As used-car retailer Carvana makes a push into the local home turf of industry leader CarMax, the two companies are taking to the airwaves to distinguish themselves to consumers, with notably different ad campaigns.
Last week, BizSense broke the news that the fast-growing, 3-year-old Carvana is planning a 6½-story “car vending machine” tower in Short Pump, that if approved would be a visible flag-planting within a mile of CarMax’s original location and three miles of its corporate headquarters in Goochland County.
The companies’ campaigns started airing in the Richmond market in late June, when Carvana, which offers online car buying without involving a physical dealership, announced its expansion into Central Virginia as its 14th market.
A week earlier, CarMax set up its new digital and technological innovation center downtown, emphasizing its focus on building e-commerce technologies. While the company offers online shopping, it requires customers to complete purchases and financing at a retail location.
Carvana’s TV spot, which it premiered during the Super Bowl, features a kimono-clad customer celebrating his online car purchase with flashy dance numbers, kinetic visuals and a song that gets stuck in your head with its auto-tuned refrain: “That didn’t suck. In fact, I liked it.”
CarMax’s campaign – a series of single-shot spots featuring comedian Andy Daly – takes a considerably subtler tone with messages highlighting the company’s online services, such as reserving a car in advance of a visit, and telling customers they need not dread a visit to the lot.
In one spot, in which Daly is seen carving a wooden tiger with a chainsaw, he says he did so to show that, “…should you visit the lot, CarMax associates will not pounce like tigers, because people don’t like that.”
While the ads could appear to be countering each other’s messages – Carvana’s no-dealership-needed online car buying, versus CarMax’s brick-and-mortar-based, person-to-person experience – the creators behind both said they’re not responses to each other.
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Richmond BizSense