Bentley jumps in the Deepend

Deepend has broken into the luxury market having scooped a major redesign of Bentley’s website.

The win precedes the launch of its new mid-sized car, the MSB, due within the next three years.

The consultancy has been keen to enter this market and has been courting luxury brands, says Deepend director Nick Farnhill. Last year it failed to win the job to design the Rolex watch site, but it is now in the running for work with an unnamed fashion brand.

Deepend won the Bentley account following a four-way, unpaid creative pitch against incumbent consultancy Premier, Razorfish and Good Technology. The project marks a bid by the luxury car maker to appeal to a younger target audience.

The core site, at www.bentleymotors.co.uk, will be “the driving force behind Bentley’s repositioning to attract younger customers”, says a Bentley spokesman. Rather than its existing 50-plus target market, it will be seeking to woo a 35-plus age group, he says. The site will go live before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Deepend’s first task will be the creation of a microsite to mark the return of Bentley to the Le Mans 24-hour race on 16 June. The site, at www.teambentley.com, will go live prior to the race.

“Luxury brand names can be difficult to take on-line,” says Farnhill, “because the Web can take away the exclusivity of a brand. The key is to make certain sectors of the website less public than others. The on-line offering cannot just be a bland communications channel.”