Irene Joshy, Head of Creative, Kantar Australia
I have always found the automotive sector in Australia fascinating, but I should add that the Australian content landscape overall makes it hard to pick favourites – and there are so many memorable campaigns. But something is changing in the auto world, especially in the way content in this category is being created. Prior to 2025, there was a lot of the tapestry content with a few bursts of brilliance. In the context of this category it just means 'drive focused' films (long shots of vehicles cruising Great Ocean Road, Sea Cliff Bridge or long outback adventures). However, of late, the brands are experimenting with longer forms, more storytelling, and, in a nutshell, great entertainment.
The business reality of course is that the Australian auto sector has seen a mixed performance from 2022 till now, with some segments experiencing growth while others have contracted. Overall, new vehicle sales have shown resilience despite economic pressures, with a notable shift towards SUVs and light commercial vehicles). But if there was a way to bring back the growth into the category, the industry seems to be adopting the right fuel – creativity.
Creative effectiveness is and has always been about two things: driving short-term sales and building long-term equity (validated against real in-market results).
With that in mind, it seems that creativity is paying off well for some key favourites of Aussie drivers: Toyota, Ford, Mazda, Kia, Hyundai and some of the newer brands surging into the market like BYD, GWM and MG. Some have actually hit the top percentiles in an otherwise tough market to lead in Kantar’s LINK AI database – the world's largest ad testing database.
One that caught my attention was Hilux’s super enjoyable ‘In a pickle' (+90th percentile in our database). It marries the right mix culture and creativity with a distinct role for the brand to play. Director Tim Bullock has managed to cast and capture the essence of mateship combined with identifiable Aussie landscape and characters – he brings out the ‘Aussie-ness’ in the best way possible. The story is one that fits Hilux alone and cleverly and snappily captured the wise and cheeky 'Don’t send a Ute to do a Hilux job’. The creative promises to drive in both the long- and short-term, but most of all, it aces at driving brand love – a true testament to a brilliant creative that leverages culture with the well-loved cheeky Aussie flavour. It wins with AI and wins with me.
A very different yet also a very impactful creative is the Nissan ‘X-trail e-power' – an allegorical depiction of the drive experience. And the ad also scores at the 90th percentile across all short- and long-term measures too.
The newbies are also trying to participate and connect with Australian drivers.
The ‘BYD Shark 6' signs off with 'A big pond needs a big fish’ as it announces its presence through the use of bush cook and content creator Outback Tom and Grandad (Steve) with some thrilling shots of what the plug-in hybrid Ute can do. But unfortunately not enough to move the scale on brand difference - that stays at the 50th percentile.
This brings me to another ad that has caught public attention – Kia’s fictional Tasman Town its star-studded ‘Tasman Town welcomes its newest resident' creative featuring Ash Barty and other big sporting personalities like Luc Longley, Erin Phillips, Peter Daicos, Geoff Toovey, Dane Swan, Phil ‘Buzz' Rothfield, Pat Rafter and Rafael Nadal. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it over and over again. The content is truly enjoyable (hit the 90th percentile), and does a decent job on driving both long- and short-term impact. However, in all the action, chatter and renovation, Kia does not have a distinct role to play and ends up in the bottom tertile on brand recall.
And it’s not alone. Hyundai’s Kona ‘Exodus’ – with none of that drama and a simple narrative – seems to suffer from the same problem. Clever with the anti-ordinary, bright yellow car but still ‘miss-able’ as a brand.
As we leave the world of Utes and venture into the true electric revolution, I wondered if the EV game has actually changed in 2025?
‘Barry Believes’ was one such creative. Its 2024 Toyota bZ4X launch fascinated me and aced the charts with its distinct style of storytelling. However, it seems to have been the electrifying unicorn amidst the sushi train of undifferentiated ads EV ads.
Overall, EVs are using elevating visuals and engaging music, from the use of music in the ‘Volvo EX40 for every you' to the all-electric ID Volkswagen creative, which ‘lets the child in you play' to the lilting Patsy Biscoe tunes of when I grew up. These brands are yet to make content that would stand out as either meaningful and/or different. And as of now, the category has not yet found their kaleidoscope of wonder to woo and impress the consumer.
But a representative of the EV ideology that does differentiate is the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia’s ‘My next car' creative. It is all about embracing the future with the ambition of one million EVs by 2027 and it does spin the dream well. Simple, easy to understand and building aspiration; the ad promises to drive strong connection with consumers across all elements of creative effectiveness.
There is a lot that the EVs can learn from the flag bearer of the cause. Until then, Utes seem to rule the road to great advertising. If there is one thing that I can tell them, do not just follow the trend. Create it. But identify cultural nuggets that connect with Australians and take you a long, long way in building brand love and short-term wins – all at one go.