CLIENT: MAZDA, DONER CANADA | RELEASED: MAR 2007
CHALLENGE
Mazda's Grad Program has been an important part of their relationship with the young adult market. Challenged to capture the attention of the increasingly hard-to-reach university student, Doner Canada partnered with Fuel Industries to develop an online experience to increase awareness of the program a and position the car brand at the top of mind among university students early in the development of their brand preferences.
STRATEGY
The online user experience would have to speak to the brand's performance, foster product recognition, and connect with students on their level by becoming an active participant in their community. To meet these objectives, we built an interactive driving game contest pitting universities against one another for bragging rights to encourage viral sharing of the game through social networks.
CREATIVE & EXECUTION
Mazda's Campus Joyride contest microsite gives the college and university crowd the chance to win a new car by taking a virtual test drive around university campuses in a Mazda 3. With the help of Karbon Arc, Fuel's video-production arm, the game was created from live video of Canadian University campuses, ensuring that students and alumni who play the game will recognize their alma mater course instantly. Players earn contest ballots searching for parked Mazdas, reinforcing product recognition on the road.
To bring pre-campaign buzz and soften the ground for media relations efforts, Fuel developed a pre-game contest called the Mazda ‘Rockin’ Roll Call’, an online battle of the bands that allowed university and college bands to submit their original tracks and get fans to vote for them. The top five vote-getters won spots on the Campus Joyride soundtrack and the number one band took home a $2000 recording package, giving the experience a more collegiate feel and bringing the community into the game.
The online campaign was supported by interactive video kiosks at educational facilities, print buys in campus newspapers to fan the flames of interschool competition, , and a blog relations effort to push the campaign's viral element.
RESULTS
The Mazda Rockin’ Roll Call drew 55 tracks from bands and approximately 24,000 eligible votes in just over one month. Pass-around of the contest was high, owing to the self-promotion and friend promotion aspects of the contest.
