Hot Wheels needed kids to try their classic cars hands-on, because research showed, that once kids play with Hot Wheels, they fall in love with the brand. So we needed to find a new way for kids to TRY the cars for themselves – something that would activate the kids directly and turn their attention away from the digital screen and turn on their imagination.

Rather than running traditional media, we got to kids when they are already in a car world: When their parents are renting the car for their holiday. We identified the busiest Europcar stations in France and opened the kid’s car rental station inside. To make it as effective as possible, we made it as real as possible for the kids: From choosing their own car-category, to signing contracts and surrounding the station with advertising and testimonials – just like in the “grown-up” world. And since most car rentals start online, we were there to, where kids could pre-book their cars.

Based on the client brief, we had two main Success Criteria/KPIs that the campaign delivered on: 1) Reach (new contacts) and 2) Engagement. For Reach, we created new contacts (with real-time parental approval) both online and in the store. For Engagement, the average interaction time in-store was over 10 minutes and we rented out over one thousand cars during two weekends and more than 75% of all families interacted with the campaign at the venue.