Vauxhall to launch 10m brand drive

General Motors is spending more than 10m on a new branding campaign for Vauxhall in the UK to differentiate it from Ford.

The campaign, by Lowe Howard- Spink, is to launch on TV on February 1. It carries a new tagline: “Raising the standard”.

The line will feature beneath the Vauxhall name and the Griffin logo in all future advertising.

Details of the creative content of the campaign are not available, but one insider says: “This is much bigger than just three words.”

The campaign comes six months after Ford launched the Focus, a direct competitor to Vauxhall’s new Astra.

Both marques compete in the C-class or light medium-sized segment, the biggest part of the European car market.

The Ford Focus advertisements, which have been devised by Young & Rubicam, carry the tagline: “Expect more.”

It is thought that the new Vauxhall ad campaign is designed to differentiate the brand and provide a unified message across all the company’s car lines.

Professor Garel Rhys, director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at the Cardiff University Business School, comments: “People see the Ford product and the General Motors product as the closest substitute for each other.”