smart's Facebook community grew over 750%. Most importantly, we were able to stem the multi-month sales decline, increasing sales by 172% vs. previous month. Because the movement involved people outside smart's former target audience, this effort brought new considerers into the fold. Connecting smart to "Against Dumb" gave them a reason to be associated with the brand and gave current owners pride in the brand; thus activating word of mouth.

Like every car company, we ran a trade-in promotion; only we hosted ours on-line and called it “The Great Dumb Trade-in.”We asked people to visit us on Facebook, and share with the world the dumbest thing they ever bought. Then we invited everyone to vote for the dumbest of all.The winner could trade in their, well…whatever, for a brand new smart car.Out of hundreds of submissions, some of the dumbest entries were a lip exerciser, hands-free umbrella, and a sushi-shaped stapler.The winner ended up trading his radio hat for a new car. Smart move.

smart USA had been in a multi-year sales slump since introduction in 2008. smart asked us to help reverse that trend by redefining the smart brand in the US.We expanded our target audience to include people who had a passion against mindless consumption.smart was known as a quirky, small, efficient car. We realized that it needed to be more than that. smart had to connect with a cultural idea in order to be relevant (since there were bigger, more efficient cars out there!).Our idea? Connect with the cultural ethos of fighting mindless consumption with the movement, "Against Dumb."