E-commerce offered the ideal solution: it’s a platform that encourages impulse buying; it widened our potential customer base by taking dealership store to consumers; and finally, selling cars through E-commerce was a China media & industry first.We leveraged the power of social herding and put the smart car up for “Group Buy” on Taobao, China’s largest e-commerce platform. If 200 people registered, they could purchase a smart car for 23% off its original price (regular industry discounts are ~10-30%).

In order to create anticipation, key opinion leaders seeded news about the opportunity 3 days prior.To maintain interest, we introduced a series of "One second buy" opportunities throughout the campaign – people were able to snap up limited items, including a SMART CAR, for USD0.15!To deepen engagement, 20 Taobao sellers created bespoke fashion shoots with their store items and smart, and an interactive advertorial page was also created.

During the month of the campaign, 796 smart cars were sold, representing a 106% increase from previous month. This represents USD21mil worth in sales. 963 units continued to be sold in Oct, 2010. This compares to average monthly sales of 229 previously. Our budget was only USD420k + 1 smart car, offering an ROI of at least 1:50. 200 orders were reached in 3 hours 25 min. The activity generated PR worth USD227,425 – including exposure on CCTV News and CNN.com. 49% increase in call volume to dealers and a 34% increase in showroom traffic year on year.