Bangers: Mad for Cars

The Big Idea

eBay Car Parts and Accessories were looking to “drive” credibility and cultural kudos to help position themselves as THE single destination for all part and accessory needs. 

Their agency EssenceMediacom came to us looking for a big, mainstream branded entertainment “vehicle” that could help eBay create stand out and engagement in pop culture and “borrow our cool”. 

Working closely with our Commissioning teams and recognising Talent was a key component of the brief, we proposed a new original format called “Bangers”, produced by Plum Pictures and Tinie (formerly Tempah)’s own company Imhotep Studio, where he and F1 analyst and stunt driver Naomi Schiff would take a nostalgic look back at the cars from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and battle it out for the best in class! 

Making it Happen

The 4 x 60 min series covered a different car category each week across 4 x 4, Hatchback, Family and Sports, with Tinie and Naomi joined by Celebrity Guests Ian Wright, Guz Khan, Tom Kerridge and Patrice Evra for their own nostalgic recollections.

eBay had full sponsorship across all episodes on Linear and Channel 4 Streaming, and in editorial collaboration with Plum, we found contextually relevant moments where they could be visually and verbally integrated - from Tinie using their app to search for products for contributors, to the “eBay Enthusiast Poll” which used real data from eBay’s customers to help decide the best car model if there was a draw in the final challenges! 

Outside of the series, eBay bought additional TV and digital ads to amplify their involvement and used key clips and stills from each episode to create conversation with customers across Channel 4’s Snap and YouTube Social Sales, TikTok and Meta.

They brokered a brand ambassador deal with Tinie himself where he selected his own favourite parts and accessories and in a first for a Linear Branded Ent project, they even built a driving game on Snap where you could steer your own Bangers car by moving your head left to right to win points and avoid obstacles!

The Results

We coordinated a large on-air marketing campaign for the series which spanned VOD and third party platforms and achieved over 180 press articles with positive sentiment.

The first episode launched straight after the England vs. Italy Football on 17th October and was up +43% on volume and +46% on share for ABC1Ads (50% of profile) and +133% on volume and +142% on share for Men (65% of profile). 

More results speeding in soon!

• Daily Mail (Weekend) – ★ ★ ★ ★
• The Sun (TV Mag) – ★ ★ ★ ★ Nostalgic, surprisingly amusing and Tinie does a great job at making motors entertaining for all
• TV Times – Think Top Gear with cooler presenters… a fun watch for petrolheads
• The Independent - this article
• Daily Telegraph - Fun, fast moving and approachable
• Mail on Sunday – Those missing Top Gear should love this new series