Porsche turns on Instagram-based 'Life Intensified' campaign

For the first time, Porsche Asia Pacific last week launched a campaign, 'Life intensified', that temporarily throws out the brand rulebook, allowing prospective Porsche owners to partake in an Instagram photography and video contest with the goal of impressing award-winning photographer Florian W. Mueller.

Executed with Keko as the creative agency and Golin as the PR agency, the campaign will shortlist three participants that stand to win a fully sponsored photography master class curated by Mueller in Penang. The spillover effect of the campaign is to raise brand awareness of the new positioning, obtain localized user-generated content, gather a database of prospective buyers, and engage a community of lifelong fans. While Instagram is the stage for the contest, it is also the platform through which the campaign will be amplified once winners are announced.

A previous campaign by Porsche Asia Pacific focused on people whose acts of courage had defined them. "You couldn't see the product very much," said Carl Isenbeck, marketing director of Porsche Asia Pacific. "In this campaign, the product is in the foreground."

The Macan displaces the Boxster as the brand's lowest-priced model, making it the new entry point for young people who are just becoming part of the Porsche customer set. "We have entered a new target segment with this—younger, more female, and most are new customers," Isenbeck added.

While much of the marketing for a brand as strong as Porsche focused on vehicle USPs, with the new campaign, Porsche has rejuvenated the marketing materials. "The motto of the Macan is 'life intensified'—but we have to give it a little more something," Isenbeck said. 

Last year, the German company sold more than 237,000 high-performance sports cars, SUVs, and sedans globally. Unlike some competitors, Isenbeck affirms that Porsche is not in the business of pushing its models out with price incentives.

"So it's marketing's job to look at a slightly different angle, maybe an Asian angle, a more metropolitan angle, and to focus on the USP of customization, personalization, and exclusiveness," he said.