Vauxhall Motors unveiled their new ad on Boxing Day, you may have already seen it, with the launch of their ‘Yes, it’s an Astra’ campaign. The advert has been created to highlight the features that Vauxhall are proud of and that, in their opinion, have made the new Astra so well received.
Whether it’s the envy of the 4G WiFi capability from a passenger of another car, a fox avoiding collision due to the IntelliLux LED matrix lights or an impressed café dweller reading the 5-star review from Auto Express; the real-life examples show the extraordinary level of quality from the new Astra.
Simon Oldfield, Sales and Marketing Director for Vauxhall Motors, shared with MotorMartin his thoughts on the campaign, ‘Yes, it’s an Astra’ conveys the surprise when people realise how Vauxhall is raising the bar. Already heavily-lauded by the motoring press, the all-new Brit built Astra takes huge steps forward in terms of quality, design and connectivity. At 200kg lighter than its predecessor, with new powertrains and cutting-edge technology, the new Astra is set to shake up the C-segment.”
Vauxhall have clearly spent time on the finer details of the campaign with their choice of music as the ad appropriately features the British anthem ‘Oh my God’ by Kaiser Chiefs and will be rolled-out across TV, cinema, digital, poster, print, national retail communications, CRM, POS, social and PR. The TV campaign will encompass a 30-second advertisement with spots secured in key programmes and sporting events across the Christmas period, such as ‘Coronation Street’ and Premier League football on Sky. There will be a focus on male programming, with Sky Atlantic programs such as ‘Fortitude’, ‘Blue Bloods’, and ‘The Pacific’.
Perhaps more interesting, to the readers of MotorMartin, are the numbers surrounding the new Brit-built Vauxhall Astra:
1. One in four Britons has owned or driven an Astra.
2. c25% of a Vauxhall Astra is sourced from British sourced materials.
3. It takes approximately 24 hours to build an Astra, from sheet steel to the finished article – this is expected to reduce to just 22 hours as production grows.
4. 3 million Astras have been sold over the past 36 years -50,000 in the past 12 months.
5. 5 million vehicles have been manufactured at Ellesmere Port, with 2 million exported to 25 European markets.
6. The Ellesmere Port plant will build approximately 680 cars per day and 120,000 per year
The campaign for the new Astra was created by advertising agency McCann UK who have said that, “With the new Astra boasting some of the latest technology, we knew this would create a surprise factor amongst consumers, as this level of specification wouldn’t necessary be associated with an Astra. The creative shows various ‘surprised’ reactions, with a focus on dispelling any preconceptions – which again creates the element of surprise that, ‘Yes, it’s an Astra’. It was also important to assert a sense of pride that we should have for the Astra. It’s a car made in Britain, therefore the ad needed to have an authentically British feel, from the landscape to the music, to develop a sense of camaraderie for the Astra and how it’s evolved throughout the years.”
The new Vauxhall Astra does appear to MotorMartin to bring together clever engineering with premium design to give it serious presence but ultimate conclusions will have to wait until it’s been driven. Vauxhall claim that the New Astra is cleaner and more economical than the previous model and that complete with OnStar, your personal on-board assistant, it will be priced from £15,295.
Overall then, there’s been a considerable amount of effort applied by Vauxhall to showcase the serious work completed in creating, what many are reporting to be, a class leading vehicle. Search ‘New Astra’ for further information, click on http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vehicles/vauxhall-range/cars/new-astra/overview.html or watch the advert below.
https://youtu.be/djeQq5QE4q4
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