New Citroen direct marketing campaign uses interactive digital watermarking to connect customers

Citroen UK has started an innovative new interactive direct mail campaign to raise awareness for its stylish new flagship DS5 - the third model in Citroen’s distinctive DS line. The campaign was designed by creative agency We Are Acuity, and incorporated
digital watermarks and attached digital content created by print-to-mobile specialists Digital Space. The digital watermarks are used in conjunction with the Digital Space smartphone app, to serve a rich and interactive experience direct from the page to a smart phone.

Over 200,000 target customers will receive the interactive mailer - of which there are 192 versions - each personalised with a dealer’s details and invisible digital watermarks for DS3, DS4 and DS5 - making a total of 576 individual watermarks.

To experience the mailer in action, customers can download the ‘Digital Space’ app on their phones and scan the digital watermarks embedded in the images on the mailer. A dealer personalised phone app is shown to the customer upon scanning the image, helping to drive leads and traffic direct to the relevant retailer.

From the app, customers can view nine images and three videos for each of the DS line models, as well as their local dealer’s full address. They also have the ability to participate with a number of calls to action. These include making a call to their dealer, requesting a brochure, requesting a call back, booking a test drive or expressing an interest in a ‘DS Discovery Day’.

DS Discovery Days are being organised by Citroen dealerships from March 15 as part of the official launch of New DS5 on April 2. With a DS-focused display in showrooms, or at off-site venues, the DS Discovery Days are a stylish and engaging way for customers and prospects to discover and experience DS5 with the full DS line up.

The app also allows Citroen to help measure the success of the mailing piece, with insight rich reporting dashboards enabling a clearer understanding of how the customer engaged with the content. All interactions within the app can be collected, managed and directed to the relevant dealers.

“Brands in this space are particularly keen to engage with customers and to build themselves into a lifestyle. Social media is particularly topical, as well as other emerging technologies and apps. However, print is still a great method of communicating with customers en masse. In spite of the unprecedented levels of personalisation now achievable by digital print, the vast majority of direct mail still follows a fairly generic model of a standard print piece, possibly personalised with a dealer’s details. This new approach represented a great opportunity for Citroen UK to further stand out from its competitors,” commented Peter Cronin, Acuity’s Managing Director.

James McIntosh, Director at Digital Space said, “We were delighted to be involved with Citroen in such a high quality campaign and offer our expertise in bridging the gap between offline and the mobile web. We delivered a solution that enables the consumer to access mobile content directly from the creative piece, with clearly defined and measured calls to action.”

Posted in: Citroen,Citroen UK,Digital Space,Direct Marketing Campaign,DS Discovery Day,DS Line Up