Renault Cars to Work Puts Inclusive Mobility at the Heart of French Advertising
Renault's Cars to Work campaign is a 2024 integrated public interest initiative, created by Publicis Conseil and launched in France on 22 March 2024, that offered people on job probation periods access to new or used vehicles through the CareMakers inclusive mobility program, with payments deferred until employment became more secure.
The campaign addresses a structural barrier that sits at the intersection of employment and transport. In France, workers hired on three-month trial contracts are typically unable to secure conventional bank financing for a vehicle, yet without reliable transport many cannot reach their workplace or retain their position. Renault's response was not a charity initiative but a reconfigured commercial offer: leasing or purchase arrangements that defer payment obligations until the probation period concludes, with the option to return the vehicle if employment does not continue, as detailed on Media Renault.
To be eligible, applicants must reside in metropolitan France, demonstrate a mobility need directly connected to a professional project, and meet an income threshold of no more than 14,000 euros of reference tax income per household unit, as set out by the CareMakers programme partners. Applications are submitted through partner prescribers or directly via the CareMakers platform, which coordinates every stage of the process from vehicle selection through to maintenance. The ecosystem behind the offer is substantial: France Travail, the national employment agency, joined as a principal partner from the programme's outset, mobilising its network on behalf of job seekers. Microcredit specialists including Adie, Caisse d'Epargne, Parcours Confiance and Créasol provide financing pathways for constrained budgets. Inclusive mobility operators Roole and Le Club Mobilité ensure local coordination. Nearly 50 garages across France supply vehicles under the scheme, and more than 300 offer maintenance and repairs at preferential rates, all participating on a voluntary basis.
Cars to Work extends the CareMakers inclusive mobility program, which according to France Publicisgroupe had been operating for approximately twelve years before the 2024 campaign brought it to national public attention. The Clapboard Score for this campaign is 58 out of 100, reflecting strong social purpose and award-recognised craft set against the inherently narrow addressable audience that any targeted solidarity scheme produces.
Guillaume Sabbagh, Senior Copywriter at Publicis Conseil, identified a structural employment problem in France: workers on three-month trial periods cannot secure bank loans for vehicles, creating a concrete barrier to job retention, as reported by contagious.com. That single insight reframed the entire strategic brief. The campaign was not conceived as corporate social responsibility messaging layered onto an existing product but as the communication arm of a genuine commercial and social solution.
Marie Donnedieu, Senior Art Director at Publicis Conseil, stated that the campaign was dedicated to solving a real problem for people in need from the very beginning of its development, according to publicisconseil.fr. That orientation shaped every strategic decision, from partner selection to channel architecture. Rather than broadcasting a values proposition, the team built a referral ecosystem that required job seekers, social prescribers, financial institutions and dealerships to act in concert. France Travail's involvement as a primary distribution partner gave the programme institutional reach that no paid media plan alone could replicate.
The competitive context for Cars to Work sits within a French automotive market where manufacturers including Stellantis brands such as Peugeot and Citroën, as well as Volkswagen Group, compete intensely on both price and social positioning. What differentiates Renault's approach is the decision to anchor the campaign in its CareMakers inclusive mobility program rather than in product specifications or lease rate comparisons. According to Assets Renaultgroup, Renault Group's broader strategic direction places sustainability and social impact alongside commercial performance as core pillars, and Cars to Work operationalises that direction at the consumer touchpoint level. In France, where automotive ownership remains closely tied to employment geography, the campaign speaks to a documented gap between urban public transport coverage and the mobility needs of workers in peri-urban and rural areas. The partnership architecture — combining employment services, microcredit providers and the dealer network — is the strategic execution, not a secondary support layer.
Cars to Work reached approximately 8.8 million people across France, according to france.publicisgroupe.com, a reach figure that reflects the campaign's integrated media architecture rather than a single broadcast event. The creative output included a 120-second case film alongside 60-second and 30-second advertising films, as documented by media.renault.com, each constructed to communicate both the emotional reality of transport-related job insecurity and the concrete mechanics of the CareMakers offer.
