Porsche has resurrected a car from its history in celebration of Chinese New Year.

The luxury automaker wanted to promote the pre-sale of the 2019 Porsche Cayenne to Chinese Canadians, so it took a little porcine inspiration from Chinese New Year celebrations on Feb. 5, which marked the beginning of Year of the Pig.

The agency was tasked with reaching an audience of “modern, urban, trendy, free thinkers” that skewed slightly female, and it knew that Chinese Canadians over-index in all high-income categories, says Jason Cowell, CCO at Mississauga-based Maple Diversity Communications.

Through research, it uncovered a historical Porsche – the Pink Pig – that aligned both with Chinese Canadians and the Year of the Pig, so it decided to replicate the model for the purposes of the pre-sale campaign this year.

“The idea was to display the new Cayenne with the sports car DNA, make a tribute to the famous LeMans, and focus on ethnic customer communication around the Lunar New Year,” says Colas Henckes, marketing director at Porsche Cars Canada.

In 1971, another Year of the Pig, Porsche featured its new 917/20 model at Le Mans, a sports car race held annually in the French city. Cowell says the vehicle became an “instant sensation” because of its elaborate design inspired by the unique shape of the vehicle. It had been painted pink, decorated with a butcher’s cut lines and body part labels, earning it the nickname “Pink Pig”. Porsche brought back the design for its 911 model last year at Le Mans.

To help reach its target demo, Maple Diversity decided to wrap the 2019 Cayenne in the historical livery and then adapted the paintwork to match the language requirements of the campaign.

The new Pink Pig was photographed for a campaign that launched in print and digital and has since been picked up by Porsche China, says Cowell. Porsche has also been running experiential activations around the Pink Pig at dealerships in the greater Toronto and Vancouver areas.