Assignment
Suzuki has a number of city cars in its range. The most iconic is the Swift, a compact car that is youthful and sporty. Suzuki is always looking for original ways to put their cars in the spotlight and they like to experiment with all things digital to gain additional experience. And the Swift (which was nearing the end of its life cycle) needed extra support to maintain sales and interest for a model that was in its twilight years.
Approach
An e-commerce approach to cars is something that has been desired for a long time. However, as long as the purchasing process is not being revolutionised, the current status quo will continue. As it is, Belgians are used to negotiating with a car dealer to get the best deal possible. Eliminating that mechanism would open the door to the possibility of e-commerce. To realise that, deBottomLine came up with the iSwift: a special edition of the Swift equipped with a Wi-Fi hotspot and a data subscription. Car owners would have access to the Internet wherever they went. This model was available at a very competitive price BUT could only be bought online. We appeased the worries of the dealers by involving them in the transaction and delivery so that they too could get their commission. The concept was introduced by means of a large-scale PR campaign (devised and coordinated by us) and included a teaser phase and an unveiling. We also initiated an e-mail campaign using the existing DB and deployed banners.
Results
The results were quite impressive: the PR values we generated easily exceeded the budget of the campaign and as a result the Swift received extra attention. All cars were sold out.
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