Show Your Character
Issue 21 | December 2011
Agency
EHS 4D/BETC Euro RSCG
Creative Team
Creative Directors: Matt Watts, Nigel Clifton; Art Directors: Jean-Frederic Passot, Jordan Sheldrick, Ellie Nugent; Strategy: Ben Phillips
Production Team
Philip Battle, James Paxton, Zac Best (UI)
Other Credits
Clients: Olivier Ganolfo, Nathalie Le Maitre, Aude Collerie de Borely, Anne Fenninger, Joanna Boutte; Agency: Henri Tripard, Jean-Baptist Lucas, Xavier Blairon, Sandrine Bovis, Anyce Nedir, James Marshall
Date
July 2011
Background
The Peugeot 308 was relaunched under the umbrella strategy of “Show Character”.
It was positioned as a car for unique, vibrant people, who weren’t afraid to let their individuality show in the things they do.
Tying in with this thought, the role for the digital campaign was to encourage participants to show the world their character, and to consider how it can best be expressed.
Idea
Insight: People love to tell stories about themselves in social channels and engage with platforms and campaigns which enable them to do so. In so doing, they then become the strongest advocates (and traffic drivers) for the campaign.
Based on this insight, the “Reveal your Character with the new 308” concept was born.
The campaign was a casting call for an exclusive fashion shoot in Paris with renowned French portrait photographer, Xavier Lambours.
Stage 1: To qualify for the shoot, through Facebook Connect, participants had to select a photo of themselves that best epitomised their character.
Then, in just three words (campaign for 308) they were asked to summarise their character as best as they could.
Stage 2: The 308 “most liked” (FB likes) entries were shortlisted. This sparked off an incentive system whereby users were encouraged to activate their personal and professional networks.
Stage 3: Of the finalists, Xavier Lambours then selected his top 28.
Stage 4: The top 28 were flown to Paris for a personal photoshoot on the 21st and 22nd of June.
Stage 5: The best photos of each winner were selected and released by Peugeot, to be used in official communications and PR.
Results
708,000 site visits in 3 weeks
6,246 unique submissions
Several hundred thousand Facebook likes across all submissions.
Thousands of PR and blog citations.
Our Thoughts
You have to feel sorry for the big car brands. They desperately strive to make cars of “character” even though they are almost all pretty bland to look at and to drive. Well, if Jeremy Clarkson is to be believed. But no-one sets out to buy a boring car. They want something that matches their personality and in that simple insight lies the secret to this campaign. It has gone out there and found characterful people and then hooked the brand onto their personalities – young, colourful, fun, a bit wacky (Michelle, Germany). So the car comes across as being all of the above as well.