Karmo

Karmo gives people a brand-new car for one predictable monthly payment, with no lock-in contract. V.I. Agency developed the positioning, campaign idea and launch suite that introduces car subscription to Australians and makes choosing it feel obvious.

THE CHALLENGE

A clever product in a category few people knew

Car subscription fits the way people live now, but most Australians had never considered it. Ownership is a deeply ingrained habit, and Karmo’s advantages were practical rather than emotional. The brief was to build awareness fast, make Karmo the name people link with car subscription, and create assets the brand could keep using well beyond launch.

APPROACH

Get inside the problem, then let people feel the answer

We started with deep-dive workshops alongside Karmo’s stakeholder team to unpack the brief, find the levers that would move people and agree how best to work the problem. Out of that came one single-minded proposition: subscription is the clever way to car.
The real work was in how to land it. Clever is more convincing when people recognise it for themselves than when a brand announces it, so the campaign had to show the benefit and let people draw the conclusion. We developed five creative territories and tested each for distinctiveness, stretch across channels and strength in short formats. One stood out.

THE OUTCOME

The Flex

A calm, deadpan presenter – part yoga master, part modern-day sage, and part everyday bloke – explains car subscription while folding into increasingly impossible positions in front of a new car. He never plays the joke. The more absurd the pose, the more composed he gets, and the product truth lands without a hard sell: all flex, no fuss.

One character, built to stretch across every channel

The launch suite brings the campaign to life across 30- and 15-second films for TV and BVOD, radio, digital display, social and out-of-home, backed by brand guidelines that let the tagline evolve while keeping the logo untouched.