Barber, an Instagram success story known for satarising famous women on Instagram in a series of parodies, is being used to lure women to Holden’s mid-size SUV with a campaign developed by Bauer Media’s new content marketing division, Story54.
It has already been a hit for Ms Barber, with more than 760,000 views in the first 24 hours as it was shared with her 3.2 million Instagram followers.
The first of four planned series shows Ms Barber doing a sexy car model interpretation.
The plan is to make the car more appealing to women and follows on from work by Holden’s ad teams on Equinox’s ‘Nothing to Prove’ television campaign, and the Holden Commodore ‘For Sure’ branding.
Bauer Media’s general manager of Story54, Jane Waterhouse, said in a statement: “Women as consumers are recalibrating what’s appropriate in advertising communications”.
“They are responding to brands that are abandoning stereotypical and predictable communications and want to be spoken to in a more authentic language that shows truth in their lives.
“We couldn’t think of a better creative partnership for the Holden Equinox than one with Celeste Barber. Quite simply her work says it all. She has nothing to prove.”
The push to female buyers isn’t new to Holden – Astra and Spark had tailored advertising – but it shows a different approach than that employed when the car-maker promoted the Equinox predecessor, Captiva.
Though it’s early days, the Equinox also has a tough job to catch the success of Captiva. Holden has sold 748 new SUVs in the first two months of this year, averaging about 375 a month compared with monthly Captiva sales in early 2017 of 840 units.
By Neil Dowling
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