In an industry often dominated by predictable formulas, TMW Chief Creative Officer Graeme Noble chose to take a bold detour with the Suzuki Swift campaign.

Instead of showcasing the car, the team at TMW decided to hide it, creating a fascinating story that perfectly fit Suzuki’s “Good Different” platform.

Graeme sat down with LBB writer Olivia Atkins to delve deeper into the creative process, understand the client’s enthusiasm for breaking convention, and learn how the team managed to turn an ambitious idea into reality.

LBB> How did you come up with the idea of ​​hiding the Suzuki Swift instead of featuring it in the ad?

Graeme> From our initial discussions we learned that Suzukis aren’t always on everyone’s radar, but those who try one quickly fall in love. They loved the driving experience and the exclusive feeling of being part of a select group of owners who are ‘in the know’.

This was particularly true of the Swift, a car loved by its owners but perhaps underestimated. It has loads of brilliant spec as standard but the average person can’t tell you much about it. This gave rise to the notion that it was ‘the best kept secret on the road’.

At the heart of this idea is the feeling we get when we discover something particularly good that not many other people know about. We don’t want it to lose its charm because everyone knows it. Whether it’s a new band, a TV show, or a restaurant, most of us have experienced that moment of disappointment when a beloved cult classic becomes something even your own mother talks about.

Although our job was to promote the quality of the car, we thought many Swift owners would hope for failure – “because ‘Good Different’ is no different when everyone has one.”

From there, it was about finding different ways that these Swift owners could sabotage our ads, and how that would work differently on each channel. We spent a lot of time thinking up sneaky ways we could hide cars or deface billboards if we were the ones trying to stop a message from spreading.

LBB> How open was the customer to this idea? Were they on board from the beginning?

Graeme> Absolutely. Right from the start of the pitch process, the Suzuki team made it clear that they wanted to create something that stood out from the crowd and that stayed that way right to the end. That kind of ambition was music to our ears and probably the main reason we’re so happy with the result.

LBB> Why were Traktor the right directors for the job?

Graeme> The reason we chose Traktor was mainly because of the level of detail they put into their execution. They fully understood our vision and built on our foundations. They gave each character a full backstory to help them get into character, which was a nice touch. And of course it didn’t hurt that they are some of the most awarded directors in the commercial industry, I suppose.

LBB> For most car ads, there is a tried and tested formula for shooting ads. Why did you decide to do something different?

Graeme> I think you’ve answered your question! Too much advertising, while ‘correct’, is not interesting in any way, and car advertising in particular can take itself too seriously. We want to make people smile, and small cars seem to have more scope for a more playful personality.

The Swift has loads of that, and I think that really comes across. Creativity, by its nature, needs to have something unexpected about it to be effective. Our job as creative agencies is to create work that people notice, otherwise it just won’t stick. If we only create the communication that people subconsciously expect to see, we won’t do much more than blend into the background.

LBB> What were the biggest challenges with this spot and how did you overcome them?

Graeme> It was about finding the right balance between the owners hiding their cars – making it clear that they’re hiding them to keep them secret, but also showing enough of the car to make viewers want one for themselves.

Pushing boundaries always produces the best results and the client was happy to work with us to create something that stands out. I also learned that media owners don’t like to see their property vandalized – even if it’s not actual vandalism!

Our integration approach means we don’t just focus on one channel. Rather than creating a TV ad and then splitting it up into different parts, it’s always about coming up with an idea that works from the middle. That’s definitely one of the things we’re most proud of with this campaign. TV, OOH and radio all live and breathe the same message, but they’re brought to life in such a channel-specific way – whether it’s ads in press that look ripped out or radio that looks pasted over – and I think they’re much more memorable because of it.