People living in big cities are struggling with less and less space – but at the same time the average car size is getting bigger. Before launching its new generation smart wanted to prove a point by starting a social discussion on this paradox. And by doing that, create awareness for the new smart that is better prepared for city life than ever.

The whole „MONSTER-smart Launch“ campaign was designed to create response with a simple goal: driving people to www.smart.com on July 16th, when the new generation of smart cars was revealed via livestream. People could then get more information about the cars and register to be one of the first test drivers.

One week before the world premiere we published an absurd teaser film announcing a huge MONSTER-smart on the official smart Youtube channel. The core message: after the smallest city car smart is now building the biggest city car ever. We announced the new concept on all smart social media channels. When the discussion started, we fueled it even more with a second film of a real focus group of people who where asked about the concept. The campaign went viral and led viewers to www.smart.com where the real new smart was revealed via livestream on July 16th.

The MONSTER-smart Launch campaign created both massive awareness and response for the world premiere of the real new smart.

Within few days the video was ranked #1 in the German viral video charts in the week before the world premiere (Source: “Unruly“).

It triggered discussions in social media and was covered by countless car blogs and online magazines.

The effect: on the day of the world premiere web traffic at www.smart.com reached an all-time high and exceeded expectations by 400%.

Before the launch of the new generation of smart cars we wanted to both create awareness and trigger a social discussion on city cars in general. The insight: people were afraid the new smart would get bigger and lose its key asset. To create even more buzz we decided to add fuel to the fire.