Counting likes in the real world
Renault, a Belgian car manufacturer, has come up with a new, creative way to assess interest in their new Megane car that beats the pants off of counting Facebook likes.
There are tons of ways to gauge how much attention your brand or product is getting from your audience, but when’s the last time a company came up with an innovative way to measure public response?
Hitting the streets
Renault didn’t want to rely on YouTube video views and other common metrics to find out how much attention their new car was getting – they wanted to “collect the views that really matter, those in the streets.” The idea came from Renault’s collaboration with advertising agency Publicis.
Before its official launch, the new car was fitted with cameras and facial recognition software, making it the first car in the world that is able to detect people looking at it.
Renault asks us, “do you remember the moment you saw your dream car for the first time?” then set out to count those moments.
When someone on the street takes a good gander at the new car, they are then rewarded for their attention by being entered into a sweepstakes to win tickets to the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix.
Setting the bar
Fans can also go to Renault’s website and guess how many real-time views the car will receive, which also enters them into the contest. This brilliant marketing strategy increased attention for Renault’s product, both by driving the car in the streets and by having a creative ad campaign. It also increased traffic and engagement on Renault’s website, and participation in their sweepstakes.
Renault sets a high bar for creative marketing that not only increases interest in their product, but also helps them collect a completely different kind of customer data than we’ve ever seen before.
#GuerrillaMarketing
Call Me Mom
October 23, 2016 at 5:02 pm
Doesn’t it raise any ethical red flags that people may be identified by a car’s cameras and entered into a sweepstakes without their knowledge or consent? Or does the vehicle also notify these people and ask for their info and consent?
Perhaps I am too old fashioned, but I find the idea there are databases of facial recognition data sufficient to do that downright creepy and big brother-ish.
Just because you CAN do something like this doesn’t mean you SHOULD.