The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) has launched a ‘greener’ motoring marketing competition targeting the professional marketing and educational sectors.

The Low Vehicle Carbon Partnership is launching the ‘Cars NOT Carbon’ marketing
challenge to promote greener motoring, including ‘smarter driving’ and greener transport
choices. The competition is designed to engage marketers, students and industry
stakeholders in the production of compelling creative concepts based on ‘real world’ cars
and fuels and on greener travel behaviour. The winning work will be viewed by senior
industry executives from the motor, fuels and related industries and will be showcased at
the LowCVP’s annual conference on June 28th.

The Cars NOT Carbon competition will be judged by a group of leading representatives
of the advertising and communications industries, working alongside environment
specialists and experts from the automotive, fuels and related industries.

Marketing communications agencies nationwide and students on relevant educational
courses are invited to produce creative ways of communicating greener motoring
messages with submissions made across marketing disciplines and media channels.
The campaigns will be judged on their originality and creative content as well as on the
potential effectiveness of their message. It is hoped that the competition will lead to the
production of fresh ideas and persuasive communication around the issue of sustainable
mobility in the road transport sector.

The LowCVP is a partnership of nearly 250 organisations from the automotive and fuel
industries, Government, academia, environmental NGOs and road user groups. The
Partnership was established with Government funding in 2003 to help accelerate the
shift to low carbon vehicles and fuels.

The Cars NOT Carbon competition comes in the wake of the European Commission’s
new proposals to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new cars and vans sold
in the European Union, and will form the centrepiece of the LowCVP’s high profile
conference on the 28th June 2007 in London. The conference will focus on
communication and marketing approaches designed to encourage the purchase of lower
carbon vehicles and fuels, greener methods of driving and alternatives to the use of
private motor transport. Ultimately, it should also engage and encourage manufacturers
to offer greener models and to adopt greener practices.

Concern about climate change has reached unprecedented levels and experts are
predicting an explosion in the demand by manufacturers to develop new
communications approaches to increase demand for greener products. The motor
industry alone spends nearly £1bn a year on advertising.

With nearly a quarter of all the UK’s carbon emissions being produced by road transport
and with the prospect of new European regulation for low carbon cars and vans, as well
as UK proposals for a biofuels obligation, there is strong pressure on car and van
makers and fuel suppliers to respond to the low carbon agenda.

With stronger, clearer promotion consumers will begin to realise the only long-term
solution is greener motoring. The Cars NOT Carbon competition is an opportunity to
develop appropriate communication strategies.

It is clear that the communications industry itself is beginning to gear up to better
communicate the low carbon agenda. The Financial Times’ recently reported that: “The
biggest advertising agencies are predicting a wave of green marketing campaigns as
businesses compete on their environment claims – some even arguing that it could
become a matter of their very survival.” (‘Wave of Eco-marketing Predicted’, Carlos
Grande, Financial Times, 12 Feb 2007)

Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for Transport, whose Department help to fund the
LowCVP said: “It’s important we all take action to tackle climate change and I hope that
the LowCVP’s Cars NOT Carbon competition will help to engage the creative energies
of marketers, car makers, energy suppliers and others in helping us move to a lower
carbon transport future.”

Greg Archer, the LowCVP Director said: “There are increasing pressures – and growing
incentives – for car makers and fuel suppliers to make and market greener, lower carbon
products. I expect that there will be an explosion in demand for ‘greener’ approaches to
marketing from motor and fuels companies in future, and from other businesses with a
direct stake in the low carbon transport agenda.”

According to Bruce Haines, Group CEO, Leo Burnett “Communicating sustainability at
all levels is clearly becoming a prerequisite for brands and agencies alike. The challenge
will be to collaborate and engage all stakeholders and policy makers across the
communications spectrum to engender change from within with immediate affect.”

The competition has a panel of 12 judges and a chair including John Elkington, Founder and Chief Entrepreneur - Sustainability, Bruce Haines, Group CEO - Leo Burnett, Sue Adkins,
Director - Business in the Community, Mark Hall, Marketing Director - Toyota and Andy
Taylor, Director of Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship - Ford Europe.

The CARS NOT CARBON competition is open to any marketing and communications agency and any undergraduate or postgraduate student from relevant courses, i.e. graphic design, advertising, marketing, etc. Students will be judged separately from agencies, i.e. all educational submissions together and all professional submissions together under each of the individual
brief categories.

All submissions must be received by noon on Wednesday 16th May 2007.

Each submission must consist of a completed entry form which will be downloadable from the CARS NOT CARBON microsite www.lowcvp.org.uk/carsnotcarbon. This should be accompanied by the work which could be submitted on a CD-Rom in PDF format or mounted on cardboard.
Submissions can be made across any marketing discipline, e.g. direct marketing, advertising, design, pr, sales promotion, etc. Submissions can be illustrated across any media channel, e.g. print, radio, TV, online, outdoor, etc.

Work must relate to vehicles/fuels either in production or on demonstration (currently or in the past) and existing businesses/schemes. Smarter Driving (eco-driving) entries must be based on approved techniques.

Participants will be invited to create effective marketing executions or campaigns based on six creative briefs covering areas as diverse as biofuels to responsible driving. The submissions made should be based on real-world low carbon issues relating to fuels, vehicles, Smarter Driving (eco-driving) and other aspects of sustainable road transport.

Participants can enter any of the following six categories:
• Low Carbon Fuels
• Responsible Vehicle Use
• Smarter Driving (eco-driving)
• Responsible Low Carbon Business Transport
• Low Carbon Passenger Cars
• Low Carbon Vans.

LOW CARBON FUELS
Biofuels; hydrogen/fuel cells; natural gas; synthetic fuels; etc.

RESPONSIBLE VEHICLE USE
Car sharing; lift-sharing; journey planning; cycling, walking and public transport as alternatives; etc.

SMARTER DRIVING (ECO-DRIVING)
Driving techniques; tyre pressure; speed issues; etc.

RESPONSIBLE, LOW CARBON BUSINESS TRANSPORT Sponsored by ASDA
Businesses promoting themselves as being environmentally responsible; introduction of low carbon vehicle fleets; business travel planning; car-share schemes for workers; business promoting non-road travel methods; etc.

LOW CARBON PASSENGER CARS
Cars which burn fuel (conventional or alternative) in a more efficient way, thus reducing carbon emissions and other harmful pollutants. Focus on the consumer market.

LOW CARBON VANS
As with passenger cars, the makers of vans and other light commercial vehicles are working to reduce their products’ output of carbon emissions. Focus on the business market.

Judging criteria
Judges will look at the overall quality of each submission, the degree of originality and innovation in the creative concept and the quality of the creative execution specifically in terms of visual elements such as typography, art direction and illustration.

The relevance and pertinence of the subject in relation to low carbon technology and how the execution tackles low carbon issues following the listed criteria will also be considered.

CONCEPT / 10
• Does the material deliver a compelling proposition?
• How relevant is the concept to the target audience?
• Is it an original idea?

EXECUTION / 5
• Does the copy, artwork and style reflect the brand on display?
• Does it persuade you that low carbon issues are positive?
• Does it avoid jargon and ‘green-speak’ and keep the message simple?
• Does it steer clear of stereotyped ‘green’ clichés?

OVERALL CONSIDERATIONS / 5
• Has the material positively changed the perception of the brand/concept?
• Do you wish you’d been involved in producing this?
• Is this just an attempt at ‘green-wash’ – making an unsustainable product
appear sustainable?

For more information visit the competition website: www.lowcvp.org.uk (follow the Cars
NOT Carbon link)