Hertz Asia launches campaign targeting young drivers in Singapore

Hertz Asia has unveiled a campaign to raise its profile amongst a newly targetedmarket – tertiary students in Singapore. In an effort to engage young drivers, the world’s leading general use car rental brand launched the nation’s first drive challenge for tertiary students, in an inaugural collaboration with Campus Magazine, Singapore’s biggest free-distribution tertiary student media.

Held on Saturday 13 September 2014, the Hertz Drive Challenge (powered by Campus.sg), saw five teams of tertiary students taking to the streets and battling it out to win the coveted prize of a 7-day 6-night self-drive adventure on Australia’s Gold Coast.

The teams were handpicked from numerous entries submitted by students aged 19 to 26 years, from various tertiary institutions across Singapore, namely Temasek Polytechnic, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Republic Polytechnic, Curtin Singapore, SIM University, Singapore Management University and University College London.

Created and managed exclusively for Hertz by Campus Magazine, the Hertz Drive Challenge (powered by Campus.sg), is the first-of-its-kind event in Singapore, making it a unique platform for Hertz to engage students via Campus Magazine’s reach and contest management.

To add to the overall excitement and atmosphere of the event, some participating teams came dressed in costumes matching their team name and tagline. The teams drove Peugeot and Ford cars provided by Hertz to four pit stops around the island, where they completed various challenges, such as ‘Parking Karaoke’, which put their singing and parallel parking skills to the test, and ‘Boot Loot’, which challenged their spatial knowledge.

Using the localised hashtag #ChopeTheRoad, friends, families and car aficionados also participated in the event by cheering on their favourite teams, as updates on social media streamed in real-time. Meanwhile, student-videographers from various local art schools were attached to each team to document every bit of the action that the teams got up to.

The official race video and winning results were broadcast last night via Vimeo, with the winning 4-man team, Jerrold & Friends, comprising students from Curtin Singapore, National University of Singapore (NUS) and SIM University, finishing first based on points accumulated both during the race as well as a special pre-race social media challenge.

“We initially joined the race because it looked like a lot of fun, and the prize was awesome!” said Jerrold Law, 24, an NUS student. “It was a great day, and I have to say, our favourite moment was Coffee Pong, when Nigel scored the bonus cup – and then we all drank lots of free coffee. This was my best Saturday of 2014 by far!”

The winning team, along with a videographer, will have the opportunity to try skydiving, jet boating, thrill rides in Dreamworld and more later this year during their Gold Coast trip, with prizes including airfare, serviced apartment accommodation and rental of any car of their choice from Hertz’s extensive fleet. The remaining four teams will receive other prizes including Hertz vouchers worth $1,800.

Apart from being an opportunity for students to connect with the Hertz brand and put their motoring mastery to the test, the event was also a platform for Hertz to instill the message of responsible driving amongst the youth. Participants were selected via a stringent interview process that took into account their driving frequency and current traffic records, with an emphasis on driving safely and responsibly.

Hertz’s Commercial Director, Asia, Lo Li Wen, said, “We wanted to reach out to tertiary students in Singapore, who are potential young car renters for Hertz. We could have pumped dollars into display advertising, outdoor advertising and road shows. But we chose to focus on this unique, alternative style of engagement with Campus via social media and outreach, as we believe it is the most targeted and relevant platform for this segment.”

Their efforts paid off, with Hertz garnering a reach of over 30,000 views on Facebook and delivering more than 100,000 impressions – with the biggest engagement among the 18 to 24 age group – since the start of the campaign on 21 August 2014.

In fact, the majority of students who enrolled in the contest were between the ages of 21 and 24, coinciding with Hertz’s target audience for overseas self-drive, said Ms Lo. “Our outbound business from young drivers has increased steadily over the years. Many of them are doing long road trips in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada and Europe after graduation. We want to cater to their self-drive aspirations.”

She added that Australia is a key destination among Singaporeans and that this campaign also aims to entice young travellers to experience a self-drive holiday on the Gold Coast with Hertz.

Singapore is currently Australia’s fifth largest source market for international tourists, with 15- to 29-year-olds categorised as the top spenders. In 2013, there were 385,300 visitors to Australia from Singapore, an increase of 12.1% compared to the previous year. In fact, more people visited Australia from Singapore than any other country in Southeast Asia.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia