Europcar Interrent is trying to carve a personality for itself in a
’commoditised’ European car rental market with a new campaign that tells
would-be customers: ’You rent a lot more than a car.’
The strategy, developed through Bates Europe, is being unveiled this
week in a pounds 1 million UK campaign, the first work to be produced by
the network since picking up Europcar’s pan-European account (Campaign,
1 October).
The UK initiative, part of an outdoor campaign breaking across seven
countries, aims to emphasise the pleasures of renting from Europcar by
stressing the availability of new car models.
The company, owned jointly by Volkswagen and the tourism group, Accor,
has spent a long period devising and implementing strategies for taking
on Hertz and Avis.
Europcar, which is ranked seventh in the pounds 645 million UK car
rental market, took over Britain’s Godfrey Davis group 16 years ago but
has lost money in recent years as cutthroat competition among Europe’s
car rental companies has squeezed its margins.
Dominick Lynch-Robinson, a senior creative at Bates Dorland in London,
is co-ordinating creative work on the account, which is being run out of
the Bates office in Paris.
The UK effort kicks off with a three-month campaign using 125 sites at
Heathrow and Gatwick airports as well as others at Manchester,
Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Media buying is through
Zenith.
