Atmosphere Proximity Lands Hertz Rent2Buy Account

Rental car giant Hertz has chosen New York-based interactive agency Atmosphere Proximity to handle all creative advertising for its Rent2Buy program.

Atmosphere Proximity group account director Warren Griffiths said the agency’s pitch focused on multimedia executions. “Our idea was to show how Hertz can really look at it from an ROI point of view. It’s about retail and making sure they can sell as many cars as they can.” Possibly on the agenda: an application enabling people to invite their Facebook friends to join them for test-drives of Rent2Buy vehicles.

The fact that Atmosphere Proximity had a foot in the door might have helped. The company, a division of BBDO North America, has been Hertz’s agency of record since 2007. For the Rent2Buy campaign, media will be handled by OMD and Resolution Media.

Hertz isn’t the only rental car company that regularly sells its vehicles, but Griffiths said the forthcoming ad campaign will stress that, with Hertz Rent2Buy, people get to try the car for three days (by renting it) before making the purchase. He also said the ads will point out that, in most states, renters can complete the purchase deal on the Internet.

“You don’t have to haggle,” he said. “It’s all done online so that makes for a much smoother process… That’s really unique positioning and it allows us to create some great campaign thinking around it.”

In addition to using social networks, Atmosphere Proximity plans to make standard online display ads, print ads, mobile ads and Web search ads, Griffiths said.