Our client SIXT is one of Australia's largest car and truck rental companies. They were well placed therefore to benefit from increased activity from those who had no option but to move home, due to the rental crisis. Our challenge was to develop a campaign that would encourage people moving house to choose SIXT for their commercial vehicle rental (driving utilisation) and in so doing drive positive buzz about the brand.

SIXT Rental Relief offered a dynamic discount that saw the cost of moving truck and van rentals decrease by the same percentage the customer’s rent has increased. For example, if a customer had a 29% per cent home rental increase, they’ll save 29% per cent on their moving truck or van rental. If their increase was 50% - they could receive 50% off a moving truck or van. Essentially, the bigger the increase, the bigger the discount.

Our audience was in crisis. We had to ensure that any activity wasn’t seen as cynically exploiting their terrible situation. Our strategy therefore was to do the opposite – to ease their pain, and provide not just functional help, but genuine personalised value (achieved via our idea to make it more affordable to move with SIXT). Our approach was to engage REA Group (realestate.com.au) to access first party data to gain insights into the audience affected most - young Australians in metro areas. Social media was thus selected as the key channel, via paid social and earned activity, with the use of an impacted ambassador to drive relevance and conversation about the brand & offer, supported by geolocated activation & OOH. The CTA put the power back in the renter’s hands: choose SIXT for a personalised dynamic discount and tell your landlord to ‘TRUCK OFF!’.

The integrated campaign launched on social featuring Sydney resident, Chantelle Schmidt who had gone viral challenging her landlord’s eye-watering increase. After losing at the tribunal, SIXT supported her as she made the difficult decision to move back in with her mother. Her growing audience of equally affected renters respected the partnership, commending both Chantelle and SIXT for making the best of a bad situation.

In partnership with realestate.com.au, the personalised discount was promoted alongside rental property listings. In editorial, we ran alongside other measures for cost efficient moves. Contextual, personalised OOH also ran in suburbs with the steepest rent increases across the country. At rental inspections, our campaign trucks shared the bold ‘TELL YOUR LANDLORD TO TRUCK OFF’ message too.

All campaign elements drove to a custom microsite where renters could share their personal rental increase and booking details for the unique discount to be verified by SIXT.

SIXT Rental Relief wasn’t just good for Aussies doing it tough. For a business starting the year with an underutilised commercial fleet, van rentals went up 39% and truck rentals rose 24% during the campaign period. Best of all, the limited time offer is now unlimited, reinforcing how SIXT continues to help renters of all kinds whilst driving new customers into locations right around the country.