Director of Product Management

Turo launches 'Carfished' campaign highlighting common rental car booking experience. * 2 hrs ago Turo's latest campaign, in partnership with ad agency L&C, reminds travelers that the car they book should be the car they drive. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson leaves Newry Crown Court With Turo, the exact car you rent is the exact car you get." - David Corns, Chief Marketing Officer at Turo SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, July 9, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ - Anyone who's rented a car knows the feeling. You reserve the sleek SUV shown online, wait in line at the rental counter, and drive away in something completely different. Turo, the car rental marketplace, is giving that all-too-common experience a name. Today, Turo launches "Carfished," a new global campaign created with independent award-winning creative agency, L&C, that shines a light on one of traditional car rental's biggest frustrations: booking one vehicle but receiving another. Borrowing from the familiar idea of being "catfished," the campaign introduces "carfished" as the feeling of expecting one car and ending up with something entirely different. Through the campaign, Turo highlights a feature of its marketplace model in which travelers reserve a specific vehicle offered by an individual host, rather than selecting a vehicle category. The campaign contrasts that experience with the vehicle substitutions that can occur through traditional rental models. That guarantee is especially valuable as more than half of Americans have plans to hit the road for their summer vacations this year, and nearly all of those travelers expect to be in the car for at least 10 hours. "The traditional rental car industry has spent decades conditioning travelers to accept the bait-and-switch as a standard cost of business. We've all experienced that dread at the counter - showing up only to be handed a completely different vehicle than the one we booked," says David Corns, Chief Marketing Officer at Turo. "With Turo, the exact car you rent is the exact car you get." "The beauty of this campaign lies in the insight," said Gian Carlo Lanfranco, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Creative Officer at L&C. "Almost everyone has experienced the disappointment of arriving at a traditional rental counter only to be handed a car that looks nothing like the one they booked - smaller, older, or simply different. We've all been 'carfished' at some point. By tapping into that universal experience, we're able to highlight a benefit that aligns with Turo's marketplace model. We believe it's a simple, relatable idea that can resonate with audiences around the world." The campaign also extends to social media. In one example, TikTok creator Regional Jet Regular shared a video describing an experience in which the vehicle he received from a traditional rental company differed from the one he had reserved. Turo later worked with the creator on a follow-up video featuring a vehicle booked through its marketplace. "Carfished" launches across Turo's key global markets and will appear across digital video, connected TV, social media and online channels. The campaign continues the company's broader brand platform highlighting its marketplace model, in which travelers reserve a specific vehicle rather than a vehicle category. Emma Swanson +1 716-225-1186 Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. Mycarrollcountynews do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above. Media gallery

A Miami couple has grown their car rental side hustle into a six-figure family business. Gerardo Aletti and Sofia Escarra started in 2020 by renting out a single Nissan Infiniti on Turo, a car-sharing app. Six years later, they operate 63 vehicles and are on track to earn $500,000 in 2025. The Venezuelan immigrants leveraged Aletti's transportation industry background and their Spanish language skills to serve Latin American travellers, who comprise 30% of their clientele. They've capitalised on increased tourism from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which features seven matches in Miami. The business became their primary income source in 2024. They now employ family members, including their son, daughter and niece, each handling different operational aspects from customer service to fleet management.

