Peugeot celebrated its latest brand activation with a “more modern” approach to marketing that is more customer-centric and less metric-driven.

The “time-limited nature of physical-only events” led the car brand to expand its most recent multi-channel brand campaign into the digital space, extending the live element of the activation and broadening its reach.

Solution

Peugeot enlisted the expertise of brand experience agency Strata to design and deliver its Inception at Outernet experience at London’s latest immersive entertainment district Outernet, as part of an ongoing two-year experiential campaign running in the UK.

Peugeot’s knowledge of the marketplace informed its communication strategy. It knew that photography was key to the campaign’s success and that consistent communication was vital to create an authentic and relevant brand-first, product-second activation.

Strata’s team developed, designed, and delivered the creative concept, content, and activation.

The experience featured multiple touchpoints that worked for multiple audiences, maximised ROI and generated valuable user-generated content (UGC). Consumers, press and content creators all had enriching and engaging moments through a packed week-long activation at Outernet.

Visitors were able to explore a dynamic and interactive environment that housed Peugeot’s Inception concept vehicle. They could also step inside The Cube, an immersive environment consisting of LED and state-of-the-art mirror technology.

Inside the Cube, users could take part in a phone photography masterclass delivered by a Peugeot photography content creators, learn new skills, and share their photography across social channels using the #PeugeotPresents hashtag. This dynamic approach to UGC is completely different to Peugeot’s historical traditional approach to events.

The Cube is currently touring various urban event and festival locations and in 2024, will continue to visit relevant lifestyle events too.

Peugeot wanted the content-rich campaign to be bold and more innovative, creating desire and intrigue, while communicating the brand’s four pillars – Stunning Design, High-End Quality, an Exciting Drive and Electric Leadership.

This “softer” and more customer-centric approach to promoting the Peugeot brand was central to the activation as was the “collaborative” and “cross-functional” nature of the campaign’s creation and delivery.

Result

The Inception at Outernet experience attracted more than 76,000 visitors and the campaign had an online reach of more than 126 million. Furthermore, Inception at Outernet reached more than 11.4 million social users. That figure continues to grow as more UGC is released.

While thousands of people experienced Inception at Outernet, millions more saw the photos. During the week-long event, Peugeot UK increased its Instagram following by more than 2,000. 

This growth emphasised the significance of Peugeot’s content and engagement strategies with its target audience and demonstrated that it successfully extended the experience “beyond the room” and into the digital space.

Verdict

Kris Cholmondeley, Marketing Director at Peugeot, said, “We all get bombarded by too much intrusive marketing, so it was important that we devised an activation that enriched the lives of our audience and did not intrude.

“We created an environment that would drive phone usage and extend the reach of the brand, beyond the physical event, and beyond what we could measure. One of our big KPIs is Instagram followers – we find it’s a much softer, natural way to pique people’s interest in the brand.

“Turning an experiential event into a multi- channel approach such as this was a logical and clear strategy to achieve this in addition to offering significant ROI benefits.”