The one with the dinosaurs...
Yep, this is one of our favourite campaigns of the last few years - and probably the one we get the most comments about. A family of brightly-coloured plasticine dinosaurs, selling cars, in South Wales. What's weird about that? Read on to find out how it all came about...
The elephant(s) in the room
Day's Motor Group asked us to pitch a campaign idea that would engage new customers and build on their 100 years of heritage. At that point, it seemed like a typical brief. What wasn't mentioned were the herd of life-size dinosaur models found in every one of their six sites! Good job we don't scare easy.
What stood out was that they weren't effectively utilising this very big USP. The unmissable dinosaurs had no relevance and, although infamous in the area, were never referenced in any marketing.
So, our proposal was to stop pussyfooting around, stop fighting it, and to stop ignoring the 'elephants' quite literally in the room... and instead, to commit, once and for all, and go full-on DINO!
Alicia Nugent, Marketing Manager
AN IRRESISTIBLE CONCEPT
People love our on-site dinosaurs and are always having selfies with them when looking at our cars. We just needed a way to tie them into our marketing strategy. Sticky presented an irresistible concept that makes the most of our unique characters.
Meet Derek, Cyril, Janet & Mark
And so our dinosaurs were born! And were then, of course, promptly hired by Day's Motorpark to be part of their onsite team to run everything from security to sales and finance to PR - a very natural next step on the career ladder, I'm sure you'd agree.
Coming to life on TV
Then it was time for them to make their screen debut in a series of stop-motion animated ads. Each commercial focussing on a different big benefit of buying from Day's... through the heavily accented voices and expressive movements of our plasticine colleagues!
Roaring onto radio
The campaign continued on multiple radio stations across Wales, with our local character accents coming to the fore and the specially selected voiceover talent even starting to get their own following!
"When I told them what I did for a job, the inevitable question “What have I heard you in then?” was asked. So I cautiously mentioned ‘Day's Motorpark’ and Derek the dinosaur. Suddenly these twice-removed 2nd cousins who’d been stand off-ish were jumping up and down with excitement and phoning their mates, getting me to do the voice and treating me like I was the new messiah!" Peter, dinosaur voiceover
Mixing it up in press
And since we were doing things differently, we decided to treat the local press in a novel way too - breaking from the car dealer tradition of pages and pages full of car model thumbnails, to the odd row of cardboard cartoon cars... and an introduction to our newest staff members.
A new star on social...
Of course, when you have someone as eloquent as Derek in the team, it's a waste to limit his duties to simple security. So why not bring him inside so he can answer the sales calls, advising customers as to their motoring needs? That's what we'd do.
And what comes after the dinosaurs? Why their tails, of course!
