Proton Exora - You'll Be Amazed

Could one local MPV thrive in a time of global recession, category decline, rising inflation, mounting competitive pressure, a veritable financial meltdown and cautious consumer spending?

What seemed impossible became our obsession. By involving our consumers in building our brand right from naming, enticing them with arresting ideas that teased their curiosity and amazing them with a campaign that dramatized relevant features, we helped the Proton Exora do the impossible.

The Proton Exora surpassed booking expectations and became the Number 1 best selling MPV in just 2 months after the launch!

What was our strategic communications challenge? 

Could one local MPV head north while the category headed south?

The impossible is often the untried.

How do you successfully launch a car in one of the trying periods of our economic history? To many it would seem the worst time to launch a car.

With a global recession running havoc in the car industry in general and the MPV category in specific, the challenge was indeed daunting.

The prediction of the car industry by 3rd quarter of 08 was dismal, given the world economic crisis coupled with weak consumer sentiments. OSK Research estimated the total industry volume (TIV) in 09 to drop by 13%. (Source:Star Online Thursday, 25 Dec 2008)

In 2008, the MPV market witnessed a 34% drop (Source: Malaysia Automotive Association (MAA) Jan 09) (January 08’s sales 5,303 to December 08 to 3,483 units ). And by January 09, the numbers tumbled to just 2,958 units. 

To make matters worse for our specific category, our audience for MPVs was predominantly families; most cautious during recession. Given a sluggish market environment, rising inflation, financial volatility and the fear of recession hitting our shores, the MPV category became a nice to have but not a necessity. The feeling was ‘our existing sedan is working fine for now’.

PROTON could not afford to fail with the launch of the new PROTON MPV. The mother brand needed this launch to post a revival in order to compete effectively against Perodua, their primary competitor, who had gained tremendous ground with the overwhelmingly successful launches of both Myvi and Viva. 

1. Our launch needed to ensure that consumer sentiment remained bullish despite world economic woes, and also rise above the tiresome problems plaguing the local front caused by an unstable political, economical and financial climate. 
2. It also needed customers to believe that PROTON’s 1st homegrown MPV was going to be on par with established brands e.g. Toyota Avanza, Nissan Grand Livina, Toyota Innova and the impending launch of Perodua’s MPV. 

While the task was mammoth, the opportunity was to take control of the situation and create a strong, unprecedented strategy to convince the target that PROTON’s MPV is the best buy – the right car, at the right time, at the right price - contrary to logical economic barometers, that indicated  Malaysia’s automotive industry was heading for a 13 % decline in 09. 

What were our campaign objectives?

Our task was ambitious; FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION

Despite the market, we had to ensure 4,000 bookings per month. 

To give it perspective:

1. The ENTIRE MPV CATEGORY’s sales in the months preceding the launch of PROTON’s MPV were hovering between 2,900 to 3,500 units only. 
2. Toyota Avanza, the category best seller in January 08 when the market was booming was selling 2,119 units, Nissan Grand Livina at 726 units, Toyota Innova at 532 units and Honda CRV at 402 units. (Source: MAA Jan 08)
   

We had to ensure bookings were much highher than category norm, and defy a declining industry trend. 

What was our big idea? 

Amaze Malaysians with PROTON’s new offering – make them ask - “These are all from PROTON, a Malaysian company?” 

How did we arrive at the big idea? 

Tap into nationalism and build strong belief in an amazing MPV made in Malaysia.

Malaysians were skeptical that PROTON could design, manufacture and successfully market the 1st Malaysian homegrown MPV against the negative market situations, and against Toyota and Nissan within the similar price bracket. 

The idea was to prove the market skeptics wrong, to AMAZE Malaysians that PROTON BOLEH. That there was a new Proton on the prowl.

We built a campaign based on the idea of an amazingly designed, feature-packed MPV, built with people’s needs in mind to drive hype and bookings for the vehicle that is made by Malaysians for Malaysians. 

During the course of the pre-launch activities which included the MPV-naming contest, the sense of national pride surrounding the first Malaysian MPV was very high. 

All these helped to tease, create a lot of interest and curiosity which generated a lot of discussion on blogs and forums. 

How did we bring the idea to life? 

The plans were to create a slow reveal - to build excitement and entice customers to reappraise their perceptions of PROTON’s 1st homegrown MPV via a strong teaser campaign, followed by the lauch of the TVC, print, radio and online blitz.       

1. Beginning with the “Naming of Malaysia’s 1st homegrown MPV” contest - the strategy was to involve and mobilize locals to be part of Malaysian history and its latest achievement – producing its 1st homegrown MPV. 
2. The press and online campaign struck a chord with Malaysians. A total of 251,763 (Source – Proton’s Contest Audited by Price Waterhouse Coopers) entries were received, surpassing the target of 100,000 by 151%. The sense of national pride surrounding the first Malaysian MPV surged with this first strategic move.  The end of the contest saw PROTON EXORA being chosen as the name of Malaysia’s 1st homegrown MPV.
3. Sustaining the momentum, a pre launch campaign kicked off in February as a lead up to the launch in April. The teaser press and radio campaign highlighted PROTON EXORA’s amazing features in comfort, safety and performance. 
4. When the first batch of bookings trickled in, some 20 buyers were invited to test drive the PROTON EXORA. We tapped into the positive vibes from these customers and created testimonial press ads, that in themselves, were the most powerful and convincing advertisements for PROTON EXORA. 
5. By the time the launch campaign rolled out across TV, radio, press, live telecast launch, online and outdoor, the reception for PROTON EXORA was already positive and in fact, overwhelming. 
6. We also launched a 1st time ever jacket wrap in SUN newspaper which featured the PROTON EXORA against a white background and a stripped down version of the car on the reverse page with text printed in mirror-image. The sub headline encouraged readers to hold up the ad against the light to discover just how amazing the car is. And this ad caught the attention of many SUN readers, and SUN ran a free editorial on their readers’ response to the ad, to which it quoted one of it’s reader’s comments -

“ At first I wondered if the page had been misprinted, then I read the instructions. I held it up to the sun and was amazed. It’s simply brilliant!” (Source: Sun Article (page 2) Date Friday April 17)

How do we know it worked? 

• 4,000 bookings in a month – and we over achieved by delivering 13,000 (Source: Proton bookings record) (just 2 months after the launch)
• Proton Exora officially launched on 16 April. 
• Within the first week of launch, the bookings jumped to 4,200 units.(Source: MAA May)
• 2 months after the official launch, the bookings for PROTON EXORA escalated to 13,000 units and, counting. 
• The Proton Exora surpassed booking expectations and became the Number 1 best selling MPV in just 2 months after launch!

Anything else going on that might have helped drive results? 

The blog sites ranging from Paul Tan, to motor sites to personal blog sites were all covering stories on PROTON EXORA and a national newspaper’s controversial front page reveal of the ‘secret’ picture of the Proton Exora before the official reveal, all helped fuel the hype and excitement. All of which eventually lead to Malaysians proudly supporting and believing in an MPV designed, developed and produced by Malaysians