Renault picks wild card agency in Oz

SYDNEY: French car maker Renault has dealt a wild card by choosing

Melbourne agency Spinach Advertising to mark its return to the

Australian market after a five-year absence with an Adollars 10 million

(about USdollars 5 million) campaign.

Spinach, formed only 18 months ago, was the wild card among a list of

seven agencies on the original pitch, according to Richard Wilson,

director of Vehicle Distributors Australia, which imports and

distributes Renault in the country.

"They really surprised us. Their knowledge, strategy and creative was

very impressive," he added. Renault marketing manager Ian Mclean said

that the campaign would help position the brand as warm, and yet daring

and visionary. "I believe that we've got the product right,

super-competitive pricing and a promotional budget to help tie it all

together."

Spinach's commercial campaign was launched at the end of last month with

a 60-second TVC that extensively uses 3-D computer graphics, running

under Renault's global positioning line: "We create cars".

That was followed by a 30-second, product-specific TV spots that have

been augmented with an extensive magazine, press and outdoor

campaign.

Spinach partner Craig Flanders said in-depth research helped to win the

account.

"We found out more about the project than the other agencies and that

gave our pitch a lot of substance. It was pretty simple; the first thing

we did was to read a lot about what Renault had done. We wanted to get

out the product story but to do it in a way that gave it the greatest

effect. The other pitches based their story on the fact that the product

is French, or European."

Before Renault pulled out of the Australian market in 1996, it was

distributed by Volvo. Under its new distribution strategy the cars will

be sold through a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nissan Australia.