Tata Motors is marketing its crossover vehicle, the Aria, through a viral campaign on the internet. With a reported price tag of Rs 12-14 lakh, the car will have a premium consumer base. Tata Motors Utility Vehicle Product Group Head Sunil Saxena says: “The internet has become a necessary tool of research for any capital purchase, more so with the premium set of consumers that the Aria will address.”
So the utility vehicle team at Tata Motors partnered with Experience Commerce to launch the cleverly-named site, www.buildadreamcar.com. Experience Commerce CEO Sandeep Maiti says: “The brief was not based on the usual metric of click-through ratio. We had to build excitement around the brand. The teaser, therefore, does not have the brand name anywhere to build up curiosity even more.” The rest of the campaign, spanning mass media, will unfold with the launch of the car. Adds Saxena: “To those who should own such a car, we did not want to advertise in the usual blatant way. We wanted to reinforce that this is the kind of car they wanted before revealing which car it was.”
Tata Motors Utility Vehicle Product Group General Manager Sanjay Gupta says: “Consumers in the premium segment are tech-savvy and are much easier to engage. When assembling the virtual car, one will see that the features provided are high-tech and often used in crossover vehicles such as cruise control and torque-on-demand. While the users will have fun, they would also gradually get to know the technology that has gone into the car.”
Users are spending more than 15 minutes on an average on the website trying to get to the next level. Starting with a virtual training room, users have to assemble the chassis, dashboard, interiors, exterior, engine and special features to win points at various levels. Points will be based on the perfection of the assembly; dragging the parts to the correct spot, for instance. Three winners will get to drive the Aria on an all-expenses-paid trip in India.
Maiti says the chatter on the net they are picking up is mostly around the features of the car, which is what the team wanted. Links on social networks and friend invites have cast a wide web among internet users. Twenty-five thousand users have registered to play the game, extending invitations to 400,000 more acquaintances. It has been reported that the company has spent over a crore on the teaser campaign alone. Company officials admit that the digital marketing spend for the Aria is considerably higher than usual. The car, said to be built on the Tata Safari platform, will have a DICOR engine. It was showcased at the Delhi Auto Expo in January 2010.