Turo CMO David Corns is redefining rental cars in an undeniably big way. Publication ADD TO COLLECTION 09/06/2026 LBB's Ben Conway speaks to the CMO about Turo's aim to evolve the category and its marketing, his choice to collaborate with multiple agency partners, and plans for global acceleration Turo has been on a mission to put drivers back in control of car rentals. With its new chief marketing officer, David Corns, the car sharing marketplace has now launched several campaigns as part of its 'Rent a car. Not a rental car.' platform, all aimed at shaking up a "stagnant" category which had forgotten how much fun the journey to your destination can be. Before joining Turo, David was CMO and then chief commercial officer at Opendoor, following stints across some of advertising's most storied creative shops, from TBWA, Wieden+Kennedy and Crispin Porter + Bogusky, to Venables Bell & Partners and R/GA, where he was EVP, managing director, US. Under David's watchful eye, Turo debuted the new platform in March with 'Cars Are Cool', created by Deutsch. It's a funny, scenic diss towards the traditional car rental process - the long line at the airport, the extensive paperwork, etc. - which also set the tone for subsequent campaigns created with L&C, Wieden+Kennedy Portland, DEPT and Mediahub. [Above: 'Cars Are Cool' from Deutsch] Speaking with LBB, David explains that Turo's goal has been to 'own the brand' while building it out with these various partners, "to ensure we show up consistently strategically, but not necessarily identically in execution". David never has the partners perform "unnecessary jump balls" or pitch against each other, instead calling on each of the partners' specialities - whether that's storytelling, cultural relevance, socials or activations - to ladder back to one clear brand strategy and creative North Star. "The challenge I was brought in to solve is simple to say, harder to do," says David. "[To] build an iconic brand that drives growth. Not brand for brand's sake. Brand as a commercial lever. Awareness, consideration, conversion. All moving together." For him, the opportunity lay in the project's ambition - to not only show that Turo is "simply the better way to rent a car" but to "redefine what it means to have access to a car". The product was already differentiated when he arrived but, according to him, the brand's perception gap wasn't doing it justice. Looking at the wider car rental industry, David says, "It's a category that hasn't been forced to evolve... yet. A category built around scarcity, standardisation and 'big rental' controlling their fleet has meant limited choice, fixed locations, rigid experiences. That shows up in the category's products, brands and in their marketing." Without a credible alternative inspiring change, he argues that the marketing has become "functional" and "interchangeable". "That's been a long-term dynamic," he says. "What's changed now is that consumers expect more: more choice, more flexibility, more personality. The category hasn't caught up. That gap is the opportunity for Turo." [Above: 'Love It Today' from L&C] It's not the first time David has helped a brand shake up its surroundings. His time at real estate platform Opendoor held similar demands. "I've been lucky to work for companies redefining very established, very traditional categories... the kind where the default expectation is that the experience is going to be painful," he says. "That shapes how you approach the job. "You have to make the problem visible, without being overly negative. People want hope. They've normalised a bad experience, so unless you clearly show what's broken, there's no reason to change. "Shifting perception at a category level takes a different approach," he adds, "as well as brave stakeholders who are willing to break conventions in order to shape something greater than what existed before. Different sectors; same premise, pattern and approach. Expose the friction, show a better way, and make it undeniable." When developing the 'Rent a car. Not a rental car.' platform with Deutsch, the brief was tight, if slightly paradoxical: "Put us clearly in the rental car category, while also taking us out of it." Turo had built a reputation as a 'car sharing' platform, so the new work had to reintroduce the brand as a superior rental option - and with a globally scalable idea. The resulting approach "takes on the whole category" and celebrates what it has forgotten: the cars themselves, and the joy they can bring. "The direction to Deutsch was to make the difference undeniable. Not implied. Not subtle. Show the spectrum of cars. Show the emotion. Show the 'why'," says David. "And importantly, make it feel like a brand that belongs in culture. Not a functional service that occasionally advertises. We pushed hard on simplicity, distinctiveness and versatility. Something that works in a 60-second film, but also in search copy, CRM, product, everywhere." David believes the work has a scale and gravitas that feels greater and more human than a typical rental car ad. "It's smart, creative, and lands quickly," he says. "People get it. We (almost painfully) show a problem that almost everyone's experienced first hand, but that no one's really framed up before. Once you see it, you can't ignore it. That's how obvious and how broken it's been for decades. Then we lead them to what they already inherently know, [that] there's got to be a better way." [Above: 'How You Get There' from Wieden+Kennedy Portland] Fundamentally reinventing what it means to rent a car is a big ambition, however, and David is very aware that changing perceptions takes more than a few campaigns. "You do it with a thousand moments and on multiple fronts." He explains that it all starts with the product, and how it delivers on the promise of the marketing. Then through the brand, reframing the category in people's minds into a more expressive space. And finally, through distribution and purpose - showing up where intent is formed and where demand can be generated, and with each of these touchpoints reinforcing the same idea throughout the multi-year shift. Looking ahead, David shares that audiences can expect "more context" and "more culture" from Turo. This includes appearing around moments like the World Cup. "Not as a sponsor, but as a brand that belongs there with the fans," he says. "We're also building out more use-case driven work. Trips, occasions, reasons for choosing a specific car. Making the utility of the marketplace more explicit. "And then there's the less visible work. Search, CRM, SEO/GEO. Making sure the brand tone and messaging shows up all the way through the funnel, not just at the top. The ambition is simple: Wherever you encounter Turo, it should feel like an iconic brand that's leading." For David, now 10 months into the role, year one at Turo has been about laying the foundations and clarity for this brand purpose - building the right team and partners, and resetting how they think about brand and performance working together. "The biggest takeaway is that the opportunity is bigger than it looks from the outside," he says. "This isn't incremental improvement. It's a category-level change." Year two, then, will be about "global acceleration" - driving measurable impact and growth in each of the brand's five major markets, as well as "continuing to build a brand that feels distinctive, not interchangeable," he says. Turo shows no signs of slowing as it reaches this milestone, and David's foot is firmly on the gas pedal as the brand and its creative partners look beyond the US for the next lap of the rental car reset. Credits Add my Credit