Europcar UK, a subsidiary of Europcar Group, the European leader in vehicle rental services and a major player in mobility markets, has partnered with News UK for a unique six-month marketing campaign across The Sun, Wireless and Unruly to promote its Deliver and Collect service, designed to make the car hire experience more convenient and efficient for leisure travellers. The campaign is one of the first to seamlessly combine News UK’s extensive portfolio to connect the Europcar brand to its valuable audiences and extensive reach across radio, digital, social and video.  The campaign was brokered between Mediavest | Spark and News UK.

As part of the campaign, Europcar will take over Wireless’s Virgin Radio every weekend, from breakfast through to evenings, with credits aligning Europcar with weekend leisure rentals. It will also utilise News UK’s vast digital reach and creative expertise to generate and deliver co-branded Virgin Radio and Europcar native and video content on The Sun website, reaching over 70 million online readers per month, as well as The Sun’s various social channels. Europcar credits will also be played on Wireless’s wider radio portfolio, including talkSPORT, talkSPORT2 and talkRADIO throughout the campaign, reaching an estimated seven million listeners.

To create engaging and shareable video content, Virgin Radio’s Kate Lawler and Jamie East will take to the streets of Manchester in May, using Europcar rental cars to find a secret gig happening somewhere in the city.

The Sun’s video production team will create teaser video and social content to promote the campaign. Additional video content will then be hosted on The Sun’s website – guaranteeing two million complete online views – and distributed via Unruly’s TV Sync product, which will time content around the TV schedule to increase digital views. Co-branded content will also be hosted on Wireless’s digital platforms.

Unruly will also provide valuable measurement and emotional analysis for the campaign’s video content. This insight will be used to discover what content resonated on an emotional level with audiences and will then be used to shape the second stage of the campaign taking place later in the year.

Neil Mott, Marketing and Partnership Development Director, at Europcar UK commentated:

News UK’s extensive portfolio of radio, video and editorial content means that it is the perfect partner to help us reach leisure travellers. Our Deliver and Collect service is all about convenience and helping customers make the most out of their weekends.  Aligning with Virgin Radio, one of the UK’s favourite national radio stations, and The Sun, the UK’s most popular newspaper, is a great way to increase brand awareness.”

Dom Carter, Chief Commercial Officer at News UK, said:

Clients are increasingly demanding innovative and collaborative campaigns from media owners. The fact that we’re a trusted media owner and able to draw on The Sun’s editorial and video production expertise, and combine that with Unruly and Wireless’s extensive reach and insight makes us an incredibly powerful partner to help build brands and make a big impact.”

James Wilson at Wireless, said:

We have worked closely with Europcar to create a campaign that’s perfectly tailored to its objectives for Spring/Summer 2017. This campaign highlights the synergy across the group, as well as the combined reach that News UK offers brands since our acquisitions of Wireless and Unruly. Our team is able to use its extensive collective experience, which utilises digital, radio, social and video content, to inspire and engage with a huge range of different audiences.”

Nigel Waring, Chief Operating Officer at Mediavest, said:

This campaign is a great example of an exceptional partnership between our team, Europcar and News UK. We’re proud of the meaningful content our team has developed to connect audiences with Europcar and the values they stand for; delivering on their aim of being the UK’s first choice for weekend car rentals.”