Carsome makes readers do a double take with eye-catching CNY print ads

Carsome is going all out on print this Chinese New Year, releasing eye-catching ads on The Star, The Sun, New Straits Times, Sin Chew Daily and Guang Ming Daily. The print ads featured in the newspapers contained attention grabbing titles including "Stop buying your brother new things! He doesn’t deserve it!", "Tell your partner to leave you because they are crazy", and "This Chinese New Year, give your mother the boot", along with a handwritten note.

At first glance, the titles might come across as impolite. However, the twist lies in the handwritten note, which expresses one's love for their family members, be it their parents or their siblings. At the end of these heartwarming handwritten notes lies a call-to-action, urging consumers to purchase a car from Carsome. 

Carsome's chief brand officer, Derek Tan, also kept things cheeky in a LinkedIn post, stating that consumers should not just buy any car this Chinese New Year but a Carsome certified one instead. He also elaborated on the creative concept behind the ads, which at the end of the day, boils down to one insight: love is the greatest prosperity. A+M has reached out to Carsome for additional information.

While most brands have taken on a digital approach for advertising, Carsome joins other brands in Malaysia that have gone down the print ads route to create mindshare and draw interest. For example, Shopee Malaysia released a 3D optical illusion page print ad on the cover page of The Star and The Sun as part of its 11.11 activation which featured actor Jackie Chan.

At the same time, Malaysia International Shipping Corporation (MISC) put a creative twist to its 2021 Merdeka Day message with a print ad in morse code that ran on The Star, The Edge and Harian Metro. MISC also posted a video message on its LinkedIn explaining that the video was not a showcase of some random dots, squares and dashes but a message in morse code. 

Separately, Carsome has been doing well as a business in general. The Group bagged US$290 million in a Series E round of funding earlier this month. The funds, which brought the company's valuation to approximately US$1.7 billion, would be used to accelerate the company's investment in people, product, technology, data capability, infrastructure, and regional expansion of its retail brand, Carsome Certified, across key markets in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand.

The Group previously bagged US$170 million in a Series D2 round of funding in September last year, which was used to focus on the growth and expansion of its B2C business, as well as boost its capabilities in strategic investments and mergers and acquisitions.

It also became Malaysia's first tech unicorn last July when it acquired 19.9% of iCar Asia from Catcha Group. Carsome and Catcha Group also made a joint proposal to iCar Asia's independent directors to acquire the balance of 80.1% of iCar from its shareholders. The total transaction is estimated to be worth more than US$200 million.

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