Kangoo hammer

The retro is orange

Renault has launched a new site in order to promote its new Kangoo Be Bop car. The vehicle, based on a concept car from last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, aims to move away from more conventional urban competitors. Renault says the car “expresses optimism and joie de vivre without being showy”. The website offers up a retro feel campaign, aimed to promote the “quirky car, filled with space and light”.

A Rhythm Of Life game enables you to create a colourful musical montage by moving cursors on a guitar fret board. Meanwhile, a short music video highlights the frivolity of the new car by following a female driver (dressed in Sixties-style retro mini dress) as she drives around town. A specially-composed song accompanies the video Ð the lyrics to which go: “When you drive a Be Bop car, you’re the fun, you’re the star.”

So what?: Ford Fiesta is currently promoting its new inner city vehicle with an electro-styled ad that sees its revamped Fiesta emerging from within a series of creeping flat screen TVs. It’s an undeniably good ad. Renault’s new website, however, steers a different course, opting for a ‘what-you-see-is-what-you-get’ campaign. Designed with sporty urban dwellers in mind, this is the Facebook of cars, with all the emphasis placed on ‘literal’ social networking. Bearing in mind its predominately young female audience, this campaign sidesteps the seriousness of most automobile ventures, opting instead for a lighthearted retro feel. Right down to the inclusion of a self-referencing Sixties-style jingle.

“Going retro here creates a sense of history (which competitors such as Mini have in spades) for a car that has virtually just left the concept car drawing board. Doing so creates a back-story that exudes familiarity, all cleverly done here under the guise of simplicity.”
Giles Fitzgerald, Editor, BBF

www.kangoo-bebop.renault.co.uk