• by Karl Greenberg , April 9, 2008

LoJack, Westwood, Mass.-based maker of stolen-vehicle recovery and warning systems, is launching a new national integrated campaign. The effort is intended to drive home the horrors of having a vehicle stolen, and the relief of getting it back. It is both a brand campaign and an ad push for LoJack's wireless tracking and recovery systems.

The effort, by Portland, Maine-based VIA Group (which signed as LoJack's AOR last July) comprises national TV, interactive and print ads for auto trade magazines. The five 15-second spots show people talking about their experiences with auto and motorcycle theft and how LoJack solves their problems.

The ads will run on major cable networks such as A&E, ESPN, FX, TBS, USA, the Weather Channel, Lifetime, Discovery and the Speed Channel.

In one of the ads--in which actors play "real people"--a guy sitting in his car says, "First thing I thought was how upside down I was on my car loan. I'd still be making payments on a car I didn't have." The ads tout the fact that LoJack is integrated with law enforcement, and the effort uses the company's original tag line "Get it Back with LoJack."

Online ads are rich-media banners that will run on automobile and motorcycle shopping and research sites like autotrader.com, cars.com and motorcycle.com, and Web sites like About Autos, AOL Autos, MSN Autos, Yahoo Autos and Traffic.com. The banners show motorcycles and cars zooming off-screen with headlines like "Goes from zero to stolen in 3.4 seconds," or "Another car will be stolen in..." with a ticker counting down to zero.

"Car buyers today have a false sense of protection," says Greg Smith, VIA's chief creative officer. "The threat of theft is very real, and when it happens, it is a traumatic experience. The campaign reaches people by touching on the emotions that are associated with theft and the security that is guaranteed with LoJack. LoJack has taken a strong leadership position with a far-reaching campaign that will appropriately impact consumers in an uncertain economy."

The campaign also includes print and online executions for LoJack's commercial construction product. Ads will run in key commercial trade publications and on trade Web sites. The creative is focused on the launch of LoJack's new fleet management system, LoCate by LoJack.

LoJack spokesperson Paul McMahan says this is the company's first full national campaign. "We have never really had a national ad campaign that covered all of our markets and all of our channels. This campaign is a first for us. The digital element is far more aggressive than in past efforts, and for the first time LoJack is running national TV," he says.

Smith says previous efforts focused on LoJack's strong relationship with law enforcement, "which is still a critical message in other areas of the overall marketing campaign."

"The formula is really awareness plus relevance," says McMahon. "The aggressive digital element of the campaign also allows us to integrate more closely into the purchase process."