When Honda briefed the agency to promote two of its compacts – City and Civic – I hatched a plan to tempt customers into test-driving them both. A large part of the target market is young white-collar workers who have busy weekends and little spare time during the week. So, why not arrange to get picked up from work in one, test-drive to the dealership then switch cars for another test-drive back? Easy! Honda thought so too.
Camelot Derivatives is a Melbourne based investment company that guides adventurous punters in the dark art of ‘futures’ trading. When I began writing this small space press campaign for Zebra-Direction I had no idea about such stuff. But after a short briefing, and much background reading, I produced this campaign which breaks down the perceived risks of the product with the help of simple allegories. It worked a treat on sophisticated investors who’d previously avoided futures because they’d looked too complicated.
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An ongoing series of radio commercials publicises this great little pub in Port Melbourne, known for its friendly atmosphere, cozy interior and great meals – a true ‘local’ watering hole. And with its pick-up and drop-off limousine service, you can become a local even if you don’t live within walking distance.
For very large events to draw capacity crowds, they must rate in Australia’s national psyche as as one of our ‘must-attend’ social scenes of the the year. So I wrote a short film interweaving the stories of various Cup protagonists – from horse and jockey to caterer and spectator – showing their preparations for the big day. In doing so, we were able to show all the excitement of the event and demonstrate that it promises much more than just horse racing.
With new finance offers crowding the motoring press, this distinctively customised car key graphic worked as a drawcard across press, point-of-sale and even radio to highlight Honda’s finance offer to ‘get you into a Euro’. At the same time, a new grid layout style for print media was instituted, allowing multiple retail offers within the one ad while retaining a recognisable visual image.
As with most ‘clearances’, this Honda promotion was not discount driven, so the creative brief called for an event rather than a sale. An economical, yet eye-catching, pun held the whole campaign together,
In 2012 the Honda Civic turned 40. So I dug through advertising archives and found the original global launch campaign created by American agency, Chiat Day. Our client was enthralled and asked us to to produce a new print campaign based on the original launch concept, following the original 1972 art direction style. The following ads emerged utilising font styles that I hadn’t employed since my early days in advertising.
In 2011, natural disasters in Japan and Thailand halted production in Honda factories. With Honda showrooms running low on cars, sales enquiries began to taper off. When production eventually resumed, a retail campaign was urgently needed to reassure customers that there was now a full range to choose from.
