How the ‘Tina from Turners’ ad paid off in a month

Tina from Turners has helped Turners Automotive Group buy and sell more used “cars, cars, cars” - so many that it paid off the company’s $300,000 ad campaign within one month.

The award-winning campaign, starring comedian Sieni Leo’o Olo as ‘Tina’, encouraged New Zealanders to sell their cars for cash through the re-seller Turners, instead of independently through platforms such as Facebook Marketplace.

“It has been unbelievably successful,” Turners chief executive Todd Hunter told Markets with Madison.

“We can see it in the business metrics. That campaign paid for itself in month one, which is pretty unheard of.”

The initial advertisement cost $300,000 to create and air in media - more advertisements were in the works.

However, listed company Turners was witnessing a slowdown in the used car market, with buyers seeking more vehicles below $15,000.

It wasn’t seeing a significant shift to purchasing electric vehicles in the second-hand market because it had few on hand - Hunter said imported EVs were difficult to source Japan.

The company’s costs had increased 110 per cent in its car lending division, as it couldn’t reprice interest rates quick enough to keep up with the pace of the official cash rate.

Watch Todd Hunter discuss how the used car market is going in today’s episode of Markets with Madison above.

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Madison Reidy is the host of New Zealand’s only financial markets show Markets with Madison. She joined the Herald in 2022 after working in investment, and has covered business and economics for television and radio broadcasters.