Media Markt is Germany’s biggest retailer for electronic goods. In a changing retail environment however, its ability to stay ahead had been undermined by increased competition both from high street brands and local electronics stores – and, also, from online retailers. Media Markt found itself ever more used by shoppers as a place to look at the latest gadgets, before going home to check for cheaper prices online. Every year, Media Markt would do a number of seasonal price promotions, but their effectiveness was declining.

We had discovered that shopping around looking for the best bargains is a ‘thing’ in its own right, irrespective of the outcome – a game that engages people emotionally and makes them feel smart. Knowing this, we designed a strategy to harness this insight and create competitive advantage by satisfying consumers’ emotional motivations. Therefore, we turned Media Markt’s Easter price promotion into an actual game, in which the rewards for the winners were far greater than a few cents or euros.

We created a national sporting event – a live race between real Easter bunnies: The Rabbit Race.

Customers would shop at Media Markt before each of three live races to win a coupon over 50% of the value of their last purchase – but only if the winning rabbit’s number matched the last number on their receipt. To play along, customers had to shop at Media Markt first; then we brought them in front of the TV to willingly watch our content. If they had won, customers had to collect their coupon at the store, creating an incentive for another purchase.

There had never been anything quite like it ever before. It was a promotion designed to keep on working before, during, and after the event, to maximise engagement and encourage repeat visits.

The Rabbit Race outperformed its objectives to such an extent that it is now a permanent platform in Media Markt’s calendar and is repeated annually. Rabbit Race actually increased Value Sales by 25%, surpassing the objective substantially. Also Media Markt’s Transactional Value grew by 13% and its footfall grew by 18.2% versus Easter 2014.

Over 21m people watched the live races on TV and the Internet. On Social Media, Media Markt achieved unprecedented levels of engagement with the German public. It became the talk of the nation on Facebook and Twitter, with over 100,000 interactions – nearly 500% increase.

If one takes into account the sector which Media Markt operates in (highly promotional-driven and competitive and being more rational in its communications) the above results demonstrate the real value of Media Markt’s creativity, in not only delivering on its commercial targets, but changing how people perceived the brand – way beyond the actual activity.

This case therefore shows that creativity can build and sustain emotional and financial competitive advantage, even in the cut-throat world of modern price-driven discount retail.