AutoTrader and Ferrari California T Handling Speciale Partnership
Background:
The purpose of this partnership was designed to create a halo effect around the Ferrari Retail proposition for both new and used vehicles and also herald a brand new entry-level model; the California T Sports Pack edition. The car was used as a visceral symbol to generate interest in The overall Ferrari experience. This was a data-driven partnership that pushed users through the sales funnel in a carefully constructed campaign designed to engage, educate and drive sales.
The Big Idea:
Our aim for this brand partnership was to create a breathtaking showcase of The Ferrari California T as an out-and-out thoroughbred sports car that is as home on the track as it is on the road and use it as a symbol of how product and retail are part of the same end-to-end experience in the way Apple has managed to achieve this. We were looking to create a red-blooded piece of car porn where we capture an exhilarating high-octane performance piece with Ben Collins (Stunt Car Driver, Sky Fall and Dark Knight Returns and the former Stig) threw the car around the track at maximum velocity, smoking tyres, the brutal soundtrack of that turbocharged V8 engine revving. We showed off the sporty side of the vehicle and but also underlined its thoroughbred heritage as finely tuned precision-engineered luxurious object of desire made with artisan skills unique to Ferrari. The overall purpose of this project was Ferrari wanted potential customers to come to them rather than have a less than ideal experience going to an independent broker to buy their vehicle. Ferrari’s approved programme has world-class standards of labour and parts in terms of ensuring cars are serviced to a supremely high standard and the programme is almost like a concierge service in terms of customer service.
The content was housed in a bespoke microsite which was designed to pish a highly laser-precise targeted high-worth individual audience through the sales funnel. We targeted real supercar intenders on AutoTrader – consumers whose behaviour led us to understand they were serious about buying a rival marque such as Aston Martin, Lamborghini, etc. We also used our DMP using a combination of first and third-party data to curate a special audience segment where we retargeted consumers on the Economist, Thomson Reuters, etc with special co-branded creative to arrive at our Content Hub where we served them the content and also tempted them with bespoke listings of Ferrari vehicles from their 13 official national dealers in the country who are part of Ferrari’s programme of customer excellence.
The Results:
Through AutoTrader’s end-to-end use of data and ability to track the consumer journey (pre GDPR) we were able to ascertain that this promotion engaged 83,000 unique users for approximately 1min 30 dwell time each during its lifetime but most importantly 74 car sales were directly attributed towards this partnership, 35 of these brand new California T vehicles.
