Honda Snake

Background

Honda Motorcycles believed there might be a new market for their quadricycles in agricultural businesses. They acquired a list of farmers’ email addresses and the challenge was to use online advertising to attract them. Focusing on eight Honda dealerships, the objectives were to raise the number of test drives they were arranging from the average of 10 per month.

Idea

The internet is very important on Brazilian farms – allowing farmers to quote on their products to buyers around the world as well as allowing them to shop around for the products they need to buy. The target audience was sent an email inviting them to test-drive the Honda TRX350. But the email seemed to be no more than that very popular game of Snake, often found on mobile phones.

In this instance, however, as the customer started playing, the Snake turns into a quadricycle. Players were able to see how they ranked against each other before being asked some simple questions to help Honda capture more data. After this, the data was analysed and those that looked like good prospects were emailed again, inviting them to a specific dealership to test-drive the Honda for real – and be rewarded with a free baseball cap.

Results

The campaign achieved a total 5,874 impacts, at U$4.75 cost per impact. A total 1879 (32%) generated leads signed in on the website at a cost per lead of U$15.50. After analysing the profile of the 1,622 people who enrolled, the invitation was sent to 534 people and of these 413 took the test drive (48%). 26 motorcycles were sold.

Our Thoughts

What makes this idea work is how very familiar the Snake game seems when it opens up on your screen. Still, you give it a whirl because it’s strangely addictive and then…whoo! Suddenly it turns into a brilliant little demo of the Honda quadbike and what it can do down on the farm. Fun and to the point.