Situation:

The German business car market has been dominated by Audi, BMW and Mercedes for ages. It is impossible to crack this phalanx of the big three in foreseeable future as they hold market share of more than 90 per cent.

Despite being awarded ´Germanys company car of the year 2015´, Maserati’s “Ghibli”, it is not even present in potential customers relevant set: only 1.7 per cent of the target group perceived the Ghibli as a business car.

Instead, there is a huge group of non-relevant brand fans who try to test-drive any Maserati any time they could.

Brief:

Develop an aggressive test-drive promotion, targeting relevant individuals only: company car drivers.

Objectives:

a) significant increase of test drives: 20 %

b) keep cost per test drive below 300 Euro

c) conversion rate (test drive to purchase): above 8%

In April 2016 we launched a two weeks long activation period to throw our target group off course on their established user journey. With the help of Google’s new AdWords BETA version we identified our target group very precisely and hijacked members googling for a test drive with an unavoidable offer: „the ‘Italian’ art of persuasion“.

We did not dissuade people from planning a test drive with our competitors. In fact, on our promotion website we even encouraged and supported their plans: Firstly, we helped to book a test drive with Audi, BMW or Mercedes, and then we helped them to get to their appointment at the car dealer. – By providing them a brand new Maserati Ghibli.