Chevrolet goes online to hunt for advocates

The eight-city blast covered 400,000 consumers, 25 years and up who subscribe to receive automotive information, according to Byron Constable, chairman at Made- forchina, which created the campaign. "Auto brands rely heavily on brand advocates; we used this approach as we want to attract young, white collar workers to the brand," he said. "A lot of marketers tend to use email as an action tool, but we used it as a brand tool and made it simple to make it effective." The mailer featured an easy-to-play flash-based driving game that offered recipients a chance to win Chev- rolet-branded auto accessories. "By making it a simple game, we got a lot of response and it encouraged people to forward the email to friends." Citing past surveys, Constable said offering a range of small prizes rather than a few big-ticket items encouraged a higher response rate as gamers believed they had a better chance of winning. General Motors invested in the new initiative after finding that a previous email in China push had elicited a forward rate that was three times higher than the international average, said Constable.