Can Rivian Save Car Ads From the “Sea of Sameness”?

“Last Lemonade Standing” by Rivian is the start of the EV brand’s ambitious new Summer campaign, “Real Rivian Adventures”, a series of ads based on unlikely but true real-life stories of Rivian owners and the relationships they have with their cars. The ad, from agency Mojo Supermarket, isn’t just a celebration of Rivian’s maverick spirit, it’s also a stand against the “sea of sameness” that engulfs car ads in the US.

The ad frames the rivalry between two siblings’ lemonade stands as a spaghetti western showdown. One child offers his lemonade at a discount; his competitor gives her customers a buy one get one free deal, and the promotional war continues. The girl looks like she’s won with “ALL PROFITS GO TO PUPPIES”, but then the boy has a genius idea. He plugs in the family Rivian truck and uses its trunk as an ice cooler to make lemonade slushies.

There’s a fun business message in the ad too – why get into expensive promotional wars when you can innovate? – but the commercial mostly works on the level of storytelling, soundtrack and great performances from the two kids. It scores a 3.2-Star Rating on the Test Your Ad platform, which puts it into the top tier of car ads, as the automotive category is a weak one in the US (a 2.3-Star average).

As Jon Evans points out in our automotive sector report, The Road To Brand Building, it’s a mystery why that should be. A car is a huge purchase, brand really matters, and so the opportunity to make ads that stand out, entertain and build brand equity in the consumer mind is a huge one. But it’s an opportunity most brands simply don’t take. And while our report shows the category is gradually improving, that’s down to a raised floor with fewer truly wasteful 1-Star ads appearing. The top scoring US car ads in the Test Your Ad database all date from pre-2020.

Rivian’s ad is a strong statement from a young brand and a step in a positive direction. Unlike most of their competitors, Rivian’s ad isn’t generic and doesn’t fall back on the identikit tropes we know and yawn at in auto ads: cars on mountain roads, night driving in cities, and so on. In fact Rivian doesn’t show us its car being driven at all. It sits in the background, part of the family until its time comes to shine.

This de-emphasis on the product is one of the routes The Road To Brand Building advises car brands to take in order to make ads that sparkle and catch viewers’ attention again. It’s not that cars themselves are boring, but there are ways to put the spotlight on the product that don’t rely on same-old same-old driving shots.

Two of the other things the report strongly recommends are storytelling and humor, both of which Rivian provides. There’s a real sense of humanity in the ad and the “spaghetti western” vibe is another element which makes it stand out strongly. Brand Fluency is a little weak, as Rivian is a new brand, but as the campaign continues and becomes more familiar to viewers that should improve.

This isn’t a perfect ad but it’s a commercial that’s a gear or two above most automotive work, doing something different in a sector that seems to actively resist marketing innovation.