Caterham – Super Seven Launch

Caterham Cars planned to launch its first new car in two years in April 2020.

Awkwardly, the launch timing fell just as the UK entered national lockdown amid the COVID-19 health emergency.

After much deliberation, it was decided to press on with the launch despite the difficult, unprecedented circumstances.

Only a handful of pre-launch loans of the new car – those for the long-lead monthly auto titles – had been completed before lockdown prevented any others.

Other titles had to be managed because of this and persuaded to run with a digital-only launch.

A launch release, tech spec, imagery and hero video were accompanied by a dedicated microsite for the new car.

The wording and language of the microsite, plus a secondary video, were carefully crafted to explain why the launch had gone ahead despite the lack of any physical product or launch event and avoid any suggestion of erroneous frivolity.

The launch achieved a whopping 184 pieces of coverage, from all over the world, and an estimated online readership of 1.25 billion.

Social channels experienced significant growth across the board and, in the first week alone, the launch generated 700 brochure requests and 14 test drive bookings.

Caterham’s handling of the launch was held up as a shining example of how to communicate with its audience here.