Why is this work relevant for Media?

The Nissan JUKE launch campaign saw great success through a platform-first category innovation (TikTok), which was chosen due to a balance between nuanced data insight and creating production efficiencies from limited Global assets. During strategy, we had discovered that the average purchase journey for the JUKE buyer was 14 days. The industry standard is 2.5 months. Additionally, we’d discovered that there was a significant growth opportunity with the younger buyer. We created a competition with TikTok to resonate with our buyer’s impulsivity, drive engagement and to provide over 300 pieces of UGC at no cost to Nissan.

Background

Situation In 2020, Nissan launched the all-new Juke with its full upgrade and new look to the Australian market. The Juke was at the end of the product life cycle and suffering from low awareness, consideration, intent and ultimately market share. This Nissan Juke launch faced multiple challenges. It needed to launch in an extremely competitive segment, with 35% less budget compared to an average competitor car launch budget, during Australia’s lockdown, using global assets which were essentially driving footage. Brief Generate awareness and audience engagement, leading to subsequent sale of the new Nissan JUKE. Objectives Launch the new vehicle & sell 1,811 units.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

During strategy, we had discovered that the average purchase journey for the JUKE buyer was 14 days. The industry standard is 2.5 months. Using web tracking data, we discovered that 7 days prior to visiting the Nissan site, the JUKE audience had no interaction with any form of automotive content. Then, 7 days after first visitation, all automotive purchase indicators stop. Within 14 days, the buyer appeared to have completed their entire purchase journey, making what is typically the second largest transaction a consumer can complete, an impulse. The campaign budget, existing assets, and scope for production were limited. Finally, the world was about to be rocked by COVID-19, where people would need to learn to make decisions quickly and maintain flexibility. From this, Let’s improvise was born.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We created a campaign activation that would reach a younger buyer, on an emerging platform. The activation would encourage them to act on their impulsive nature, generating impressive levels of awareness and engagement, before being rolled out to the broader public. The activation saw TikTokkers record themselves recreating the Nissan JUKE launch TVC, for the chance for their TikTok to be broadcast to the entire country across traditional TV. The execution, a tiktok hashtag-challenge, saw the users place themselves in the ad, creating their own voice-over, to best highlight the key product features of new Apple CarPlay and a BOSE sound-system. This launch activation, and subsequent UGC, was then blasted across linear TV and Facebook, to extend the reach of the campaign and engage with the more traditional JUKE (55+) buyer.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

To launch the activation, we selected key TikTok micro-influencers to generate initial in-platform interest and engagement. From there, the hashtag challenge was promoted as the first video all users within the demographic would see on their initial login for the day. The activation served as the campaign launch, and ran for 1 week (late July 2020), with the micro-influencers and paid promotion garnering enough traction to generate voluminous UGC. From here, the campaign, featuring TikTok UGC where possible, launched across TV, digital video, social and display which is still running as we shift into tactical activity, using the TikTok activation as the anchor point for all activity that followed until July 2021.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign over delivered against all key awareness and consideration indicators, whilst still delivering healthy sales volumes (-7% within the target threshold) – despite the onset of a global pandemic leading to significant stock issues and reduced consumer confidence. Let’s improvise, and the supporting insight revolving around the quick-natured decision making process of the JUKE buyer proved apt. The campaign appealed to the impulsive Australian, with the proportion of website actions made within 1-step (a user visiting only 1 other page before completing a key business action) of visiting the site more than doubling, from 13% pre-campaign to 29% of all conversions across the period. When delving even deeper into the behaviour of our customer, we saw that half (49%) of users exposed to JUKE digital messaging that did convert to action on site, converted within 24 hours of their initial exposure. They saw our messaging, and they acted. Impulsively.