KGM Torres car launch campaign

Visarc has been working with KGM (formerly SsangYong) for several years supporting the business to deliver multiple marketing initiatives across the UK market. After successfully supporting the rebrand of the company from SsangYong to KGM as well as designing and building its new digital experience platform – which became an award winning initiative  – our brief changed to promoting new product launches. The first new model out of the factory gates was set to be the Torres, hotly followed by the Torres EVX, an electric (BEV) version built on the same platform

challenge

Torres marks a sea change in design language for KGM. It pays homage to 4x4's of the past whilst keeping a steady eye on the future. These days UK roads are replete with badge-engineered crossovers that all look similar, the Torres is definitely different, it looks like it can take on the great outdoors and win. We wanted to leverage this. We had already run a rebrand campaign using journeys as a theme, and were looking at ways to build on this.

The launch plan called for assets to be created for

• Display advertising across websites like carbuyer.co.uk
• Social media ad creative for Facebook and Instagram
• Email templates for CRM activity and lead nurturing
• Print ad templates for national and local press
• Point of sale assets for KGM’s national dealer network

The materials were needed at a point when we had limited supporting assets for go live and no vehicles in the country to run our own local photoshoot – which did happen later in the year – so what we put together would involve compositing. 

our approach

As always our talented creative team took time to understand the vehicle and the concise brief and put together a number of different routes that could work across the media plan and the other promotional applications.

Initial routes took quite different paths with one titled “The future has arrived” focusing on all the striking individual details that make up the overall design of the Torres, the idea being to get people to focus on the model rather than the badge; but it was felt an more overt approach would be required for that to work well and that was not for this launch.

In terms of targeting, the remit was not to address any specific demographic but  to consider focusing on lifestyle interests, tapping into people’s innate desire to escape to the great outdoors. We had seen significant success with activity themed creative before, particularly across paid social. From the range of routes developed, KGM selected “Adventure starts here” This evolved some of the ingredients we had used before and applied new visual devices such as a map pin visual to denote a starting point.

We had previously used the concept of unexpected adventure... Adventure starts here links to this, it also uses the location pin graphic to point to the Torres, but suggests adventures can be had in any location using the Torres to get you there.

When used in dealerships, the location pin could emphasise that the adventure starts at the dealership because that’s where the Torres is. There are a number of different ways the location pin can be used, either with the car or with the aspirational location.

A number of further iterations were required to get the concept close to its production version. Changes such as applying additional emphasis to the vehicle itself and simplification of content were all dealt with rapidly, translated across formats and fed through our quality assurance processes

results

Campaign activity launched in the run up to the next change of numberplates in March. The media plan deployed digital activity across the Meta platform and multiple websites within the Autovia portfolio. This ran in close proximity to a wave of test drive activity in the mainstream and automotive press as well as press adverts, not to mention the installation of plenty of promotional material across the 70-strong dealer network.

Results were extremely positive, with digital creative delivering significantly higher click through rates than recent campaigns for other models. Brochure requests across the UK increased by an astonishing 381%,  and test drives by 393% period on period. Engagement levels not previously seen by KGM.

The Torres campaign was delivered in record time after an already busy start to the year for KGM. As always, the client worked collaboratively with us, challenging our output and providing valuable feedback. It has been really positive to see the early performance figures and keen consumer interest in the Torres model.

The launch of the KGM Torres demonstrated the impact a well thought through campaign can have. Starting with a strong product, a desirable crossover SUV with a choice of power units, supported by an aspirational campaign featuring high quality engaging creative, leading prospects to a brand new website that is both stylish and easy to navigate. Together these elements resulted in the exceptional performance of the KGM Torres launch.

There will be further opportunities to drive market penetration for the range with the Torres EVX and hybrid version of the Torres arriving later in the year