Suzuki Australia does its Block

SUZUKI sold more cars in Australia than the United States last month, and you can put at least part of that down to a bunch of over-tired house renovators on a top-rating reality television show.

Suzuki Australia successfully milked its high-profile product placement in the Nine Network show The Block to the tune of 2450 vehicle sales in May – a company record for May and its second-best monthly result ever.

By contrast, its American counterpart shifted just 2360 vehicles in the same month – fewer than Porsche.

Apart from a successful TV sponsorship, Suzuki Australia’s big advantage over its US cousin is that it offers the Swift small car in this market – a vehicle inexplicably absent from the North American line-up in which the SX4 is the sole small car.

In Australia, Swift sales have risen recently on the back of the Swift Sport, a five-door hatchback billed as Australia’s most affordable hot hatch when it arrived in February.

Suzuki Australia general manager Tony Devers said the Sport had given Suzuki Australia a full model line-up in the light-car segment, in which it also fields the Indian-made Alto.

He said he expected to be able to maintain the May sales levels through to the end of the year.

Mr Devers said Suzuki had been a dominant player in the national media in recent weeks through its TV sponsorships and product placements, including The Block.

From top: Suzuki Australia general manager Tony Devers Suzuki Swift Sport.



“It’s a great mix of record ratings and record sales,” said Mr Devers.

“The Block complements our sponsorship of other top-rating lifestyle programs such as Australia’s Got Talent and Grand Designs.”

Suzuki Australia marketing manager Andrew Moore said The Block was consistently one of the top two rating programs in prime time each night, and consistently drew audiences of about 2.5 million viewers.

He said Suzuki featured strongly with in-program vehicle placement and product endorsement from the contestants who regularly use a Swift, Grand Vitara, Alto, SX4 or APV van to complete one of the weekly challenges.

“When we introduced a hotted-up Swift into the show we saw a dramatic increase of nearly 70 per cent in web traffic,” said Mr Devers.

A related viewer competition in which someone will win a Swift Sport had already attracted more than 40,000 entries in three weeks.

Details of Suzuki’s big May will become clear tomorrow when the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries releases the official monthly sales data.

The figures are expected to show a marked turnaround in the fortunes of Suzuki, which had been down 9.6 per cent to the end of April, in a market up 5.1 per cent.

In the US, Suzuki is a tiny operator, shifting barely sufficient cars to maintain a presence.

So far this year, it has sold 10,696 vehicles – down 4.0 per cent. Its Japanese rival Toyota has delivered 868,300 units in the same period.