| Title | REVVING UP SALES FOR THE SMART CAR |
| Brand | MERCEDES-BENZ CHINA |
| Product / Service | SMART |
| Category | A07. Best Use of Digital Media in Online Advertising |
| Entrant | MEC CHINA Beijing, CHINA |
| Entrant Company: | MEC CHINA Beijing, CHINA |
| Media Agency: | MEC CHINA Beijing, CHINA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Jingbo Mao | Mercedes-Benz China Limited | Vice-president, Head of Marketing |
| Javier Lu | Mercedes-Benz China Limited | Marketing Communications, Senior Manager |
| Shan Li | Mercedes-Benz China Limited | Marketing Communications, Manager |
| Beck You | Mercedes-Benz China Limited | Marketing Communications, Senior Officer |
| Karen Ho | MEC Interaction China | Head of Digital |
| Corinna Chen | MEC Interaction China | Associate Planning Director |
| Eve Luo | MEC Interaction China | Digital Manager |
| Michelle Yang | MEC China (Beijing) | Managing Director |
| Jean Zhao | MEC China (Beijing) | Strategic Planning Manager |
Potential smart drivers loved our Group Buy and instant purchase platform. Our first order was received within just 24 seconds of launch. The first 60 cars were booked at a rate of 1 every 2 seconds! After just over three hours, we’d sold out of our 200 smarts! It was one of the fastest and most exciting car sales in China’s history. We’d sold 796 cars in one month. September saw a 106% month-on-month sales increase. The month following our campaign, we sold a further 963 units. Average sales before the campaign were only 229 units a month.
We partnered with leading e-commerce site Taobao to launch China’s first-ever e-commerce platform for cars. This industry-first brought the dealership directly to consumers. Three days before launch, we built anticipation by letting key opinion formers know about our plans. We then created even greater urgency by offering ‘Group Buy’ discounts. If 200 smarts were bought, we’d give them a 23% discount (regular industry discounts are 10-30%). They could also make a ‘Fast Buy’ in three ways: two opportunities to buy limited stocks of model smart cars for 1 RMB, or buy a real smart car for just 1 RMB. We then drove traffic to the smart platform by asking 20 top Taobao store owners to use the smart in their own fashion shoots. They used smart to promote their products and asked visitors to vote for their favourite shots.
China’s car buyers were interested in the smart car but they were not buying. They were cooling-off after inquiry. We needed to find a way to convert inquiries into sales – quickly. So we had to remove the cooling-off period from the buying process. We did this by making smart the first car in China you could buy instantly at the click of a mouse. We then turned the ‘Group Buy’ trend sweeping China to our advantage to sell quickly. This revolutionary way of buying a smart exposed potentially millions of people to our campaign. They could see that one of the world’s most fun cars to drive was also one of the most exciting to buy, and then buy one.