Bidvest Car Rental not kidding around with latest TVC

"Car rentals can be a complete pain in the arse, you only have to look at the people queuing up for cars at the airport to know that", says Motorburn.

They go on to explain how Bidvest Car Rental is looking to change that with its latest TVC, which makes use of a "'Kid-President'-esque protagonist" to urge its customers to get out and have a bit of fun, especially over weekends.

It's embedded below for your viewing pleasure, if you've not yet seen it:

Immensely watchable, right? There are a few elements that come together in this regard. To unpack the successful strategy, I got some insight from the marketer and agency responsible - that's Lindsay Versfeld, marketing and partnership manager at Bidvest Car Rental and Mike Sharman, co-founder of Retroviral...

1. Using kids in ads is sometimes clever, sometimes annoying (hello, talking babies). Why did you go for the 'through the eyes of a child' approach?

Versfeld and Sharman: Bidvest Car Rental is such a human brand. It isn't the stereotypically Photoshopped, teeth-whitened smile of a pretty lady handing over keys or showing a car, but rather a company that prides itself on professional service, while still having fun. The employees all wear Bidvest Car Rental sneakers (Ed: more on that later!) and the brief was to communicate this unique approach to business to the target market and the rest of South Africa. We love the honesty of kids and felt that a character that could be moulded on - but not a copy or caricature of - Kid President, would be the best approach for this campaign. Kids have phenomenal insights into life, such as: "It's not the weekend, it's the Week-ginning'."

2. What do 'ad kids' offer that adults don't, especially with 'grown-up' themes like car rental?

Versfeld and Sharman: We wanted to communicate that car rental isn't about picking up a car and driving to a hotel. There's a great travel quote that suggests it can feel real good to be lost in the right direction. We want people to rent cars and explore our beautiful country more, take back roads, and even dump the GPS. The actor Phila was such a natural and he nailed the lines in a way that we could only have dreamed of. Kids provide a vulnerability but also a different awareness from adults, and of course kids say the darndest things. We want to thank Darren Kerr and the 10th Street Media team for the production excellence on this job as we are incredibly excited with the result of this piece of video.

3. Tell us more about the staff wearing the Bidvest Car Rental shoes and what this brings to the offering.

Lindsay Versfeld

Versfeld: We launched the Bidvest Car Rental running shoes in late-August. All our staff understand that time is precious.

They do all they can to make the most out of every day.

That's why we gave them all a pair of Bidvest Car Rental running shoes.

These are worn with their uniforms, so also seems a bit funky and different, which is part of our brand personality.

4. There's a clickable car icon at the end of the ad! In a video! We're not used to this innovation in SA. Tell us how it came about.

Sharman: At Retroviral, we believe in developing content for the relevant channel. TV ads, for example, shouldn't just be formatted differently and uploaded to YouTube. We also find greater engagement rates on pieces of content that have clear calls-to-action. Fortunately, Bidvest Car Rental allowed us to utilise its logo at the end of the piece as a call-to-action mechanic. This is the clickable car you mention. Our job as marketers is to make consumers feel something for the brands we represent and awareness isn't a good enough objective - we need to make people aware and then consider our product/service for purchase. Hopefully, the clickable car aids us in our efforts on this campaign.

Versfeld: Yes, the clickable car is part of our logo and will be used throughout the campaign on website ads, social media and banner advertising.

5. What's next for clever branding from a marketing perspective and making that visually appealing, from an advertising perspective?

Mike Sharman

Sharman: Storytelling first, technology second. We as humans are natural storytellers and we gravitate towards brands that understand us from an insights and behavioural point of view. We love making branded content and we look forward to encouraging more brands to dive into the immersive world of video. We have had incredible success with video; converting eyeballs into customers. Similarly, Facebook is making it easier to target consumers with video - this media is equally more accessible in our newsfeeds and on our handsets.

Retroviral certainly seems to be steering Bidvest Car Rental in a new direction. To find out more, visit @Retroviral and Bidvest Car Hire on Twitter.