Cléa Martinet, VP Sustainability at Renault Group, announced on 22 March 2024 that the programme would offer trial-period employees long-term vehicle leasing or purchase options with deferred payment arrangements, per media.renault.com. Her public statement positioned the campaign not as philanthropy but as a reconfiguration of how an automotive manufacturer relates to people who have historically been excluded from conventional financing. That framing carried through into the creative tone: the films depicted recognisable working-life situations rather than aspirational automotive imagery, grounding the message in the lived experience of the target audience.
The campaign's format choices reflect a deliberate choice to serve both awareness and conversion objectives within the same creative system. The longer case film functions as proof of concept for partner prescribers, journalists and award juries, while the shorter edits serve paid distribution across broadcast and digital channels. According to Little Black Book, the work was structured so that the communication itself became part of the service, directing eligible viewers toward the CareMakers platform and into the partner referral network rather than simply building brand sentiment. Production credits beyond the named Publicis Conseil creative leads are not fully documented in public sources, though the campaign is attributed to the Paris-based Publicis Conseil team working in close collaboration with Renault Group's sustainability and marketing functions. The craft judgement evident throughout is the decision to keep the product — the car — subordinate to the human situation it resolves.
Cars to Work won two Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2024. According to france.publicisgroupe.com, the campaign received the Grand Prix for Creative Commerce Lions and the Grand Prix for Sustainable Development Goals Lions in the Decent Work and Economic Growth category. The same festival awarded a Gold Lion for Creative Business Transformation and a Gold Lion for Direct, a Silver Lion for Creative Strategy, and a Silver Lion for Brand Experience and Activation, per france.publicisgroupe.com.
Beyond Cannes Lions, the campaign's award recognition extended to Eurobest 2024, where it received the Grand Prix for Direct, and to D&AD, where it was awarded a White Pencil for Impact, both as reported by lbbonline.com. Approximately 3,000 people benefited directly from the CareMakers programme vehicles and services connected to the campaign, according to contagious.com, a figure that contextualises the reach statistic of approximately 8.8 million, per france.publicisgroupe.com: the campaign succeeded in translating broad awareness into a meaningful, if necessarily selective, set of individual outcomes.
No single consolidated performance metric from an independent third-party media auditor is publicly available for the full campaign period. What the award record and participant numbers together indicate is a campaign whose structural effectiveness derives from its service design as much as its creative execution. The two Grand Prix reflect the jury's recognition that Cars to Work dissolves the boundary between a commercial automotive offer and a public interest programme — a distinction that most integrated campaigns in the automotive category never attempt to close. The Clapboard Score of 58 out of 100 acknowledges this ambition while noting that the campaign's measurable commercial impact remains bounded by the eligibility criteria that define its audience.
Cars to Work is a 2024 integrated campaign by Renault and Publicis Conseil in France. It offered people on job trial periods access to new or used vehicles through the CareMakers inclusive mobility program, with payments deferred until employment became more secure, reaching approximately 8.8 million people according to france.publicisgroupe.com.
Cars to Work won two Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2024. According to france.publicisgroupe.com, these were the Grand Prix for Creative Commerce Lions and the Grand Prix for Sustainable Development Goals Lions. The campaign also received Gold Lions for Creative Business Transformation and Direct, plus Silver Lions for Creative Strategy and Brand Experience and Activation.
Publicis Conseil created Cars to Work for Renault Group. Key creative contributors included Guillaume Sabbagh, Senior Copywriter, and Marie Donnedieu, Senior Art Director, both at Publicis Conseil, as reported by contagious.com and publicisconseil.fr. Cléa Martinet, VP Sustainability at Renault Group, announced the programme publicly on 22 March 2024.
Eligibility requires residency in metropolitan France, a mobility need linked to a professional project, and a reference tax income of no more than 14,000 euros per household unit, as defined by CareMakers programme partners. Applications are made directly or through partner prescribers including France Travail and microcredit organisations such as Adie and Caisse d'Epargne.
Cars to Work reached approximately 8.8 million people in France, according to france.publicisgroupe.com. Approximately 3,000 people benefited directly from the CareMakers vehicles and services connected to the campaign, per contagious.com, reflecting the programme's targeted eligibility criteria alongside its broad media distribution.
CareMakers is Renault Group's inclusive mobility program, which had been operating for approximately twelve years before the 2024 campaign, according to france.publicisgroupe.com. Cars to Work served as the public communication campaign that brought CareMakers to national attention in France, activating its network of nearly 50 vehicle-supplying garages and more than 300 maintenance partners.
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