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Herald puts pedal to marketing metal to push new motoring lift-out

The automotive industry has had a rough time of it recently and there’s been a consolidation of automotive media in the local market, but the New Zealand Herald is obviously confident things are looking up, because it’s taken a fairly bold step and launched a comprehensive new motoring lift-out called Driven and backed it up with a big launch campaign. 

Using the classic car-related pun about “putting readers and advertisers in the driving seat”, the tabloid pull-out Driven launched on Saturday 30 April in the Weekend Herald and will be published twice a week, replacing Herald Cars and SuperWheels on Wednesdays but providing a similar range of content across motorsport, new car reviews, model launches, technical articles, personal pieces, celebrity stories, quizzes and quirks.

Magazine inserts like Canvas, Viva and Time Out have proven quite successful for the Herald and business marketing manager Sara Perry says the intention was to create more of a “destination read” for the blokes. And so far she says it has been received very well since its soft-launch last week.

“We’ve had some really positive feedback from the first two issues. I think we’re on to a winner,” she says.

A multimedia marketing campaign by DraftFCB that “explores motoring’s nostalgic link to the typical New Zealand lifestyle” launches today and includes billboards, radio, adshels, online and press (newspaper and magazine).

“It’s the first motoring campaign we’ve done for a while … We think it’s a cool campaign; something fresh and unique for motoring, and a great way to launch our new and improved lift-out with some pizzazz.”

Three creative executions have been dreamed up to touch different audiences, which she says allows them to target media that motoring may not have traditionally targeted and over the next few weeks the print ads will appear in some women’s magazine titles and in the Herald.

“Our radio [NZH_30_PET1] is quite exciting as we were lucky enough to use Callie Blood, the official voice of Tom Tom NZ,” she says. “Our ads have been created in a GPS-type style so it’s going to be interesting to see whether we hear from anyone who has their Tom Tom turned on in the car when our ad airs.”

Driven, which is made up of print editor Alastair Sloane, online editor Matt Greenop and motoring writers and columnists’ including David Linklater, Eric Thompson, Phil Hanson and Liz Dobson, has been designed alongside extensive research into what motoring means to readers. For some, it’s a life-long love affair; for others it’s dipped in and out of and enjoyed from an entertainment perspective or a purchase requirement. So along with the editorial content, it will also offer readers the ability to research, buy, view or sell vehicles. And while the newspaper world’s classifieds cashcow has been severely punished by the online realm, extended coverage will be available online at nzherald.co.nz/driven.

“Driven represents an exciting milestone for the New Zealand Herald,” says Greg Hornblow, general manager of advertising and sales. “The newspaper has been recognised for many years as the market leader for motoring advertisers alongside top-quality motoring editorial. Now we are well placed to add further value to both our readers and our advertisers through leveraging the Driven brand in a true multimedia sense.”

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