Electric vehicle company Rivian
is launching its first-ever comprehensive national brand campaign.
The campaign, which is themed “Real Rivian Adventures,” marks a significant step in Rivian's
evolution as an electric adventure brand. The premise is explained in a blog post.
“it's a really
pivotal time for us as a business,” says Denise Cherry, vice president of marketing at Rivian. “We are launching R2 next year, and it's the first time where we're going to be making that
jump into a much more mass-market vehicle. And so we've taken a concerted effort to understand that we need to increase our brand awareness significantly as we move from making R1, which is our Halo
product, into R2, which we hope to sell hundreds of thousands of units a year in the future.”
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The automaker, which manufactures its vehicles solely in the U.S., is in a unique market
position. At the moment, it is one of the only automakers whose stock market shares are going up in a sea of red. Rivian closed at $13.66 on April 30, up 2.71%. Bloomberg reports that "the electric
vehicle manufacturer proactively built a reserve of electric-vehicle batteries, potentially safeguarding against the current trade policy upheaval impacting the automotive supply chain," according to
Investing.com.
The joyful campaign celebrates the people who define what Rivian truly is and invites more people to engage with the brand, Cherry tells Marketing
Daily.
Rivian vehicles are made to empower exploration and adventure, but it's the stories owners create that give them their soul, she says.
Each spot will share the stories of real Rivian customers.
The first spot, "Last Lemonade Standing," draws inspiration from the Carter Family, whose son Ryder creatively
powered his lemonade stand using the family's R1T.
Retold through the lens of a playful spaghetti western right down to the music, the spot captures the ingenuity that Rivian
owners, of all ages, bring to their everyday lives, Cherry says.
“It is a simple story, but it encapsulates everything we love about the Rivian spirit —
innovation, adventure and doing things differently,” said Cherry.
The 30-second spot marks the debut of a multipart series. The summer and early fall will feature the
next chapters, "Saving Summer” and "Bayou Country," with "The Milk Run" rounding out the series later this year.
Owners are invited to send their stories, photos and
videos to letsgo@rivian.com or post to their favorite social platform and tag the company using #RealRivianAdventures, The automaker says they will be
evaluating stories for future spots and campaign.
“We have a list of a hundred different owners that have proactively reached out to us to share their stories,”
Cherry says. “We have 129 Rivian owner clubs in North America [that are] super-active, and our community teams are on text messages with a lot of those regular folks.
“We want to set up workshops and storytelling in-store as well to, again, just reinforce the humanity and the love that people have of the product."
The effort was developed in
partnership with creative agency Mojo Supermarket and will run across all digital platforms, streaming services and social media. The agency was awarded the assignment after a competitive review
process, Cherry says. Rivian has worked with AKQA to create videos showcasing the new R2 previously, she says.
The brand also creates a considerable amount of creative in-house, including its
award-winning Halloween execution, which was recently recognized by
MediaPost.
"We definitely take the approach [that] we're going to be able to understand how our brand should show up, and we have the most detailed knowledge of what makes sense. And
then we lean on support when it's a scale that we aren't quite comfortable with or an opportunity that we maybe don't have as much experience in," Cherry says. "And in that case, we really spend a lot
of time onboarding our partners as well."