What’s the relationship between a car and a piano?
When you see a scene like this, “on top of a still car is a 350 kg, real piano hanging by 9 ropes”, what is your first reaction?
Danger! Unexpected! It could crash and kill the person in the car!
That’s right, this marketing case wants to give you the message that “you cannot secure yourself against all risks and dangers, so it’s best to insure”.
The interesting thing is that, when will these 9 hanging ‘ropes’ break, and what breaks them will be determine by online users. Through live stream on the internet, they let you witness the scene when the car is being crashed by the piano.
Intouch is a Russian Insurance company specializes in car insurance. To promote their ‘external factors insurance’, they launched a campaign, “Car vs. Piano”. Most of their insurance are sold either online or phone calls. To differentiate themselves from other competitors, Intouch placed all their marketing force on digital media, communicating with consumers primarily through social media.
They did an in-depth survey on consumers and found out that there were two major problems in selling external factors insurance: 1. The premium is higher than others and 2. Experienced drivers feel that if they are careful enough, others will be the cause of the possible accident. They feel that only a fool will buy collision (loss) damage waiver (CDW).
The new Intouch external factors insurance improved these defects. It not only targets experienced drivers but the premium is only half of the traditional CDW.
In order to let the online users feel the ambiance that ‘Accident is beyond your control’, in their campaign webpage (carvspiano.ru), there were three cameras aiming at this car and a big screen that showed the updates of live Tweets. The page provided 24 hours live stream. A random person’s Tweet could determine the fate of this car. Every day they would randomly chose two Tweets, the Tweets would be compared against situations that happen in reality. If they did happen, then a rope would be cut. This would go on until the ropes cannot hold the weight of the piano anymore and crash the car. How exciting was that?
▲The website showed the instant Tweets that could decide the fate of the car.
For example, if the weather exceeds 33 degrees Celsius tomorrow, then the rope is cut. If not, then the rope stays. If the Blue Party wins the election tomorrow, then the rope is cut. If no one wins the lottery tomorrow, then the rope is cut. If Jeremy Lin wins the game then the rope is cut etc.
▲The Tweet was compared against the reality: cut!
Online users could also use Twitter to vote for the next critical Tweet that decides the fate. Two results were revealed everyday and they published the chosen Tweets. The next day when the time came, they would compare the Tweets against reality to decide whether to cut or keep the rope. Everything was done in public’s eyes.
▲People could choose to vote for the fateful Tweet: Head or Tail?
As you could imagine, the campaign received more and more attention towards the end. Only the 3rd day after the launch of the campaign, #carvspiano became the top 2 keywords on Twitter in Russia.
Intouch Car vs Piano
Car vs. Piano successfully used social media, Twitter to draw in consumer participation which makes the spreading of the message very easy. The 24 hours live feed also extended the influence of the campaign for it satisfied the curious and blood-thirsty nature of modern net users. In addition, the design of the event was well-connected with the product. They did not ignore the message the brand was trying to convey for the sake of appeasing consumers. Consumers were made aware of the fact that “Unforeseeable external factors could cause accidents” and in the meantime, Intouch created a good impression for its brand.
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Mika, Internet Marketing Observer
Born in the 60s, Mika has worked in the field of consumption marketing for decades. He experienced brand strategy, product concept all the way to official launch. He cares about traditional marketing model as well as the changes arise from Web2.0 and social media.
Blog: jabamay.blogspot.com
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