Grey London and Sixt’s New 'Drive Smug' Campaign Will Have You Rolling

Creative agency Grey London has unveiled the latest execution of its Drive Smug campaign for car rental firm Sixt. Three comic TV spots, which air on TV and online from March, introduce a series of brazenly smug characters delighted – often ostentatiously so – with the economy prices they have paid to rent premium cars.

 

The spots are timed to coincide with the launch of the new BMW 5 series which will be available exclusively through Sixt during the campaign period. They continue the brand’s Drive Smug positioning, first launched by the agency in 2015. Drive Smug captures that warm, self-satisfied glow you get when you’ve pulled off a little victory. It’s a feeling Sixt wants its customers to experience every time they rent one of their cars – because for the same price other firms will charge to rent you something ordinary, Sixt will rent you something extraordinary.

 

The three spots, directed by Linear Dove through Stink, depict three situations:

 

-The Cult: An emotionless woman phones her parents to inform them that she’s renounced all her possessions and is moving to Milton Keynes with her spirit guru and lover slash father figure, Keith.

-The Birth: A new mother phones her dad – and presumably now a proud grandparent – with some life-changing news: triplets!

 

-The Affair: A man is phoned by his mistress who tells him that she’s pregnant, it’s his, and that she’s keeping it. Cut to her tuxedoed lover, sitting in a car with his wife and three kids.

 

In each set-up, the person on the other end of the line responds with an over-the-top ‘THAT’S NOTHING!’ – pointing out that they’ve just managed to rent a BMW 5 Series for just £49 per day from Sixt and therefore easily trumping the protagonist’s news. Each spot ends with some gaudy canned laugher. 

 

Jay Marlow, Creative Director at Grey London, says: “Our aim for this campaign was to visually communicate this ‘smug’ feeling – a feeling so good and all-consuming that you can’t think of anything else. It’s the feeling a Sixt customer experiences when renting a premium car for an economy price. And we wanted to let the people of Britain know that it is okay to feel smug…every once in a while.”

 

Maarten Ordelman at Sixt adds: “By using Sixt, our customers are able to drive first class, pay economy. Naturally, doing so will result in an innate feeling of smugness – and there’s nothing wrong with that every now and then. This campaign demonstrates that in an intentionally over-the-top, humorous way, and we hope it will raise a knowing smile from anyone who’s experienced that feeling themselves.”