The Vitara is Suzuki’s flagship SUV, known for being fun and adventurous. But how do you sell a car made for adventures in a country with some of the tightest lockdown restrictions in the world? When most Australians couldn’t drive further than five kilometres, and only for necessary tasks like groceries.

Even ordinary trips can be extraordinary adventures, with the right soundtrack. So, we gave the Suzuki Vitara its own soundtrack. Employing a strategy that hasn’t been used in hundreds of years, the Sea Shanty. Except for land. Land Shanties! We created the ultimate short-road-trip album to bring the spirit of adventure to everyday journey.

The seven-song concept album followed one man’s odyssey…to buy almond milk. With each song designed to elevate different everyday moments like finding a park “The White Whale” or just lovingly getting drive thru on the way home, “Drive thru to my heart”. The genre-defining album was supported by a fully integrated campaign, with the audio helping to make all the advertising, and make Vitara famous – when it couldn’t even really drive anywhere.

Suzuki is a fun brand living through dark times. Off the back of our ‘For Fun’s Sake’ brand platform we needed to help elevate the everyday, and make every trip just a little more fun. One media that we knew had a direct line to all drivers, in the moment, was audio.

No car brand in Australia owns audio, but with the proliferation of podcasts and streaming services more drivers are listening to audio more often. So, the plan was to use audio to bring to life the brand, and the product, by bringing a smile to your face. In doing so, have our audio listened to in all types of cars. Turning every car ride into an ad for Suzuki.

The three month campaign began with an album launch on TV. With “To the ends of the block”, the first song on the concept album, being the single that launched with its own music video. Then every week another song was launched across social, radio, and in outdoor. The journey of the album was the journey of the campaign.

Recorded by the world’s biggest shanty band, The Longest Johns, the genre-defining album helped make all the advertising for the integrated campaign and made Vitara famous. With benefits of the car throughout the album. PR focused on the band as front people for the brand, and the band created ‘car-eoke’ clips for fans to learn the songs.

All media lead to the website where drivers were urged to test drive the album in the way it was meant to be listened to: behind the wheel of a Suzuki Vitara.

Suzuki’s highest performing audio campaign ever. 1,100,000 album streams across Spotify and Apple music so far. Increasing unprompted awareness by 35% and prompted recall by 62%. Turning every journey in any car into an ad for Suzuki. And providing some fun in dark times.