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7 Jan 2010
The challenge was to generate awareness of the event, generate test drive bookings and ultimately increase product purchase whilst also communicating the dynamic driving potential of the Mazda Sports range.
The campaign used a combination of magazine advertorials, a 12 page Top Gear magazine bound-in that would be distributed at the International Car Show, a display campaign on topgear.com and a bespoke microsite for Renesis.
In order to achieve this, Top Gear launched the campaign with a magazine advertorial directing readers to the website. Once on the site, readers were able to watch videos of Mazda’s Sports range in action; play an interactive driving game and view ‘driver training’ movie clips.
Readers could also enter a competition to become one of two ‘new operatives’ to take part in the final mission in Moscow at Mazda’s 3 day experiential driving event. The competition consisted of 5 levels following the espionage theme; including psychometric testing, memory test, reaction, IQ tests and a target shooting game.
The competition consisted of 5 levels of testing following the espionage themeUsers were encouraged to return to the website to try and improve their overall score, thereby increasing their chances of winning, as well as increasing their engagement with Mazda. The winners featured in a 3-page magazine advertorial telling the photo story of their mission in Moscow.
The main legacy of the campaign was a 12 page spy driver training manual, featuring evasive driving guides and interviews with ex-SAS members. The manual also served as a traffic driver to the website. As well as being bound into Top Gear magazine, the manual was also distributed at the International Car Show in London, extending Mazda’s message to a non-Top Gear audience.
Ad placements of banners, skyscrapers and MPUs on topgear.com, along with communications in Top Gear’s bi-weekly e-newsletter to 135,000 users, helped to raise further awareness of the Operation Renesis campaign, as well as generating additional traffic to the Renesis website.
To measure the effectiveness of the campaign in terms of changing user perception and attitude towards the Mazda brand, the Top Gear Ad Insight team devised a pre and post survey for users to complete on topgear.com.
Over 431,523 Top Gear users visited the Renesis microsite with a further 224,115 playing the full game and over 6,026 leaving their details for test drives.
Most importantly Mazda experienced uplift in sales of Mazda Sport vehicles by 10.5% following the promotional period that can be directly attributed to the Top Gear campaign - equating to total sales of £11,234,136. And also a general uplift in Tests Drives of over 30% of which booked directly through the Renesis site.
Mel Sroczynski, Marketing Communications Manager 
Mazda Operation Renesis - increasing engagement with Mazda’s Sports range
The Challenge
The Top Gear brand solutions team was tasked with creating an exciting and daring advertising campaign to raise awareness and support the launch of the new Mazda Sports range, which would be promoted at 3 separate driving and experiential events organised by Mazda.The challenge was to generate awareness of the event, generate test drive bookings and ultimately increase product purchase whilst also communicating the dynamic driving potential of the Mazda Sports range.
The Idea
Top Gear’s Creative Solutions team came up with ‘Operation Renesis’ - an engaging cross platform espionage-themed campaign, that would get Top Gear’s audience interacting with the new Mazda Sports range.The campaign used a combination of magazine advertorials, a 12 page Top Gear magazine bound-in that would be distributed at the International Car Show, a display campaign on topgear.com and a bespoke microsite for Renesis.
The Execution
It was essential to the success of the campaign to get users interacting with the Mazda brand and to experience the dynamic driving experience of Mazda.In order to achieve this, Top Gear launched the campaign with a magazine advertorial directing readers to the website. Once on the site, readers were able to watch videos of Mazda’s Sports range in action; play an interactive driving game and view ‘driver training’ movie clips.
Readers could also enter a competition to become one of two ‘new operatives’ to take part in the final mission in Moscow at Mazda’s 3 day experiential driving event. The competition consisted of 5 levels following the espionage theme; including psychometric testing, memory test, reaction, IQ tests and a target shooting game.
The competition consisted of 5 levels of testing following the espionage themeUsers were encouraged to return to the website to try and improve their overall score, thereby increasing their chances of winning, as well as increasing their engagement with Mazda. The winners featured in a 3-page magazine advertorial telling the photo story of their mission in Moscow.The main legacy of the campaign was a 12 page spy driver training manual, featuring evasive driving guides and interviews with ex-SAS members. The manual also served as a traffic driver to the website. As well as being bound into Top Gear magazine, the manual was also distributed at the International Car Show in London, extending Mazda’s message to a non-Top Gear audience.
Ad placements of banners, skyscrapers and MPUs on topgear.com, along with communications in Top Gear’s bi-weekly e-newsletter to 135,000 users, helped to raise further awareness of the Operation Renesis campaign, as well as generating additional traffic to the Renesis website.
To measure the effectiveness of the campaign in terms of changing user perception and attitude towards the Mazda brand, the Top Gear Ad Insight team devised a pre and post survey for users to complete on topgear.com.
The Results
The combination of advertorials and a microsite proved successful for improving the perception of Mazda. The results were fantastic, highlighting an 8% positive uplift in 'purchase consideration' and a 23% increase in adults classing Mazda’s 'driving experience' as brilliant or good.Over 431,523 Top Gear users visited the Renesis microsite with a further 224,115 playing the full game and over 6,026 leaving their details for test drives.
Most importantly Mazda experienced uplift in sales of Mazda Sport vehicles by 10.5% following the promotional period that can be directly attributed to the Top Gear campaign - equating to total sales of £11,234,136. And also a general uplift in Tests Drives of over 30% of which booked directly through the Renesis site.
Testimonial
“It was a solution that helped us amplify the Operation Renesis experiential event by engaging the target audience with a multiplatform campaign utilising all of the Top Gear touchpoints. The campaign research combined with the brochure requests and test drive bookings achieved out-performed all targets set.”Mel Sroczynski, Marketing Communications Manager
