THE AA

BACKGROUND

The AA has been at the UK’s roadside since 1905. Building on their loyal older demographic base, The AA needed to build fresh relevance with younger growth target segments with a multiservice offering.

The crucial group of 17–40-year-old ‘Young & Responsible’ drivers didn’t feel that The AA was very modern; it didn’t reflect the role of cars in their lives or the reality of their driving experience.

WHAT WE DID

We needed to completely revolutionise The AA’s media behaviour and inject a playful personality to shift perception of The AA amongst young people. 

Our strategy was to align The AA with British youth culture and represent the real cars, and experiences, of young people, like those in much-loved British sitcoms.

So, we partnered with names from People Just Do Nothing to reflect relatable driving situations and to show that no matter what, The AA have you covered. 

We recruited iconic characters Chabuddy G and MC Grindah to front two content series which would run across LADbible’s social channels, offering unparalleled reach to the target audience. 

‘Fix My Motor’ saw Chabuddy G “join” The AA to ‘help’ drivers who are dealing with car problems, simultaneously sprucing up their cars as the professionals got to work. His unique style and sense of humour was an ideal fit. 

From helping a driver impress his date to helping a festival goer on their journey, Chabuddy perfectly highlighted The AA’s role in helping people get where they need to go whilst The AA stepped in to showcase their expertise. 

Next, a six-part series featured MC Grindah – ‘the greatest MC in the galaxy’ – lended his own personal style to help drivers glide through ‘Whip School’ – a guide to buying, owning and maintaining a car. Grindah took The AA onto TikTok for the first time, representing a leap in the media approach for the brand that was authentic and funny – ideal for our target audience.  

RESULTS

Our social-first campaign took The AA from 0 to 100 in record time. 

We delivered 345,000 engagements across the campaign with a previously disengaged audience. 

Across every channel, we smashed benchmarks – particularly Instagram where we delivered a 916% improvement on engagement rates versus AA’s paid social benchmark. Plus, we smashed LADbible performance rates with the first TikTok episode of Whip School becoming the most saved TikTok on LADbible! 

Brand tracking showed that we delivered: 

+13PP lift in prompted awareness for the core young and responsible audience. 

+16PP lift in perception of The AA sharing their values; against high relevance audiences of those in the market for breakdown cover over the next 6 months. 

The AA is officially back in the driving seat.