“Congratulations to the team for achieving such a great involvement from consumers - and with a limited investment! It clearly shows that young consumers, when approached with the right message, immediately become brand ambassadors."

Sandro Benedettini - Marketing Director, Nintendo Italy

"They come to the table and want to fundamentally know your business. They want to know what makes your cash register ring so the conversation doesn't start with marketing. It's much higher in the planning process. They're a very engaged partner."

Monster

Are you in control enough to let go?… It takes out the guess work and explains technical concepts in a way all marketers can appreciate. I applaud MEC for taking the lead and providing such a high level of thought leadership.

BlackRock

Mitsubishi (Lancer)

Next Case Study: Morrisons

> Active Engagement
> Digital/Online
> Earned
> Owned
> Research / ROI
> Social media / Mobile / Emerging

The car’s the star

We changed consumer perceptions of a car by creating an emotional bond with a younger, more creative audience.

The challenge

With the first body change in seven years, Mitsubishi's new Lancer needed to connect with a new audience. Our challenge was to grow revenues by making the new Lancer emotionally relevant to younger buyers, repositioning perceptions of its status, and increasing sales of the more profitable VR and VRX models

Our insight

Economy and value for money had been the key selling points for the old-style Lancer. But research showed that today's small-car buyers were younger and more concerned that their car should reflect their personal style.

We identified that modern media phenomena such as blogging, instant messaging and social networking have high penetration among young small-car buyers. They enjoy communicating with each other and creating their own content online

Our solution

We created the Lancer Supershort Series, a sequence of short films made by young directors participating in Tropfest, the world's largest short film festival. Each film focused on one of the six marketing themes behind the new Lancer - safer, smoother, greener, stronger, smarter, roomier.

The films were rolled out on TV, PayTV and at the movies, with supporting PR. They were also viewable online at a microsite where visitors could vote for their favorite or share it with friends.

Through the site, we invited consumers to create their own Lancer film, with the chance to win a new Lancer and have their film screened at next year's Tropfest festival

The results

• 37% sales increase
• Lancer became one of the three best-selling small cars
• VR and VRX models now account for 50% of Lancer sales

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