You might have heard about buying “Ferrari” and getting free tire, but have you ever heard of buying a tire and getting free Ferrari? Italian clothing brand “Diesel” did it. Even more, it says “Buy a T-shirt and get a free condo located in Miami, the U.S. and designed by an Italian designer!”
The cost to “buy a T-shirt and get a condo” is steep. This is the most expensive T-shirt in the history. There are only 143 T-shirts available, each is unique and printed with the ground plans of the condos. For instance: Buy the 100% pure cotton “F1-L6” T-shirt that costs USD $1.559 million (about NTD $46.77 million) and you can receive this condo for free. Also, while the extremely easy to fold “F2-L7” T-shirt costs NTD $165 million, you get a condo along with this T-shirt. Don’t worry so much about the jaw-dropping T-shirt prices above just yet. Take a look at what the gifts (condos) look like:
▲The “F1-L6” T-shirt looks like this.
▲The surrounding environment is very artistic.
▲The condo exterior looks like this.
Diesel is acting in good faith here as the condo comes with extraordinary furniture; Ikea products are no where near this T-shirt’s league. Take a look at the furniture, which includes German “Miele” home appliances, Italian “Moroso” furniture, or Diesel’s own home living series, and others. Please take a look:
Alright! Now that you have seen the explanation above. I think general humann being on Earth would find this deal incredible. There is something wrong about it, right?
What trick is Diesel playing with?
First of all, this whole thing is real. The campaign is real, the T-shirt is real, the condos are real, the construction company “Bel Invest” is real, and even the prices are real. The items are just exchanged. The right way to put it is that the prices are swapped. Buy a condo and get a free T-shirt should be the correct way to do it. Also, any normal person would be surprised and curious at first. Then the person would be able to correctly interpret the meaning after further understanding: Buy a condo and get a free T-shirt. (Even if you really thought it was buy a T-shirt and get a condo, that’s fine too.) The point is: Why is Diesel or the construction company selling condos in this way?
In order to explain this concept, we have to go back to the digital age communication rule: Speak to consumers about what they care for.
Imagine this, if we use the regular logic in this campaign “Buy a condo and get a free T-shirt”, then even if there was an aggressive series of TV commercials, you probably wouldn’t even want to take a look. Not to mention the false hope of you sharing this with friends after watching it. What is smart about this campaign is that the brand starts by throwing out an incredible and fun topic to the consumers, attracting your attention. This creates the possibility of being shared and allowing more people to learn about this information because you’ve been entertained. Among the mass number of consumers being aware of this information, those who are genuinely interested in the condo will look into further details. At the end, there might even be a deal. This is the concept that we describe as “Speak to consumers about what they care for, use relevant content, make the consumer happy, and that person will come back to you.” This operation does not require huge mass media resources, because it can spread exponentially to filter out the correct target consumer. All of which relies on creativity. Now let’s take a look at Diesel’s promo video for this campaign:
Real Estate, but with Brand Thinking
This campaign created a buzz by using exceptional creativity. More importantly and commendable is that Diesel and Bel Invest retained their “Brand Thinking” in their cross-field partnership. The normal construction project marketing campaigns attempt to tell the public “There’s a construction project here.” A better funded one might host a show with a famous singer like Fei Yu-Ching (費玉清) at the construction site. A lower level one might at least hold an opening prize draw ceremony or build a sample apartment to attract attention. The difference is that while a show at the construction site attracts the crowds, it does not add any value to the brand image. By contrast, this campaign attracted attention and conveyed the brand’s image at the same time. Diesel’s campaign in the recent years has been “For Successful Living”. The Wynwood area in Miami is selected to be the location for this condo. The area has a lot of street art, and where many artists choose to move in. The synergy of the partnership brings out the advantages of each side, strengthening the brand’s image of “fashion, design, innovation”.
Regardless of the veracity of the slogan “Buy a T-shirt and get a condo”, wouldn’t you say that the campaign was much more creative than the regular construction project marketing scheme?
The Wynwood area in Miami is selected to be the location for this condo. The area has a lot of street art, and where many artists choose to move in. The synergy of the partnership brings out the advantages of each side, strengthening the brand’s image of “fashion, design, innovation”.