smart presents: social leasing. An utterly new leasing model where you don’t pay with money – but with test drives. The simple principle: Let 10 of your friends drive with your smart every month – and you drive for free.

A social media campaign raised awareness for the innovative leasing model – supported by an online film that people could use to activate their social contacts. The message: “You do a lot for your friends – it’s about time they do something for you.“ The registration period started in 11/2015. In 2/2016 the first cars where handed over to the first social leasing drivers.

- Facebook reach: > 9 million

- Video views: 4 million

- At the end of the launch phase we had 450 applicants per car.

- Social leasing cars are now on the road everywhere in Germany, their owners are generating hundreds of test drives every month for smart without further investment

- A social leasing test drive is 80% cheaper for smart than a regular test drive

Our insight: actual smart owners are our best ambassadors. And their friends are most likely among the target group, too. Our strategy: we used the power of social networks to generate test drives right in the target group. To apply for smart social leasing, candidates had to prove their “social solvency“ by gathering 50 supporters among their friends on facebook in advance.

Test drives are the most important selling tool for smart – no other car is so convincing in everyday city traffic: once you drive it, you love it. Our brief was to come up with an idea that would permanently raise the number of test drives significantly.