Show of the Week: Trade Up

Trade Up’s unique look and feel – effectively a giant car showroom – was a key reason Romania’s Prima TV bought the format soon after it launched at MIPTV, says Keren Shahar, managing director of distribution at Keshet International.

The set, a huge aircraft hangar full of cars has “a sort of ‘adult playground’ appeal, Shahar adds. “Everywhere you look there are bright shiny cars – which you could drive home.”

The format sees a pair of families competing to win a dream car. Each round they bundle into a car and answer general knowledge questions by turning a corresponding key to win the vehicle. They can then risk moving on to a better model by ‘trading’ the current one in.

“There’s something comical and exciting about the whole family and the host bundling into the car, also the gameplay is intensified by the fact that the family is already inside the prize they are trying to win,” says Shahar.

The families can also knock each other out of the game by using distraction tactics to make answering the questions more difficult. They can also add extra keys (or answers) to their rivals’ question in order to increase the chances of the own group progressing.

Each episode can involve more than one game, as the families have no lifelines and play on until they decide to keep their current car, win the ultimate dream car prize or get knocked out.

Keshet International, the global arm of Israel’s Keshet Media Group, is pitching the format as a 30-minute series that can be stripped in access prime, or in prime. Keshet plays it in the latter way in Israel, where an eccentric host leads the action.

“Trade Up is quite versatile, its predominantly families that play so it works for the family audience,” says Shahar. “It works on an all-round commercial broadcaster like Keshet, but it could also work on a thematic of male-skewing channel.”

She also points to the fact the show was developed with car sponsorship appeal in mind. “So the creators of the show, Ori Goldberg and Lia Lachmi, got to work developing something in house that would work for the brand and the channel.

“Because our number one priority always has to be maintaining Keshet’s high audience share, we had a vested interest in finding an idea that offered seamless product placement opportunities and brand visibility, without compromising on brilliant entertainment.”

The show launched internationally before going out in Israel, which Shahar attributes to the highly-formattable approach to the show. “We know that there are other channels like ours around the world that are looking for exciting new entertainment shows as well as new ways concepts that give brands more presence than they get in an ad break,” she adds.

The show: Trade Up
The producer: Keshet International
The distributor: Keshet International
The channel: Keshet (Israel), Prima TV (Romania)
The concept: Families compete in trivia rounds in a giant hangar full of cars to win a dream vehicle