New Holden Commodore comes together online

HOLDEN has kicked off its marketing campaign for the VF Commodore with an online scavenger hunt promotion that asks the public to help piece together a completed image of the all-new large car.

In the lead up to the official February 10 unveiling of Commodore, General Motors’ local arm has hidden 101 virtual puzzle pieces that will reveal the first image of the VF when put together.

Pieces of the puzzle will be left in both online and physical locations across Australia, and participants who register to be a part of the hunt will receive daily clues to locations.

Once a participant locates a piece of the puzzle, they can upload it to the website which puts them in the running to win one of the first VFs to roll off the production line.

The online marketing campaign at www.buildthecommodore.

com.au is the biggest seen in Australia and the first in the world by GM.

Holden external communications director Craig Cheetham said the new marketing initiative was a great way of engaging the brand’s existing fans.

“We have more social media followers than any other car brand in this country and we want to exploit that,” he said. “We have around 350,000 people who regularly follow or engage with us.”

Holden is hoping to reignite interest in Commodore, which was Australia’s top-selling car for 15 years from 1996 to 2010 until the Japanese-built Mazda3 toppled it in 2011, maintaining its crown in 2012.

Although the VF will be unveiled to the public on February 10, it will not go on sale locally until mid-year, leaving a large gap between revealing the car and its arrival in showrooms.

The Commodore and its Chevrolet SS derivative in North America both need to unveiled ahead of the racing season that starts in February, forcing Holden’s hand.

Mr Cheetham said the time between the unveiling and release of the VF could prove to be advantageous for the local car-maker.

“In many ways, while it’s not something we would normally do, it gives us a chance to tell the story in a more protracted manner and tell it in more phases rather than doing everything at once,” he said.

While Mr Cheetham would not be drawn on what other marketing activities Holden had planned for the VF Commodore, he said that as the on-sale date drew closer, the marketing would become more high profile.

The launch of the online campaign comes one day after Holden announced that it had signed multi-million dollar deals to sponsor both the National Rugby League (NRL) and AFL club Collingwood for the next three years.

Holden will release the first pieces of the puzzle on Wednesday February 6, with the competition culminating the following Sunday.