In keeping with Dodge’s irreverent attitude, we partnered with Will Ferrell, who played legendary newscaster Ron Burgundy and acted as the Durango’s spokesperson. Ron was the perfect pitchman because he straddles the line between Dodge’s 1970s muscle car heritage and the new, modern, sophisticated Dodge.

Automotive advertising conventions are built on the tried-and-true technique of repeating information about MPGs, technology and horsepower over and over again. We crafted a campaign encouraging people to laugh at these “best practices.” The result was a campaign that spanned TV, print, social media and digital—including an online endurance game.

The pop-culture relevance the campaign achieved allowed us to show off Durango—a car people knew little about—in a fun and digestible manner.

First, Hands on Ron Burgundy was part of a larger campaign that parodied the well-known conventions of the auto industry. Using Ron Burgundy as a spokesman allowed us to poke fun at these old clichés while making the Durango feel modern and sophisticated.

Second, the game allowed us to do some hard-core product-selling to individuals playing the game in a way that didn’t feel overbearing. We made sure all of the games and videos that did a lot of feature-selling were just as entertaining as the other aspects of the game.

In five days, nearly one million players spent the equivalent of 2.4 years engaging with Ron and learning about the Durango. The winner spent over 41 consecutive hours touching Ron. The average time on site was over nine minutes, nearly five times the industry average for an interactive brand site. Web interest rose 524% and shopping consideration increased 46% within the large SUV segment. Sales increased 59% YoY during the same month the game was live. The client reported many stories from dealerships all over the United States of people asking for “the Ron Burgundy Durango.”