Craik Jones Watson Mitchell Voelkel has unveiled the first wave of
its campaign to launch the Rover 75 on to the market in March 1999.
The international campaign, covering the UK, Ireland, Germany, France,
Netherlands, Japan, Belgium and Portugal, will be spread over the next
six months and involves an initial launch pack, followed by consumer
press inserts and, finally, invitations for a test drive.
The launch pack tells a story of one man’s vision - the designer,
Richard Woolley - and his dedication in creating a breathtaking new car
from ’a clean sheet of paper’. The work, which will go out to past and
present Rover owners, contains a series of photographs of the new car
accompanied by quotes from Woolley. ’We knew what we wanted to do,’ he
explains. ’And when it happened, there was a surge of energy - like a
dam bursting.’
On the inside back cover of the pack, a brief biography of Woolley
reads: ’As a boy in South Wales, Richard Woolley remembers watching a
neighbour driving off in his Rover 3-litre each morning - and vowing
that he too would have a car like that one day.’
The mail pack was written by Pamela Craik and art directed by Chris
Jones.
The forthcoming inserts have been written by Simon Kershaw and art
directed by Philip Keevill.
Lisa Thomas, Rover’s account handler at Craik Jones, said: ’This is one
of Rover’s most important launches. It was important to develop a
strategy of ’controlled doses’ of information in order to keep up the
level of excitement and anticipation until the actual launch next
March.
’The creative concept tackles this by giving customers an intimate
insider’s view of the car without ever giving the whole game away - each
stage always leaves people hungry to find out more.’