You pull into a motorway service station for a coffee. A camera clocks your registration. Moments later, an advert appears suggesting that perhaps you and your car have simply grown apart.
This is not the opening scene of a low-budget dystopian thriller. It is Carwow’s latest campaign to boost the volume of desirable cars passing through its daily dealer auctions.
The online marketplace is using automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) tech to identify owners of sought-after vehicles and encourage them to sell, using classic break-up lines including: “It’s not you, it’s me” in a highly targeted attempt to flush more retail-ready stock out of private hands.
Your number plate has been noticed
The campaign, called The Fling, began on July 13 and will operate at motorway service stations in London and the South East until August 23.
Its cameras are looking for vehicles in what it describes as the used car market’s current sweet spot: family passenger cars worth more than £15,000, aged five years or under, with fewer than 40,000 miles and no more than two previous owners.
When a qualifying registration is detected, the driver is served an advert inviting them to consider ending their relationship with their car and selling it through Carwow.
The company expects more than 1.1 million of the hyper-targeted adverts to be generated each week.
Ben Carter, global chief customer, marketing and media officer at Carwow, said: “There are over 9 million car changes every year in the UK, and we want to help match more of our dealer partners with high-intent consumers, so we are finding new, innovative ways to reach them.
“Our research shows that 68% of sellers feel emotional distress throughout the car selling process, so by engaging potential sellers earlier in the ownership journey with compelling reasons to sell with us, including being the only marketplace with no seller fees, we give drivers a reason to end their current car ‘fling’ and move on to the next one with Carwow.
“This campaign will allow us to offer our dealer partners an improved stock mix at auction, making sure they have rapid access to retail-ready vehicles that we know are in greatest demand.”
Dealers await the rebound cars
The service station activity forms part of a wider campaign running across Southern and South Western railways, LeShuttle, social media, consumer channels and motor trade media.
Ensure you always receive AM insights. Make us a preferred source of news on Google