Changan Automobile

About the Client

Changan Automobile
Products

Changan Automobile (Group) Co., Ltd. is a Chinese automobile manufacturer headquartered in Chongqing, China, and a state-owned enterprise. Changan designs, develops, manufactures, and sells passenger cars and commercial vehicles sold under the Changan and Chana brands. It operates joint ventures with Ford (Changan Ford), Groupe PSA (Changan PSA), Mazda (Changan Mazda) and Suzuki (Changan Suzuki) which respectively produce Ford, DS Automobiles, Mazda and Suzuki branded passenger cars for the Chinese market. It also has a joint venture with Jiangling Motors (JMC), which produces SUVs sold under the Landwind marque.

With the support of Restobox, Changan Automobile planned and executed a large-scale multi-channel marketing campaign across China, Colombia, Peru, and Chile. The marketing campaign involves executes from Changan Automobile touring the South American countries and dealerships to generate marketing buzz and engage the local populace. At the same time, the trip and its stories were shared in China to show a different side of the company and to differentiate the Changan brand from its competitors. Overall, the marketing campaign was successful and significantly increased brand awareness and recognition in the target markets.

Problems:

Changan Automobile has difficulties increasing its sales volume and branding awareness in South America;
Changan Automobile needed an experienced team that possesses knowledge in sales, marketing, event hosting and logistics to execute a marketing campaign in South America;
Changan Automobile needed to adapt its advertising and public relations strategy to better suit the local South American population; and
Representatives from Changan Automobile and the Chinese marketing company needed assistance in its visa application.

Restobox Solutions:

Changan Automobile’s marketing campaign encompasses multiple channels to reach a large audience in various geographical areas:

Television commercials,
Radio ads,
An online photography contest,
Social media, and
Live trip blog.

To reach the objective, the Restobox team prepared and executed a thorough marketing plan over three months:

Set the marketing campaign objects and financial budget;
Idea generation for event hosting and marketing materials;
Coordination and discussion with client company and Chinese marketing partner throughout the entire process;
Coordination of various marketing events and South America marketing tour;
Event planning and logistics, including preparation of the trip itinerary, support staff recruitment and local expert consultation (embassy, local tour guide, translation, driving, security, insurance, etc);
Content creation, including blog writing, video shooting and editing, photo shooting and editing, and social media management (Facebook).

During the execution period, Restobox was responsible for the following:

Quality control on marketing materials and overall marketing message;
Consultation with the local automobile distributor and sales center in each country;
Coordination with the marketing partner and the client company in China;
Collaboration with the local press, media and individual marketing experts in each country;
Management of expenses (equipment rental, accommodation, local press marketing, event hosting, etc);
At the end of the marketing campaign, Restobox provided 20+ hours of raw video footage, 500+ carefully selected and edited quality images, 25,000+ words in short stories (for marketing purposes) and other original content.

Campaign Highlights:

Successfully launched and a large scale marketing campaign (Exploring Legends) and photo shooting contest (Starry Changan);
Episodes of videos featuring Changan automobiles aired on one of South America’s largest Sport TV Channels: AutoMundo Perú in Colombia and Peru;
More than 20 Chinese media companies shared and reported this large-scale marketing event, and generate more than 600,000 views;
Facebook Marketing App Development and Management;
Created enough high quality marketing content for Changan Automobile’s marketing team to use one and a half year later into late 2017