task

As a brand that was enjoying an unexpected rebounding period, Carvana wanted to build upon its reversal of fortunes and produce work to access and connect with more consumers. Enter DOMO. In summer 2023, we partnered with the burgeoning brand to develop their new creative campaign and launch their partnership with A-list celebrity couple Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard. 

The goal was not only to produce a brand-celebrity synthesis and visual language that responded to the confines of the creative, but also establish a new comedic identity for the company. The campaign was also designed to launch Carvana’s new Value Tracker technology, which was created to improve the customer experience in buying & selling cars.

process

DOMO director Jonathan Klein was charged with bridging the gap between the Carvana brand and the celebrity brand. He found a lightning rod by drawing both brands to their respective playful sides. Every joke when hit was to exude a light-heartedness. Infusing a palpable sense of tenderness and close-knit comedy in the performances, we encouraged real speech patterns: less about perfect line readings and more about the genuine sentiment behind the lines. In lockstep with the Carvana team, we worked quickly to get the Kristen/Dax team up to speed. To gain their immediate trust, we stressed an ultimate objective to make them feel comfortable and look cool. One example was sharing the inspirational “Hoooold” clip from Braveheart to center the celebrities in the epic tone.

Jonathan’s overall approach focused on intimate, relatable, and clever humor. But it was really about family. Family is who we buy and sell our cars for and who we spend most of our time in cars with. Funny within family tends to be inside jokes, rich territory for comedy. That insight gave this campaign an extra gear. By satirizing the oft-maligned process of selling a car and tracking its value, Jonathan was able to maintain his tongue-in-cheek sensibility with the more sincere creative. The guiding principle was that when you know Carvana, buying and selling a car isn’t just remarkably easy – it’s fun.