The Challenge Presented:
Zeekr is a genuinely different kind of luxury EV. Its design DNA, its creative ambition and its IYKYK global following set it apart from every other brand in the category. But entering a new market is a different problem. Distinctiveness that isn’t visible isn’t distinctiveness at all.
The challenge was to launch the Zeekr brand into New Zealand in a way that matched the brand’s character; cutting entirely away from the category conventions and earning the brand a place in culture.
The Strategy Created:
The people who choose Zeekr don’t follow a lane. They create one. And the brand exists to reflect that back at them. This insight formed the Bastion-created brand idea: Lane of One.
For the launch, the strategic opportunity was to make that idea tangible and credible from day one. Our strategy was to find a creator who also lives in a lane of one. Someone whose work, instinct and creative identity made the brand idea real.
That person was Taika Waititi. A brand in a lane of one, partnering with a creator in a lane of one, to put a distinctive ‘art-vertising’ lens on the Zeekr brand.
Given the signature Zeekr 7X and creative freedom, we produced Spotlight: seven original visual stories, each illuminated solely by the 7X’s headlights, built entirely by hand in Taika’s West Auckland studio. Intriguing, unexplained and deliberately closer to art than advertising. The campaign launched through a public exhibition at Studio 230 in Ponsonby before extending across out-of-home, social, PR and digital.
The Strength Achieved:
Spotlight turned a car launch into a cultural moment.
The campaign has so far generated 25.7 million combined reach across New Zealand and Australia, with 300+ prospective customers through the exhibition in four days. Coverage landed across culture, lifestyle, entertainment and business media: the Today Show (Australia), Rolling Stone Australia, Sunday Star Times, NZ Herald Viva, Canvas, Fashion Quarterly and NBR, where the campaign was framed as a masterclass in how to launch a premium EV brand on cultural terms, rather than category conventions.
