Hertz Present Run

This came through to the B5 tips line, a Christmas e-card from Hertz Australia developed by Publicis Digital. A company that is so digital they do not have a company URL as part of their mail and the email domain takes me to a ‘under construction’ page for Publicis Mojo but Google gets me to a more up-to-date blog, which is actually not too bad in content, but poor in choice of font. Why am I picking on them to start with? Because they sent all the details of the campaign in a Word document. Just put it in the email!!!

Onto the site and the challenge they were given – the development of a holiday e-card to send out to their customer base and beyond. It’s called Present Run and is a personalised ride with Santa

The Hertz brief had two objectives. The first was to create an eDM with a Christmas message and a small gift (various discounts on rental) for #1 Club Gold customers. The second was to build the customer database which was the challenging aspect of the job. Due to its token nature, we couldn’t rely on the gift to help achieve this objective. To increase the chances of the eDM going viral, we needed a powerful idea. Our solution was entertainment with a personal touch; turning the experience itself into the gift.

You actually do seem to get a good deal a the the end of the film, a triple upgrade. Looks worth it if you hire cars in Australia regularly and there’s no compulsion to sign up for more information just a friendly request.

Our idea involves Santa taking Hertz customers for a personalised ‘joy-ride’ before revealing their gift. The original script featured a friendly, eccentric, lead-footed Santa who drove a 70’s muscle car. But then his character and the script evolved. He became a dark uncomfortably intense Santa with prison tatts – with a unique way of offering a present. To their great credit, Hertz accepted him, gave him the database and let him loose.

He’s definitely a different Santa, not what you’d expect and most likely a challenge for a corporate team to accept. But this is Australia that often pushes the limits if what I’ve seen is typical, so i think it suits.

Having experienced their video, users are given the option of personalising a new video for a friend and sending them on a similar white-knuckle journey. The user’s choices of name, gender and their friends sins are translated into a customized video sequence, with text overlays motion-tracked against the video in a seamless fashion. In sending on to a friend, a user generates a different experience from the one they had, more relevant to their friends own personality.

The customisation is done well, fits in really well with the film. The agency logo is slightly surprising, something I rarely see in client videos. Maybe that was part of the deal. The film itself is not quite a scary as is being suggested and I found the payoff to be week.

Ring tones and wallpapers are also offered – check out the link next to the animated car. This idea found the Hertz boundaries and leapt over them, breaking new ground in the brand personality. And audiences have been delighted to sit up straight and take notice.

The idea is entended beyond the video, which is nice. I think they are right about the new steps in brand personality, the Santa is quirky enough for me to remember them and think about Hertz as someone slightly different. But I wonder how their regular customers take the video?