Leo Burnett launches ‘Clever together’ social media co-creation platform for Skoda China

Stefan Petzinger, general manager for multinationals at Leo Burnett Shanghai, which won this account in April, told Campaign Asia-Pacific the agency used the same technology that was used in Volkswagen China's 'The People's car project', created by BBDO Proximity.

Skoda's online ‘Clever together’ social media campaign was launched on 7 November. The campaign will not have any ATL advertising support, but will rely solely on Tudou and Weibo, as well as the influence of social-media opinion leaders.

Petzinger explained that the creative idea is based on customer insights. "Rather than asking people to come up with ideas about the new car, we ask people for inspirations, which is brave move for a car brand to ask people what annoys them when it comes to cars and driving," he said.

The project platform has a inspiration gallery with different topics such as travel and romance, and asks visitors to submit either an inspiration or an idea that has so far not been fulfilled.

Inspirations can be submitted with text and images. These inspirations will serve as a springboard for other visitors to submit their ideas. They can be submitted in different formats: via a sketchpad on the site or through uploading images and videos.

A new topic will be introduced every two weeks and submitted ideas will be awarded many prizes, including a trip to Prague. 

Leo Burnett has created 18 viral videos in a fun documentary of a family consisting of a mom and dad, a son and a dog. The family is the brand ambassador for the campaign, with the ingenious son coming up with new ideas all the time. The family was even invited to the press event at the Czech Republic Embassy in China on Tuesday (6 November).

So what is the major difference between this and Volkswagen's co-creation platform? An undisclosed industry source pointed out that Volkswagen would never have a car product based on ordinary people’s ideas, "as they have more engineers than NASA".

Leo Burnett has not set a timeframe for the campaign, but hopes the process will help to build audiences for the brand and generate thousands of ideas, which will be showcased at the Shanghai Auto Exhibition next April.

Petzinger said the ultimate aim is to end up with a catalogue of clever ideas thought up by Chinese consumers that are unique to China.

Barbara Lamprecht, director of brand management and strategy at Skoda China, explained that “this digital-social co-creation platform, which everyone can participate in, allows consumers to become part of the Skoda brand”.

This digitally driven campaign is conceived, developed and managed by Leo Burnett Shanghai, Skoda and Greenkern Brand Management Consulting Beijing.