• by Karl Greenberg , October 5, 2015

Looking to lift consumer awareness that the company does serious research and testing of new vehicles, Kelley Blue Book is launching a humorous digital campaign, “Seriously Tested, Seriously Recommended.” The effort, which focuses on how KBB tests pickup trucks, includes video content showing fictive KBB official vehicle testers going to extremes. 

One of the spots is all about how to test legroom, with testers putting all kinds of things and people in the back seat. Another shows a montage of crazy things being loaded onto the pickup's flatbed for payload capacity testing.

The big picture for the just-launched campaign, via digital agency 360i, is KBB’s 2016 Best Buy Award in 12 of the most popular vehicle segments. The awards are based on KBB's year-long vehicle evaluations of 2016 model-year vehicles, that includes both testing and data analysis around things like pricing/transaction prices, 5-Year Cost-to-Own information, and consumer reviews and ratings. The campaign's videos direct viewers to KBB's Truck Buyers Guide and KBB's 2016 Best Buy Awards, with KBB announcing finalists next week. 

KBB says it is kicking off the campaign with a focus on trucks partly because of the volume of the category, and seasonality of truck sales. Probably good timing: Ford posted its best September for its F-Series pickups since 2006, with a 28% increase in retail sales. GM said Chevy and GMC pickup sales were up 24% last month and 30% year-to-date. FCA's Ram division posted its best truck sales since 1996. 

KBB says learnings from the campaign will help shape a bigger campaign next year that will go beyond KBB testing for its Awards to pricing, reviews and recommendations.

Dan Cullen, senior director of marketing at Kelley Blue Book, tells Marketing Daily that the campaign's two videos, with eight total versions, including :15s and :30s with differing end tags, will run on automotive, sports and entertainment, humor and men's interest outlets, including Road & Track, Popular Mechanics and Esquire.