Leading brands realestate.com.au and MINI joined forces this week to disrupt the market by launching an interactive advertising campaign, generating buzz and excitement around the new MINI Countryman.
The interactive floor ad, which ran exclusively on realestate.com.au for one day, formed part of MINI’s pre-launch strategy to generate enquiry leads into their top-of-the-range four door MINI Countryman all wheel drive, which is set for release mid next year.
Henry Ruiz, General Manager Consumer Experience and Product Marketing said realestate.com.au was an obvious channel for MINI to invest in, as the site has a huge audience reach – attracting about 6 million unique browsers(1) each month.
“After a house, buying a car is usually seen as the next high investment purchase for many Australians, so advertising on realestate.com.au was natural choice for MINI. Our site attracts many individuals with a high disposable income who are affluent and are making major lifestyle decisions(2),” he said.
The creative execution for the interactive floor ad involved a car crashing through a series of television screens with a call to action which encourages consumers to register their interest in finding out more about the new MINI. MINI’s Marketing Manager Chris Brown said the bold move to invest in a one-day online campaign was a first for the company. Given the power of online and the high level of engagement this ad offered, MINI was keen to test this opportunity.
“The realestate.com.au floor ad gave us the perfect platform for the pre-launch activity of the MINI Countryman. As this is a new format of vehicle for MINI we needed to access a wider audience for our lead generation while still delivering the creative in an engaging and typically MINI way," he said.
“In fact, we have been overwhelmed with the results and level of interest the campaign has generated in just one day with a click through rate of over 8 per cent(3), well above industry average. As a result, we have managed to increase traffic to our site by a whopping 1700 per cent – a phenomenal result for a reasonable investment(3),” said Chris.
Creative agency Visual Identity was the brainchild behind the execution of the campaign allowing MINI to actively engage with their target audience in an interactive way.
(1) Source: realestate.com.au delivered 5,781,187 unique browsers (source: Nielsen, Market Intelligence, Australia).
(2) Source: Roy Morgan Single Source, April 2009 – March 2010, 73 per cent aged 25-54, 35 per cent AB’s (75 per cent more likely), 52 per cent have degree, 38per cent earn more than $70k.
(3) On Monday 19 July 2010, the MINI floor ad on realestate.com.au generated 8.44 per cent click through rate, well above the industry average. The industry benchmark for click through rates for a rich media execution of the type is averaged at 1.09 per cent. Source: Eyeblaster Research Q1 2009 to Q4 2009, Australia and New Zealand market.