Renault Proud of It Puts the All-New Kangoo at the Heart of French Pride
Renault's "Proud of It" campaign, created by Publicis Conseil and released in France in July 2021, is a single-film automotive advertisement that repositions the all-new Renault Kangoo not merely as a utility vehicle but as a source of genuine personal and professional pride for its owners.
The campaign centres on a proposition that is both straightforward and emotionally loaded: that choosing the Kangoo is itself a statement worth making openly. In France, where the Kangoo has long occupied a particular place in the working and domestic landscape, this framing carries cultural weight. Rather than leading with technical specifications or competitive pricing, Renault and Publicis Conseil anchor the message in the psychology of ownership — the idea that a vehicle can reflect and affirm the identity of the person or business that depends on it. The campaign title, "Proud of It," functions as both a declaration and an invitation, asking audiences to reconsider what pride in a vehicle can mean when that vehicle is built for real-world demands.
The all-new Kangoo represented a significant generational update for Renault, and the "Proud of It" campaign was designed to signal that evolution clearly to French consumers. By adopting a film-based format and a French-language delivery, Publicis Conseil ensured the campaign spoke directly to its primary market, with the localized approach reflecting the practical and cultural sensibilities that have made the Kangoo a fixture on French roads for decades. The campaign was subsequently described as an international campaign, extending its reach beyond France, though its creative identity was firmly rooted in the French market context from which it launched.
Renault built the "Proud of It" campaign on a consumer insight that is as durable as it is underexplored in automotive advertising: that utility vehicle owners do not simply tolerate their choice — they identify with it. In France, the Kangoo has historically served tradespeople, small business owners, and families with demanding practical needs, and Publicis Conseil recognised that this audience's relationship with the vehicle runs deeper than functional satisfaction. The campaign's pride narrative was designed to surface and legitimise that relationship, transforming what might be perceived as a pragmatic purchase into a point of genuine self-expression.
The strategic context in France in 2021 was demanding. The French automotive market, like markets across Europe, was navigating significant supply disruption driven by global semiconductor shortages, which, as reported by automotiveworld.com, constrained production and created product scarcity across the industry. Against this backdrop, campaigns that built emotional equity rather than volume-driven urgency carried particular strategic value, reinforcing brand preference at a moment when consumers could not always act on intent immediately.
Within the light commercial and compact van segment, Renault faced sustained competition from Stellantis-backed models including the Citroën Berlingo and the Peugeot Partner, both of which share platform architecture and compete directly for the same professional and semi-professional French buyers. By centering its campaign on pride and identity rather than on a feature-by-feature comparison, Renault and Publicis Conseil chose a differentiation strategy that competitors anchored to rational utility claims would find difficult to mirror directly. The campaign's emotional register was its competitive shield.
Director Marcus Söderlund led the production of the "Proud of It" film for Renault, working with director of photography Monika Lenczewska to construct a visual language that matched the campaign's tonal ambition. Production was handled by Palma Pictures, with Olivier Dubocage producing and Yannick Lebot serving as line producer.
Söderlund and Lenczewska's collaboration brought a considered visual sensibility to what could have been a straightforward product showcase. Lenczewska's cinematography choices — framing, light, and the relationship between the vehicle and its environment — served the campaign's core proposition by grounding the Kangoo in recognisable, real-world contexts while simultaneously elevating it. This is a creative balance that automotive films frequently attempt and rarely achieve without tipping into either mundanity or artifice. The "Proud of It" film navigates that tension with a restraint that reflects both the director's approach and the strategic clarity provided by Publicis Conseil's creative team.
The creative leadership at Publicis Conseil, Paris was provided by Marco Venturelli as president in charge of creation, with Marcelo Vergara serving as creative director, Alessandro Padalino as art director, and Tobias Fant as copywriter. Agency producer Caroline Petruccelli and agency president Agathe Bousquet completed the senior team. Post-production was managed by Prodigious, with editing by Yann Malcore, colour and calibration by Laurent Ripol, and sound by Start-Rec. This depth of craft infrastructure — connecting a production company of Palma Pictures' standing with Prodigious's post-production capability — reflects the seriousness with which Renault and Publicis Conseil approached the Kangoo relaunch in France in 2021.
No independently verified campaign performance data for "Proud of It" — including reach, conversion, or brand-lift metrics — is publicly available beyond the archive record. As documented in the campaign's archived entry, the film accumulated two thousand five hundred and seventy-six views, five likes, and no comments within the archive platform, figures that point to a campaign whose primary distribution was broadcast and paid digital rather than earned or organic social. These numbers reflect archival record-keeping rather than the full scope of media delivery in France.
At the product level, the vehicle at the centre of the campaign received meaningful industry recognition. The All-New Kangoo Van was awarded the 2022 International Van of the Year, as reported by Media Renault and independently noted by marcommnews.com. This was a vehicle award rather than an advertising award, but it validates the product proposition that "Proud of It" was built to communicate: that the new Kangoo represented a genuine step forward worthy of recognition.
No advertising awards for "Proud of It" were identified in the Cannes Lions, Effies, One Show, D&AD, Clios, Webby, or WARC rankings. The Clapboard Score for the campaign is 54 out of 100. This score reflects a campaign that executes its emotional strategy with competence and assembles a genuinely credible production team, while stopping short of the creative distinctiveness or measurable impact that would place it among the most memorable automotive work of its year. The campaign is structurally sound and strategically coherent; its limitations lie in ambition rather than execution.
Renault's "Proud of It" campaign repositions the all-new Kangoo as a source of personal and professional pride. Created by Publicis Conseil and released in France in July 2021, the film-based campaign targets French drivers and workers who rely on the Kangoo, framing the vehicle as an expression of identity rather than a purely functional choice.
Marcus Söderlund directed the "Proud of It" film for Renault. He worked alongside director of photography Monika Lenczewska, with production handled by Palma Pictures. The post-production was completed by Prodigious, with editing by Yann Malcore and colour by Laurent Ripol, all working under Publicis Conseil's creative leadership in Paris.
Publicis Conseil, Paris created the "Proud of It" campaign for Renault. Publicis Conseil, described by Renault as its historic agency, led creative development with Marco Venturelli as president in charge of creation, Marcelo Vergara as creative director, Alessandro Padalino as art director, and Tobias Fant as copywriter for the 2021 French campaign.
No advertising awards were identified for Renault's "Proud of It" campaign. No entries or wins appear in Cannes Lions, Effies, One Show, D&AD, Clios, Webby, or WARC rankings. Separately, the all-new Kangoo Van won the 2022 International Van of the Year, a product award recognised by media.renault.com and marcommnews.com.
Renault's "Proud of It" campaign receives a Clapboard Score of 54 out of 100. The score reflects competent emotional execution and a credible production team including Palma Pictures and Publicis Conseil, while noting that the campaign does not reach the creative distinctiveness of the most awarded automotive advertising work produced in France in 2021.
Renault and Publicis Conseil identified that Kangoo owners — particularly French tradespeople and small business operators — form a strong identity connection with the vehicle. The "Proud of It" campaign surfaced that existing emotional bond, differentiating the Kangoo from direct competitors including the Citroën Berlingo and Peugeot Partner through emotional framing rather than feature comparison.
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