1000 Bathursts
Supercheap Auto
Issue 62 | March 2022
Agency
The Monkeys, part of Accenture Interactive
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Ant Keogh Creatives Connor Beaver, Scott Zuliani Senior Craft Designer Raph Tamkalis
Production Team
Head of Production Romanca Mundrea Group Content Director Jaimee Kerr Content Director Allan Carlow Production Company Rabbit Content
Other Credits
Chief Executive Officer Paul McMillan Head of Planning Michael Derepas Client Managing Director Benjamin Ward General Manager, eCommerce & Marketing Andre Korte Head of Marketing Janet Newton Sponsorship & Community Specialist Justin Murray
Date
November 2021
Background
After 16-years of partnership, Australia's biggest racing event, the Bathurst 1000, decided to replace Supercheap Auto as the official sponsor.
Idea
In a cheeky attempt to stay close to the action, Supercheap found a loophole and flipped being sponsors of the Bathurst 1000 to being sponsors of 1,000 Bathursts.
They supported real business in the town of Bathurst from the Bathurst Bakery, the Bathurst Driving Range, the Bathurst Beekeepers to the Bathurst Under-13s netball team.
Because there aren’t a thousand businesses in Bathurst, the remaining sponsorship funds were used to reduce prices for club members.
A video was created which showed Supercheap Auto’s spokesperson Nathan Murray as he met all the new sponsees.
Results
2.4 million views. 119 businesses participated. 21,000 club customers took up the offer. 457,000 engagements. 11,000 new club members. The engagement is estimated to have contributed AUD $4 million in sales.
Our Thoughts
When, in 2020, the Bathurst race organisers found a more lucrative partner in Repco, Supercheap didn’t take it lying down. In fact, they probably made more out of not being sponsors than they ever did before. The end result seems to be that while the new kids on the block hang onto the naming rights of that particular event, Supercheap are now the sponsors of the Bathurst International, a new free-to-air event for teams and drivers in turbo-charged touring cars from around the world. So everybody’s done well out of the situation. It just puts Repco and Supercheap head-to-head in a new little competition of their own and it will be sport to see who emerges the winner.