Honda UK to start ú7m TV campaign

Honda UK is returning to television advertising with the estimated ú7m launch of its Civic 5 Door model. The new campaign is designed to spearhead a repositioning of the brand in the UK.

Honda UK is returning to television advertising with the estimated £7m launch of its Civic 5 Door model. The new campaign is designed to spearhead a repositioning of the brand in the UK.

The car represents Honda’s biggest single investment in the European market since its break with Rover last year. The company was restructured at the end of 1993 when a more formal marketing structure was introduced. Without television support, sales rose 23 per cent last year, but this campaign is seen as the second phase in the development of the marque. It currently holds two per cent of the UK market with a target of three per cent by the end of the decade.

“Last year we were able to provide year-round marketing support – every month there was a different initiative,” says marketing manager Mark Davies. “But if we had used TV there would have been holes.

“This is the start of a brand-building exercise and an ideal opportunity to develop a clear idea of what Honda represents.”

The Collett Dickenson Pearce-created integrated advertising takes a sideways view of what actually goes into building a car by showing a tangled cube of metal and unfolding a Civic 5 Door out of it. It carries the endline to impose the Honda message: “Honda. Built Without Compromise”.

The advertising breaks on March 23.

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