TrueCar pitches joy, not price, in Owen Wilson campaign

TrueCar, the online car-buying service that has struggled to find its marketing voice, is pitching the joy of vehicle ownership rather than price in a new campaign, the company said.

The campaign has a new pitchman, too: actor Owen Wilson, the voice of race car Lightning McQueen in the animated Cars franchise. He is familiar to TrueCar's target audience: millennial parents who are moving up in their careers and starting families, said Lucas Donat, TrueCar chief marketing officer.

"They're coming to their earning years and having more children, which is a trigger for car purchases," Donat said.

Donat also is CEO of TrueCar's ad agency of record, Tiny Rebellion of Santa Monica, Calif., which produced the spots.

TrueCar provides car shoppers with guaranteed prices on vehicles from the nearly 10,000 franchises that compete for the business. The dealer who gets the sale pays TrueCar $299 for every new vehicle sold from a TrueCar lead and $399 for used vehicles.

The campaign, with three spots, will begin airing this month, TrueCar says. The spots use Wilson's voice but not his likeness.

"He's familiar to that generation and so loved," Donat said.

The new campaign comes as TrueCar prepares to launch a mobile app that will collect consumer data and allow automakers and dealers to target their incentives based on demographics and readiness to buy.

The commercials show scenes of drivers traveling across outdoorsy landscapes, with few words from Wilson. A 30-second spot called "True Dogs" shows a dog sticking its head out a car window as Wilson says, "No one loves cars more than we do. Well, almost no one."

"We want to connect the joy and love of automotive ownership to the simplicity of how we now buy them," Donat said.

The ads do not mention the price of buying a new car nor TrueCar's role in the process.

In the 60-second "True Joy" ad, Wilson implies that TrueCar is positioning itself for a larger role: "For over 120 years, we've built them, transformed them and watched in wonder as they've returned the favor. And now, finally, there's a new way to get them."

The commercials will air nationally on cable and broadcast TV. TrueCar President John Krafcik said at the Automotive News Retail Forum last month in San Francisco that TrueCar intends to spend $100 million on advertising and marketing this year.

The campaign emphasizes emotion rather than the bottom line. That old strategy got TrueCar into hot water with dealers who resented the "race to the bottom" that the platform's approach encouraged.

TrueCar nearly went out of business in 2012 when regulators in several states accused it of violating a variety of advertising and brokering laws.

In response, TrueCar discontinued a reverse auction process -- in which dealers could see in real-time the price bids of rivals -- to a blind auction that has helped to stabilize the prices that participating dealers can fetch for cars sold to TrueCar shoppers.

Wilson's spots, however, are about having fun, said Donat. TrueCar wanted to portray its role in the buying process "as not just simple and fair, but fun, too."

"The spots celebrate the love affair that America has with cars," Donat said. "Historically, the process of buying one has always been vexing."

Wilson will be featured in several more spots this year, as TrueCar prepares to spend the $100 million on advertising and $50 million on r&d this year.

"When you have a voice like Owen's, you can be more efficient," Krafcik told Automotive News. "I do find his voice recognizable."