UKTV Fixes £1m Airtime-for-Equity Deal With ClickMechanic

UKTV has invested in online car repair marketplace Clickmechanic.com using its multi-million pound investment fund, UKTV Ventures. The online start-up has secured £1m worth of commercial airtime across the broadcaster’s network of channels.

UKTV reaches over 33 million viewers every month* and ClickMechanic’s debut TV campaign will run exclusively on UKTV channels Dave, Gold, W, Drama, Alibi, Eden and Yesterday from today, and for several months throughout 2020. Recent research commissioned by Thinkbox and carried out by Data 2 Decisions, the econometric arm of Dentsu Aegis, found that on average, for a brand with less that £50m brand value, a £1m TV campaign can drive overall sales by circa 20%.

Launched in 2018, the UKTV Ventures fund offers high-growth start-ups an opportunity to advertise on TV for the first time and therefore accelerate their business growth. The fund has already made investments into award-winning preschool learning and entertainment platform Hopster, and pet tech start-up PitPat.

Sheena Amin, director of UKTV Ventures said: “ClickMechanic is the perfect start-up to benefit from our innovative fund and we’re excited to launch its first ever TV ad. This online marketplace is solving a real customer pain point when it comes to finding and booking a car mechanic and there is a compelling and substantial growth opportunity to go after in taking this market online. With all the engaging motoring programmes that Dave has to offer, we see a strong fit with ClickMechanic’s target customer base and expect to drive considerable growth and new customer acquisition for the business via the impressive power of TV.”  

Founded in 2012 by Andrew Jervis and Felix Kenton, ClickMechanic makes car care easy for everyone, everywhere. The online marketplace allows drivers to get quick online quotes and book pre-vetted mechanics. Its real-time, online quoting engine is the first of its kind in Europe and empowers users to get the best deal possible and ensure they pay a fair price.

Andrew Jervis, CEO of ClickMechanic said: “We’re excited for this fantastic opportunity to reach millions of new consumers. To be partnering with and having one of the UK’s biggest multi-channel broadcasters as an investor will enable us to ramp up our growth efforts and bring our service to a mass market. We’ve already had success building a product that customers and mechanics love and we hope they enjoy our new ad too.”

ClickMechanic’s debut ad has been designed and created by Happy Hour. It showcases the convenience of ClickMechanic’s services and how their mobile mechanics can get you back on the road quickly and efficiently.

Nicola Tyler, Managing Partner at Happy Hour said: “As a first-time TV advertiser, we knew the creative for ClickMechanic needed to work hard to educate the audience, whilst balance brand memorability & cut-through with response tactics. With this in mind, our approach was to cement in viewers’ minds both visually and audibly exactly what ClickMechanic provides; so hopefully the next time you need a mechanic your immediate thought will be to simply ‘ClickMechanic’”