Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity
The global event is for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the advertising and creative communications industry. The seven-day festival, incorporating the awarding of the Lions awards, is held yearly at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France. Each June, more than 10,000 registered delegates from 90 countries visit the Festival to celebrate the best of creativity in brand communication. The week’s activities include four award ceremonies as well as an opening and closing gala.
Opel Netherlands was awarded four Lions, the most important awards in the communications industry, for its “Pay with views” campaign. The campaign was created for the introduction of Online Editions: well-equipped versions of various Opel models with 4G Wi-Fi, DAB+ radio, Apple CarPlay and more. The participants of the “Pay with views” campaign made a video of their test drive in a new Opel car and posted it on YouTube after which they could purchase a brand-new Opel with the views generated by their video. Never before has such an action been initiated by a car brand or any other manufacturer. The campaign received not just one but two Lions in the PR category. One Gold Lion in the Innovative Use of Social Media subcategory and a Silver Lion in the Launch/Re-Launch subcategory. Opel also received two Lions (bronze) in the Direct category. One in the Co-creation & User-Generated Content subcategory and one in the Use of Social Platforms subcategory.
Spiderman tops them all
Opel made three car types available to be purchased by generated YouTube views. The following rates applied: 589,000 views for the KARL ROCKS Online Edition, 739,600 views for the Corsa Online Edition and 922,800 views for the Astra Online Edition. The YouTube views could also be used to purchase various accessories. The campaign was a resounding success. It provided a media value of more than € 840,000 and reached 34.4 million impressions. Nearly 100,000 people viewed the campaign website and the Opel website traffic increased by 72 per cent compared with the same period in 2016. The orders for the Online Editions increased by 29 per cent.
Yuri Schuurkes was the first person worldwide to buy a car with YouTube views: a brand-new Opel Astra hatchback Online Edition with a retail value of € 23,070. In the video Yuri is wearing a superhero costume to test drive the new Opel. It has been viewed 35 million times!