Honda wanted to maximise the exposure of "cog" so it produced a DVD including "making of" footage of the now famous two-minute commercial. One million DVDs were distributed through publications with young, upscale readers such as The Guardian and 500,000 through Honda contact points. The campaign, fuelled by interest from national newspapers, helped grow consideration to buy a Honda to 42 per cent of those questioned and traffic to Honda's website leapt from 100,000 to more than 500,000.
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Title: COI Communications-DVLA
Media agency: Starcom MediaVest
Media director: Richard Hartell
Media planner: Alex Pacey
Creative agency: Leo Burnett
Account director: Adam Collins
Client: COI Communications - DVLA
Brand/product: VCRAT V5
In its bid to tackle car crime, the Government wanted to reduce the number of cars without Vehicle Registration Documents (V5). Mimicking the media behaviour of a used car salesman, COI chose the motoring and regional press and websites. Spoof classified ads, in print and as pop-ups, were used to grab attention. During the first half of 2003, the average monthly percentage of cars sold without a V5 fell from 35 per cent to 11 per cent.
