Curiosity Driving Change: The Partnership Behind Škoda’s Most Successful Campaign Yet

What do a chipmunk, a hummingbird, a flamingo, and a raccoon have in common?

Well, (other than all being animals) not very much, except that they all feature in the launch campaign for Škoda’s first electric compact vehicle SUV, the Elroq, which went on sale for order late last year.

Using the creative platform, ‘Be More Elroq’, the brand and global creative agency partner FCB (led by the network’s London arm) aim to inspire curiosity among drivers to overcome their misgivings around the range of electric vehicles, and sell more cars too.

The brief for the brand for the agency was to evolve the general concept of  Škoda’ by potential buyers as less about functionality - what it had famously been known for - and more about vehicles that could provide fun as well as reliability.

The campaign is led by a 45-second hero film and five 20-second films, each featuring different curious facts.

One film tells the viewer that clouds can travel for hundreds of kilometres without getting tired, and another sees a snowdrop emerging from the frozen ground by producing heat.

An agency partner for a new era

FCB became the car brand’s agency of record in the spring of 2023, but it took some time for this campaign to be released due to existing challenges it inherited from the previous incumbent. Featuring an array of wildlife, the campaign attempt to bring a fresh approach to the sector, offering metaphors between the curious critters and different features the Elroq offers.

Leading the charge, Meredith Kelly has held the role of head of global marketing since January 2022, joining from parent Volkswagen as the lead marketer in South Africa. During the process of her appointment, a new brand strategy was in development to evolve Škoda’s image from being seen as producing robust and practical cars that also happened to be Volkswagens.

“We had a look at all of the positioning and realised in Europe you can no longer afford to be a price brand. The cost of production here just doesn't warrant it. It was not a sustainable business model. We realised we needed to reposition ourselves, but by doing that, we needed to create a brand in places where we did not have much equity before,” outlines Kelly.

Research was initiated around what makes Škoda unique, discovering that people and families bought them to show off while also using them to get from A-to-B, allowing them to explore and experience new adventures. That element of curiosity was the crux of the subsequent pitch brief won by FCB.

‘Be More Elroq’ was the creative idea that won FCB the pitch but it was the interest and dedication from the agency overall that impressed the new marketing chief.

“It was a very thorough process, but what stood out to me  Is that Tyler [Turnbull], the FCB Global CEO from North America, attended every pitch meeting,” explains Kelly. “The team that pitched works on my business. There was amazing chemistry, and even Stuart Pocock from The Observatory suggested ‘If you were on an overnight flight, who would you most like to sit next to?’ So I’m spending my time with good humans who have interesting ideas,”

Also present at each meeting was FCB London CEO Katy Wright, Tina Allan, the agency’s global chief data and intelligence officer, global creative partner Danilo Boer, Owen Lee, chief creative officer, and Ben Jaffe, chief strategy officer for FCB London.

Kelly adds that what she found brilliant about the creative concept was how it represents the features of the car, but in a relatable way to consumers. 

Another key message was to feature the speed of recharging, as consumers remain wary about trusting electric vehicles to take them on long-distance journeys should the battery run out of power. Range is important to modern drivers, as is the company’s green credentials, it believes.

“This is a brand that we have loved in this country for many years,” says Wright. “Forget all that stuff from the 80s and 90s. It’s a very good car that has been bought by some very rich and successful people and the brand was crying out for personality.”

Developing trust

The partnership is now motoring along and to ensure that is maintained the marketing and agency teams hold monthly in-person meetings either in London or Prague, although on occasion some members also join remotely in the name of sustainability and not having people travel for the sake of it, explains Wright.

“Clients come to us all the time for disruptive, distinctive work. Firstly, you've got to buy that, but you've got to be on the journey together to make that work. We can have a great idea, but it never comes to light, or it doesn't get better unless we're working on it together and we have a very open relationship,” she adds.

Kelly agrees, adding that the partnership needed to begin by building trust and developing “good conversations” that can also be tough conversations as well. “That's when I know they're committed and that they're the partner to help me do what we need to do.”

The new process put in place between the two partners aims to ensure that everyone involved feels like they are doing their best work, across FCB, the local agency partners and the marketing team itself.

“I want it to be the account within the agency that people covet and want to work on and that places an emphasis on healthy competition to create work that is shifting the dial,” Wright says.

With campaigns planned 18 months in advance within Škoda, the agency team initially had to pick up and execute work devised by its predecessor before moving on to develop and focus on its own ideas. ‘Be More Elroq’ is described by Kelly as “a step change” for the business, but it’s already proving to be the most successful campaign the brand has ever run.

The promotion of the Elroq began in October, before the car was even on sale, prompting pre-orders of over 15,000 cars ahead of its official release in January. As of April, it has topped the EV sales charts in the UK and Europe in April. By May, it had sold 45,000 models globally.

Going local as the flamingo takes off

While Škoda is a global brand, the majority of its sales are in Europe, leading to the desire to hire an agency that worked in either London or Europe, aiming to target 15 key markets, including the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy with its Elroq campaign.

Kelly reveals that she also wanted to introduce a “cultural shift" across the headquarters-based marketing team away from creating work that they liked and develop a customer-centric mindset over a product-first one when producing campaigns.

“We use ‘a global model’, which are global insights and a global strategy, but allowing for localisation. So, allowing the agencies in the markets, to take things, especially if they can make it work with their cultural nuance. We need these big global platforms to work and then allow for local, particularly on social spaces, where people can then tap into culture,” she adds.

To prepare, the team at FCB, Wright and Jaffe visited each of those markets to see the best work being produced for Škoda specifically for each of those countries while working with the local agencies to develop their concept to fit. The agency inherited 22 live productions from its incumbent when it came on board, each at different stages, which meant there was no time to waste in pulling things together.

“I had a vision of what this could be,” claims Wright as they began to implement consistency. “I heard someone saying, ‘I want this from you guys’ and I sat there looking at 15 market presentations, taking the simplest of ideas and then making it work, localising it, and everything looked like it came from the same stable… It was fantastic sitting there and watching people excited about what we would do next.”

A key image from the campaign has been the pink flamingo, with the big bird taking centre stage for much of the activity, including a sculpture by renowned Italian artist Marcantonio being commissioned for the Milan Design Festival, where the Eloq RS was revealed. A model of the car was also covered in pink feathers as well.

So popular has the big become with Škoda fans that plush flamingos are now also available to buy on the brand’s website.

Kelly claims that it is vital when developing a campaign to “bring them along in the process” to get local markets to buy into the concept. Enthused by the campaign ‘icon’, the Finnish marketing director bought 80 garden ornaments of pink flamingos he spied one day, put them in his car, and then they came up with a teaser idea to create a space in showrooms for customers to take selfies with them. Included in each space were QR codes to take them to the website. This also generating interest from the local press, creating organic reach.

“You've got to manage them, otherwise you can end up with very diluted, poor results. So, it's trying to find the right balance. Katy's teams are flexible and easy to work with, because they want to do great work. So, they also make it easy to partner with them,” says Kelly.