Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. (MMNA), the fastest-growing Asian brand in the US. for the second consecutive year, announced an expansion of its “Small Batch” marketing effort with a new direct-to-consumer test-drive pilot program called the Small Batch Drive Experience. Powered by BirdDog, the first-of-its-kind tour combines the power of experiential marketing with advanced targeting technology to deliver a relevant, convenient and curated brand experience for consumers.
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Unlike traditional consumer ride-and-drives, which involve large physical footprints, truckloads of equipment and significant up-front costs, the Small Batch Drive Experience is lean, nimble and smart, perfectly aligning with Mitsubishi’s Small Batch marketing philosophy.
BirdDog uses sophisticated social media listening, artificial intelligence and hyper-local geo-targeting technology to identify clusters of consumers matching a detailed prospective buyer profile. From there, it looks to categories of venues that are of interest to, and attract, target audiences and prospective customers. Locations can include retail/wholesale environments, cultural events, coffee shops, etc. Once a location is identified, BirdDog hits the road and sets up the pop-up ride and drive.
The Small Batch Drive Experience pilot continues an ongoing plan to reinvent every aspect of Mitsubishi Motors in the US, including the way that prospective customers discover, shop for, and purchase Mitsubishi vehicles, as well as every touchpoint in the ownership experience. MMNA is steadfast in its mission to sharpen the company’s focus on future growth and innovation, and part of that is changing the way the brand communicates with current and prospective customers, and goes to market.
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“Our Small Batch marketing philosophy is intended to transform all aspects of our business, not just advertising, and the BirdDog experiential marketing pilot is another example of our small-but-mighty strategy in practice,” said Kimberley Gardiner, VP and CMO, MMNA. “We know that consumers today want to engage with brands on their own terms. Our new Small Batch Drive Experience is one way we can offer in-market or soon to be in-market consumers the opportunity to experience our brand and vehicles at a convenient time and place, and in an environment that works for them.”
Mitsubishi will kick-off the pilot program on Wednesday, Aug. 28 in Los Angeles and will then move to San Franciscoand New York. See below for specific program dates:
- Los Angeles, CA: Aug. 28 – Sept. 8
- San Francisco, CA: Sept. 11 – Sept. 22
- New York, NY: Oct. 2 – Oct. 13
The Small Batch Drive Experience will feature the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, Outlander Sport, and the world’s best-selling plug-in hybrid, the Outlander PHEV. Customers that partake in the program will receive a Mitsubishi Adventure Card that is redeemable at local participating shops in each of the cities.
“BirdDog fuses advanced marketing technologies that typically power digital advertising with experiential marketing providing better targeting and more efficiency for our clients,” stated Kevin Killip, CEO of BirdDog. “BirdDog strips away the waste of past experiential approaches, connects brands with a higher percentage of their desired audience and is based on an affordable pay-for-performance model.”
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