CheckThatVin.com
Before you get in, Check That Vin
Client: CARCO
Industry: Automotive
Scope: Campaign strategy, creative development, out-of-home, launch activation
Focus: Rename and promote an existing service
Here's some of the work.
Here's the thinking behind the work.
The Opportunity: The product was fine. The name was the problem.
The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System gave people a fast, affordable way to check a used car's history before buying. Real value, real public benefit, almost no awareness.
The name was the obstacle. It was long, it was forgettable and it was close to impossible to type into a browser.
A service that people find by searching for it cannot afford a name nobody can recall.
That reframed the assignment. This looked like an awareness problem and was actually a naming problem.
Brand Strategy: Name it after what it does.
CheckThatVIN describes the entire service in three words. It works as an instruction, it works as a URL and it survives being heard once at a dealership and typed later from memory.
That decision did most of the strategic work. Once the name matched the behavior, every other piece of the brand got easier to build, because the brand no longer had to explain itself before it could be useful.
Execution: Meet people where the decision happens.
The identity was built out from the new name, followed by out-of-home and online video driving traffic to a new site, plus support for the mobile app rollout so the service was available at the moment someone is standing next to a used car.
Partnerships with used car dealerships put the brand into the purchase environment itself. A history check is most persuasive when it is offered during the decision, not remembered afterward.
Why it matters: The naming was the strategy.
Everything after the name was execution. The value of the engagement was recognizing that a hidden government resource did not need more advertising, it needed to be nameable.
This is the kind of problem worth finding before design starts. It is cheaper to fix a name than to buy awareness for a bad one.
Purpose
To give used car buyers a fast, affordable way to know what they are actually buying.
Mission
To turn a valuable but invisible public service into a consumer brand people can find, remember and trust.
Vision
To be the first check anyone runs before buying a used car. Even before CarFax.
Positioning
The low-cost first step in a used car purchase, built on federal title data and named for exactly what it does.
Personality
Direct. Practical. Trustworthy. Plainspoken. Useful before it is clever.
Audience
Private used car buyers, first-time buyers and budget-conscious shoppers, plus the dealerships that benefit from transparency at the point of sale.
CheckThatVIN took a public service almost nobody could name and made it nameable. The rebrand started with the name because the name was the barrier, then built identity, campaign and digital presence on top of a phrase that tells you what to do and where to go at the same time.
Have something real already working? Let’s build the brand around it.
