshit me mate nature of Australians. This is a don’t bullshit me message. Spot on for a challenger. Now all Skoda needs is a less ugly SUV. God damn the Yeti is ugly. It looks like it was designed by a mothers’ group.
Hey, @420blazeit, you didn’t front.
Why?
I was looking forward to finding out why an innocuous comment with very mild criticism of this commercial (shared I note by other posters) generated such ire and hostility in you.
Perhaps you could grace this blog with some well thought-out reasoning or argument for your OTT reaction. Though I doubt you have the mental capacity or writing skills to do it.
I’d love to engage you in a battle of wits, but I don’t believe in fighting an unarmed man.
When a client says…”I thought: ‘This is brilliant! Why has no-one thought of it before?…he should probably ask his agency whether that’s the case or not.
Been done a lot. Most recently by a big car brand in the UK.
Well executed and probably will help a brand like Skoda here. I just object to the PR bs. Makes the agency and client look bad.
@Old Cd Guy.
Yeah sorry bro couldn’t front because I was living my life and not on this website every second of the day.
The reason I call you out is because your negativity on this website is excruciating. We work in an industry that is fucking hard work mate. We toil for months to create something that is never how we fully imagine it in our head.
And then, after creating an ad that we’re proud of, we come on here and get all these fucking negative comments from piss ants like you. I’ve seen people brought to tears because of the negative comments on this website. I think I speak for everyone on here when I say, if you’ve got nothing nice to say, DON’T FUCKING SAY IT. Fuck stains like you are making people feel inadequate about their fucking job mate.
I don’t what the fuck ‘ire’ means, nor would I ever use the saying ‘OTT’. I don’t need to use big words or abbreviations, I turn up every day to work and go hard in the fucking paint.
Also, where I’m from, we don’t fight in boxing gyms, we fight in the streets.
@420blazeit,
If you’re getting butthurt about ‘fucking negative comments from piss ants like (Old CD Guy)’ and ‘Fuck stains like you (who) are making people feel inadequate about their fucking job mate’, I reckon you wouldn’t fight in the streets where you’re from.
Or even inhale your 420blazeit very often either.
There we go – a great suite of ads like what DDB used to make.
@farenheit451 or whatever stupid name you call yourself:
You are so easy to wind up, it’s fun to see how hot ‘n heavy you get.
But why would you want to assault someone for having an opinion? It’s only advertising.Which itself is a business of opinions in which there is no one right or wrong answer.
In all your bluster you perhaps failed to notice I praised and criticised the Skoda spot in equal measure.
This is, after all, a blog in which opinions are sought. It’s the raison d’etre of this site.
I felt that while the anti-ad concept showed an encouraging amount of self-deprecation, there was no equal or better-than-equal reason to think about buying the car. Call me old-fashioned, but I think that’s important.
If that’s relentless negativity, so be it. It’s just an opinion. No one would be more delighted to unequivocally praise work PR’d on this blog, but it’s as rare as rocking-horse shit. If you are such a diligent student of my comments on the CB blog, you should also be aware of my glowingly positive opinions of good work, rare as it is.
Now, if you’ve calmed down from your little hissy-fit, perhaps instead of hurling abuse at the likes of me, you could string a few sentences together to defend this commercial.
Piss-taking ads have worked in the past… Look at Big Ad.
@Old Cd Guy.
I know who @420blazeit is and i 100% would not want to meet him in an alley.
But on the topic. @Old Cd Guy. You fucking suck.
The amount of people in the Aus ad industry who read your comments and let out a collective sigh of pain is in the 1000’s. I asked 5 agencies, 5 all-staff emails.
“Nice, charming. But doesn’t make me want to buy health insurance. So it’s a fail from me.”
The ad is finished. How does that help?
The worse your career is, the more you critique others.
Pack it in and move on. On stop being the guy behind the comic book counter.
Hiyu could you please tell me the lady who is in the commercial for Skoda Octavia which is veiwing in Australia ATM. I would very much be greatfull. Thankyou
Sue
who is the actress in the new Octavia commercial