carwow鈥檚 disruptive new marketing campaign 鈥極nly WOW鈥 humorously highlights age-old car buying and selling pain-points
September 04, 2023 by carwow staff
Car changing is a big deal
- New campaign fronted by Mat Watson, contrasts frustrations with 鈥極nly Wow鈥 experience consumers can expect when changing cars with carwow and its dealer partners
- Creative is rooted in research which found that:
- that nearly half (47%) of all motorists find selling a car stressful, while two in five (41%) feel the same about buying a car*.
- For retailers 鈥 31% say dealing with 鈥榯yre kickers鈥 is their biggest bugbear when dealing with potential buyers, followed by people not showing up to view a vehicle (29%)
4 September 2023, London: carwow, the UK鈥檚 leading online car buying and selling marketplace, has unveiled a disruptive new marketing campaign to coincide with September鈥檚 busy plate change month and carwow鈥檚 September savings campaign.
The creative comically highlights some well-known frustrations that drivers may have experienced when changing their cars in the past. This is contrasted with the 鈥極nly Wow鈥 experience they can expect when changing cars with carwow and its dealer partners, leaving behind all the hassle and headaches.
The campaign, fronted by Mat Watson playing the role of a burnt-out car buyer and seller, will be launched from Monday 4 September across YouTube, Meta and TikTok. Mat鈥檚 seen waiting for no shows with a ball of tumbleweed rolling across the shot, to reacting to mystery private buyers showing up on his doorstep for a test drive, complete with The Stig helmet, to driving a tiny toy car symbolising drivers鈥 concerns around not getting what they paid for from an online ad.
While the creative is tongue-in-cheek and designed to resonate with an audience on social media, the insight behind the campaign is deeply rooted in carwow consumer research.
carwow鈥檚 latest study indicated that nearly half (47%) of people find selling a car stressful, while two in five (41%) find buying a car a stressful process.
In a study conducted by carwow earlier this year**, the majority (58%) said getting a fair price is the most important thing to them when changing cars. Perhaps surprisingly, this was ranked even more highly than getting a car that works for everyday family life (43%). It also ranked more important than upgrading to a better model (37%).
* Censuswide study commissioned by carwow survey of 3,035 car owners between the age of 17-75 between 20.07.2023 鈥 21.08.2023
** Censuswide study commissioned by carwow of 1,308 UK drivers who own a car aged 17+ between 13.02.23 to 15.02.23
When thinking back to their last car buying experience, nearly two in three (63%) disliked something about the process 鈥 from it being time-consuming and inconvenient for nearly 1 in 4 (23%), to not liking having to negotiate (15%) on price.
In contrast, when asked what they valued most in the process, 1 in 4 (27%) said overall ease of doing business with a car dealer and knowledgeable sales staff made all the difference. 1 in 4 (19%) said they liked finding an easy way to get a valuation for their existing car, while 16% said fair finance offers.
It鈥檚 not just consumers who face challenges during the car buying and selling journey, however.
In a dealer-focused survey, nearly 1 in 3 (31%)*** of retailers polled by carwow said that when selling cars to the public, dealing with time wasters 鈥 鈥榯yre kickers鈥 and those wanting only to test drive 鈥 was a leading pain point. This was followed by consumers not turning up to view a car (29%) and those who endlessly want to haggle on price (11%). Similarly, when buying a car from the public, nearly half (47%) of retailers said that inaccurate listing information is their biggest frustration, followed by seller鈥檚 having unrealistic expectations on price (45%).
When asked which are the most important factors when buying from, or selling to, the public, carwow鈥檚 retail partners said 鈥榖eing trustworthy鈥 (45%), followed by 鈥榩roviding a great customer experience鈥 (28%) and 鈥榦ffering a fair price鈥 (19%).
Sally Foote, UK Managing Director at carwow, said: 鈥淲hile we wanted to lean into humour for this campaign, it鈥檚 easy to forget that seemingly age-old frustrations can be felt across both sides of the car buying and selling journey.
鈥淏ut it doesn鈥檛 need to be like this. At carwow 鈥 we鈥檙e here to give both consumers and our partners an 鈥極nly WOW鈥 experience and as a marketplace, we want to provide both sides with total car confidence. This creative is all about showcasing the 鈥極nly Wow鈥 car-changing experience carwow is able to offer motorists, which we can do only via our network of +3,000 trusted dealer partners.
鈥淥ur goal is really to smooth out some of those core pain-points that dealers often experience, when dealing directly with private car sellers. WIth our stock-sourcing service, we鈥檝e taken huge steps in the last 12 months, to ensure that there are high quality vehicles available to our retailer partners to bid on. Our operations team of 60 people based in the UK and Portugal ensure that each listing comes with accurate information and lots of images, so that the vehicles are as close to as described on collection as possible. Our auction bidding system also means that there鈥檚 much less back-and-forth for dealers (and consumers), around price.
鈥淲hen it comes to getting a new car, we know our customers are highly engaged and motivated and typically have done lots of research on our site, making multiple configurations of a make or model. All of this helps our dealer partners feel confident in the quality of the enquiries and leads coming from carwow for car buyers. 鈥
*** carwow dealer survey based on 60 respondents between 13.08.23 to 22.08.23
鈥淲e have record levels of participation going into our September Savings promotion from our dealer partners and we鈥檙e very excited to be launching this consumer campaign in such a pivotal plate change month to drive motorists to enquire with carwow. 鈥