Car rental company Avis has refreshed its tone of voice to better connect with its UK and EMEA consumers, aiming to move away from a “corporate image” to one rooted in trust.

Its EMEA division recently launched a brand platform, ‘Your Journey Matters’, marking a strategic shift in how the brand communicates across the region.

A major part of that shift involves carving its own path away from its US counterpart. Historically, EMEA had been “mimicking” America, resulting in a tone that felt overly corporate and lacked local nuance, according to marketing communications and brand manager Jon Schaaf.

Avis Budget Group operates differently across regions. In the US, Avis is primarily for corporate customers, while sub-brand Budget focuses on leisure. In EMEA, however, Avis “has to do everything”, requiring a more versatile approach.

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“We were finding that the corporate tone wasn’t necessarily translating that brilliantly across one of the countries,” Schaaf explains. “We had to find a way of creating more trust in the brand and try to tell human stories.”

The US campaign tagline ‘Plan On Us’ didn’t resonate internationally, which is why, after several rounds of testing, EMEA settled on Your Journey Matters.

“We are trying to pivot from being very corporate to being a bit more human, and including that element that we are humans, you can trust us,” he adds. “We’re mirroring that messaging all the way through. It just feels more on point for the current travel environment.”

Shifting gears

Over the past decade, Avis has undergone several changes in its approach to communicating with consumers. During Covid, people were concerned about safety, therefore, the brand needed a “reassuring and professional voice” that “catered to people’s fears”.

As travel resumed, Avis evolved its messaging, maintaining a focus on safety while adding flexibility and spontaneity to match the renewed desire to travel. Now, as it launched Your Journey Matters, the brand is at another turning point.

At the same time, Avis has moved from seasonal campaigns to evergreen activity, which has a “longer shelf life and lower ad fatigue”.

Because we’re not a London-based business, we wouldn’t pay salaries that would attract people here.

Jon Schaaf, Avis

Consumer sentiment towards car rentals is generally mixed, with 57% of people saying the rental car checkout process is frustrating, according to a 2024 study by vehicle services company Zubie.

“The car rental industry doesn’t have the greatest reputation. But we’re trying to explain that humans run this business,” Schaaf adds.

He says the new platform builds on the DNA of Avis’s iconic ‘We Try Harder’ slogan, which was dropped in 2012 after 50 years, but then revived in 2014. “We Try Harder is always in our DNA, but it’s just about modernising it a bit,” he notes.

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The campaign also aims to raise brand awareness in less mature markets.

“In the States, we have great awareness. They’re set up differently. They know how to talk to their audiences,” he says. “In EMEA, we have to speak in 22 different languages, we’ve got a really broad region to cover, and our brand awareness isn’t brilliant in all of those regions.”

Meanwhile, in a “sea of sameness” among car rental companies, Avis hopes its new tone will help it stand out. The brand is tracking market rank, awareness and consideration to measure success.

“Rather than people remembering the advert. I’m much more interested in them remembering the brand. When measuring brand, you can do as much as you want with numbers, but really it’s those verbatims that you want.”

An in-house agency

Avis has worked on its brand transformation with agency Collective, which has created a dedicated team called the Content Studio, an in-house team embedded within an agency framework.

Starting with one person, the team has grown to seven, producing content solely for Avis. “They operate almost independently [from Collective] but have check-ins with the wider agency for quality control,” Schaaf says.

The model helps Avis attract top talent that might not otherwise relocate to its Bracknell HQ, he adds.

“If I want big city talent, they’re unlikely to want to relocate to Bracknell if they’re young, living in London,” he says. “Because we’re not a London-based business, we wouldn’t pay salaries that would attract people here.”

The arrangement reportedly cuts 60% of standard in-housing costs, as Collective handles hiring and Avis pays a set rate rather than inflated agency fees.

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“The business [Avis] can be quite reactive. Sometimes we have to change direction or suddenly put together something very quickly. If I were to go to an agency and say, ‘I need this tomorrow’, I would get hit with quite a large bill, whereas, because these guys are salaried, they can pivot and manage their workload,” he explains.

Schaaf notes this approach has also resulted in a low turnover of staff, as well as autonomy in running it.

Business buy-in

Avis also benefits from access to Collective’s broader network. When specialist skills are needed, like 3D modelling, the agency can deliver.

For example, Avis needed images of its self-service desks in each of its 11,000 locations, but instead of having to fly to each location to photograph the kiosk, the 3D modelling meant it could digitally insert them into ads.

The setup gives Schaaf confidence. “I’m never sat there thinking, ‘God, I don’t think I can do this’, I’m only sat there thinking, ‘Okay, let’s do it. The world is our oyster’.”

The model also drives buy-in from the wider business. Schaaf uses Collective’s AI tools to mock-up animated storyboards for internal presentations that showcase the vision of a campaign.

“You can get buy-in and sign off before you even shoot the thing,” he says.

“For Your Journey Matters, all of my colleagues were saying ‘I really like that cartoon style that you’ve done’ I had to explain that that wasn’t the finished article and we were going to shoot it on camera, but we were able to put so much detail in, through things like AI voiceovers for concepting.”