The Norwegian media market regulation is extremely strict compared to almost any other market. Advertiser funded Programming (AFP) or Product placement has not been legal until recently, and it was only in 2013 that the regulations were somewhat loosened to adopt to more international standards. The authorities are following the development closely and through strict regulations, with the most recent legislation released in March 2014. Media owners themselves have strong focus on editorial integrity, and are moving slowly and with great caution into this new and unknown territory.

This content and campaign was developed through a unique and intimate collaboration where we truly broke new ground, between Norway´s second largest newspaper publisher, the client, the production company and the agency.

Partnering with the second biggest newspaper website, Dagbladet and a extreme sports movie production company, we created #GLATUR –The Ultimate Roadtrip in a GLA (which happens to mean joyride in Norwegian) – a competition where the winner became the star of a 3-part web series; 3 adventures in the most stunning parts of Norway, hosted by a local action sports star.

Word spread throughout action-sports, lifestyle and brand communities, getting the right kind of people interested in the car, in the right environments, using editorial content and social media to communicate the brand’s story with a credible, authentic voice.

All at a total budget for production and media of only USD 100,000, we reached more than 2,1 million people. That translates into 51,6% of the total Norwegian population! More importantly we reached 62 % of our target group.

Nearly 600 qualified video contributions where sent in and in social media we saw close to 9,000 different actions done (likes, shares, clicks, comments, picture upload), and a reach of over 500,000 people.

The 3 webisodes alone have generated over 320,000 plays in 4 weeks. Bear in mind that they are 8 minutes long – that’s a long time to spend with branded content. It translates into 2,560,000 minutes!

Did it do anything for the brand? On important KPI’s we saw an extremely positive shift. Brand tracker showed +57% on “Sporty”, + 23% on “Modern” and +18% on “Attractive Design”. It resulted in 816 test drives during the six week campaign period, compared to just under 2.000 for entire 2013!

Ultimately Mercedes has sold 714 of their GLAs’, it’s sold out! In addition, Q1 2014 was all-time high for Mercedes-Benz sales in Norway. Ever.