We help drive Suzuki right round the world.

Suzuki Head Office in Japan often needs to produce campaigns that distributors all over the globe can implement.  This is because some distributors in smaller countries – and with tighter budgets – simply can’t justify the expense of creating their own TVCs.  So a generic yet still high impact campaign that can be used across many different worldwide markets makes sense.  Financially, because costs are contained and creatively, because it means the Suzuki brand is delivering a consistent positioning and brand image right round the world.

From right here in Melbourne, The Sanford Partnership has created a total of four highly successful international campaigns for Suzuki Japan.
We’re understandably proud of these campaigns as each new car launch was a competitive pitch against Suzuki’s worldwide agency roster – and we have now been the successful agency on four occasions.

The challenge, of course, is to come up with a simple creative message that works in a number of different markets in a number of different languages.  We also need to be mindful of any religious or cultural sensitivities while advocating responsible driving and protection of the environment.

So we put a priority on producing strong, memorable creative that has universal appeal and where the message won’t be lost in translation. We keep the concepts simple and put a strong emphasis on striking visual concepts and powerful music tracks rather than explanatory voice-overs.

So that viewers from many different countries could relate to our Grand Vitara TV campaign, for example, we deliberately made the locations look very international – e.g. New York and Rome – without actually travelling to those cities.  Whereas for our Swift TVC, the locations were kept anonymous and nondescript, so the action could be taking place anywhere.

We have learned that the key to creating successful international campaigns is to gain a deep strategic understanding of the product – and the relationship that people have with the product.  And it’s helpful to explore universal themes that everyone can relate to such as freedom, adventure, happiness, or even a fantasy love story.

Consumers are now so much more international and sophisticated.  So a well-made campaign for the international market can lend a product kudos and credibility and help position it as a truly global brand.

Each campaign we have produced for Suzuki has consisted of TV, magazines, online and POS.  The campaigns have then run across up to 28 countries around the world.

And even though we love working on these big international jobs, we get the same satisfaction working on smaller projects for our local clients.

Click here to view our Suzuki Grand Vitara and Swift global campaigns:

View Grand Vitara Campaign View Swift Campaign