UK’s biggest automotive platform, Auto Trader, is back with brand new work for brand new cars.

● The UK’s largest automotive platform is launching its biggest campaign to date
● The campaign is a huge revamp for the brand in its 48 year history
● It aims to make Auto Trader as famous for new cars as it is for used
● It’s the second major campaign from creative agency, Recipe

Friday 6th September: Today Auto Trader, the UK’s largest digital marketplace for new, used & electric cars, is set to launch its largest integrated campaign to date. Created by independent creative agency Recipe, the new campaign comes with significant multi channel marketing investment, and marks a major revamp for the brand.
The ‘Found AT’ campaign aims to reappraise perceptions of the brand and make it as famous for New and Electric cars as it is for Used cars. With a considerable strategic overhaul, the campaign is driving big change in consumer perception, taking Auto Trader from a heritage brand to one that reflects its modernity.

This campaign aims to reshape perceptions of the Auto Trader brand through two objectives: first, to inform people that Auto Trader sells brand-new cars, and second, to modernise the brand.

While many still associate it with being a magazine, it has evolved into a powerful tech company – the second-largest tech company in the FTSE 100. Recipe has repositioned the brand by adopting the semiotics and codes of some of the leading players in the tech industry.

The platform ‘Brand New Cars Found AT’ has been launched to clearly convey Auto Trader’s unique proposition: Thousands of brand-new cars are available to buy online with no wait time, so you can have them immediately. The word ‘found’ as opposed to ‘find’ emphasises the success people feel when they’ve quickly and effortlessly secured the car they want.

The campaign consists of two parts. In the film ‘New Car Smell’, the campaign comes to life showing the different emotions people feel when buying a brand new car, expressed through that first new car smell. We see the relief, joy and pride people experience the moment they step into their new vehicle, their own personal enclosed sanctuary. Multiple emotions are conveyed to express that buying a new car is a journey in itself and we all have our own individual reasons to go on that journey.
The intimate, quiet and minimal filmic approach is intended to bring the viewer in as an observer of a very personal moment. The film goes live across TV, cinema, online video and social.

Alongside the film, a ‘red world’ has been created for OOH, social and digital. It’s a bold graphic visual identity that gives the brand personality through playful headlines and animations of cars. The red world allows the brand to be as impactful as possible whilst also showcasing the range of brand new and brand new electric cars available. It modernises the brand through its bold visual system that brings Auto Trader into a new contemporary space.

The media planning and buying is with The Specialist Works and spans TV, radio, cinema, OOH, social, PR and multiple digital platforms. It’s expected to reach 96% of all UK adults, 35 times on average across the campaign and will run until March 2025.

Camilla Ellerton, Consumer Marketing Director at Auto Trader said: “As the UK’s number one car buying platform, we have the largest and most engaged audience of car buyers. Our new campaign aims to bring our inside out, showing to consumers who we really are and remind them why Auto Trader is a great destination to purchase a brand-new car with thousands of new cars, available now and at every budget. We’re absolutely thrilled to have worked in close partnership with one of the UK’s most acclaimed advertising directors Glenn Kitson . We wanted to be bolder and more confident than ever before in our creative and produce a compelling and standout multi-channel campaign that will help make the car buying process as seamless as possible for new car audiences across the UK.”

Dan Jacobs, Executive Creative Director at Recipe said:“So so so pleased with this. A monumental undertaking, in double quick time, over the Summer when everyone and their dog is in Majorca. Still we killed it, new look, modern af and Glenn Kitson and Iconoclast did the business on the TV.”

Auto Trader ‘Found AT’ press release FINAL 05_09_24

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