I first heard about the Build A Dream Car initiative through an article in afaqs. Apparently, the banner ads were present across several online brands: a banner ad titled ‘Build a dream car’ is live across various websites, including Zigwheels.com, Carwale.com, Linkedin.com, Moneycontrol.com, as well as the Google content network. It felt strange to know about a digital campaign through a press release sorts – or maybe the targeting was bang on, since I am not an auto enthusiast at all.
The website asks registered participants to build a car from scratch. It calls for some ‘technical know-how’ even though there is help at hand in the form of a training room.
The site, developed by Experience Commerce, is apparently for the upcoming SUV brand, Tata Aria. I think this is a great digital initiative for the following reasons:
– the idea of building a dream car is not just given lip service. They could have chosen to keep it very basic & general (‘my dream car would have great mileage, offer great style and space and be affordable’) but because they went very technical, they have generated greater involvement. I know of auto enthusiasts who have spent 30 minutes at a stretch on the site trying to complete a level. That’s fantastic for a brand website
– its a great opportunity to collect valuable data on current vehicle brand, travel habits and so on. I know some are wary of passing on personal data but then again since they are talking to a niche audience I think they are able to get such data. Apparently, there are 10,000 ‘assemblers’ at a time on the site- which is an indication of the involvement it has generated.
Strangely, the Twitter account isn’t as popular (5 following, 47 followers, 31 Tweets at the time of writing) as the Facebook page. Maybe an opportunity missed to generate buzz on micro-blogging platforms? Nevertheless, good to see a solid, detailed digital campaign coming out of India. Though one can’t help the feeling that in developed markets such a campaign would have generated far more buzz and utilized social media better.
