Though humorous when conveyed in print, actually having your car break down in an area surrounded by salivating wolves is not funny. The B.C. Automobile Association and Rethink, Vancouver, want to get motorists thinking about protection, and the message is reflected in a new outdoor, print and radio campaign that extols the virtues of BCAA membership. ‘We wanted to speak to people who don’t have a membership,’ says Ian Grais, co-CD at Rethink. ‘If you don’t have one and your car breaks down, it’s kind of scary.’

Since the end of October, billboard ads featuring the tagline ‘Don’t get stuck here’ and executions, which include graffiti and torrential rainfall, have been strategically placed in particularly unsavory areas across B.C. to emphasize places where you wouldn’t want your car to break down. Newspaper ads using the same theme will launch in December.

Louisa Flinn, director of marketing for BCAA, says the goals of the campaign are to grow the organization’s membership base. (Currently, there are over 715,000 members in B.C. and the Yukon.)

There are also plans to leverage the ‘Don’t get stuck here’ theme to its travel and insurance offerings as well. The travel executions, which launch in newspapers in the next couple of weeks, highlight places you wouldn’t want to be on vacation, such as overcrowded cruise ships, emphasizing the notion that BCAA has preinspected travel destinations so that the consumer doesn’t have to.

‘We want to differentiate but keep our peace of mind and trust positioning,’ says Flinn, who notes trust is a major focus for BCAA. Executions for BCAA’s insurance offerings will launch over Christmas and New Year’s and will also focus on the trust theme. Notes Flinn, ‘We’re trusted for a number of things, here’s just one more thing.’

Visit Strategy’s screening room at strategymag.com to hear the radio creative.

Credits

Client: BCAA

Agency: Rethink

Creative Director and Art Director: Ian Grais

Copywriter: Heather Vincent