GM’s Chevy brand became a super-sponsor at the world’s biggest digital conference, the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival. And the automaker looked to FleishmanHillard to create a marketing plan that would showcase its Volt model and help establish a bond between Chevy and SXSW’s tech-savvy, early-adoptee attendees.
The resulting strategy rested on bringing something to the festival’s experience that wouldn’t have been present without Chevy, using social and experiential tactics to engage attendees with the brand and to “sample” the Volt.
A huge success, the program’s use of QR codes yielded 1,680,230 impressions from blog posts, tweets and other media content, and Foursquare data reported 730 check-ins by 446 people at the Volt Recharge Lounge, the second-highest number anywhere throughout SXSW’s events. GM also was recognized as the festival’s “biggest marketing winner” for the innovative pairing of new technology with engaging brand positioning that effectively enhanced the customer experience.
