Hologram

Background

The DM campaign promoted the launch of the Mercedes-Benz GLC and pushed the boundaries in innovation by being the first to use hologram technology.

This highly engaging direct mail was sent to existing customers and registered prospects as an awareness piece with the objective to move them into the consideration phase of the purchase intent funnel.

Idea

The GLC Hologram DM was based around being a leader in technology, in an effort to support the innovative thinking that the Mercedes-Benz brand stands for. The task was also to engage recipients with something new that supported the car's innovative concept.

And whilst the challenge was to create an immersive and exciting piece that worked within the confines of direct mail, the idea was to bridge the gap between offline and online - looking to merge the two to create a seamless experience for prospective customers.

Audience insight that the ideal GLC buyers were early adopters to technology led them to identify their desire to be the first to try something new. Status driven, and relatively fickle on brand loyalty, the DM needed to deliver something big to this audience.

So, a hologram of the all new GLC was created – an innovative technology itself that had previously not been utilised in this channel.

14,913 people received the direct mail piece which contained a die-cut Perspex which they were able to assemble themselves into a pyramid shape.

Then, by visiting a custom built microsite, recipients were directed to place the pyramid on their phone or iPad. This then projected a 3D holographic image of the vehicle and a film about the car's concept.

Results

Campaign Contribution

The hologram contributed to over $35million in GLC sales.

Creating awareness for the brand

Overall 14,913 DM packs were sent and there were over 17,904 views of the hologram film.

Average time on site was over 3mins (19% higher than Google's category benchmark), indicating that people who viewed the video stayed on the site to view more content.

Increased consumer purchase intent

Overall, the GLC online experience also contributed to a 20.67% increase in total Mercedes-Benz test drives across the period of the campaign.

Conversion to purchase

The conversion rate to purchase of the GLC off the back of the DM was 3.21% which delivered an ROI of $215 for every $1 spent. This jumps to an incredible 8.67% when isolating our prospecting recipients, a conversion rate was 8 times higher than the DMA benchmark of 1%.

The DM pack also delivered against objectives. After lodging in early December, 2015 sales for GLC totalled 926, more than 131% above target.