Nissan 370Z direct mail case study

Nissan first launched its Z series sports cars back in the 1960s and the marque is still going strong. So the vehicle manufacturer wanted to tie in the launch of its latest model - the 370Z - with a celebration of the range's 40th anniversary.  

The car is popular with young early-adopters. So what better way to appeal to this audience than sending 3,500 of them a mail pack containing a steering wheel. Using augmented reality (AR), recipients could turn the wheel in front of their webcams and experience every detail of the vehicle - even switching the lights on and off.

Banner ads tracked the webcams so that as viewers looked at the 370Z's fascia,  their perspective of the dashboard changed on-screen as their heads moved. The banners also took the prospective car buyers to the 370 Reasons to Z website, which cites 370 compelling reasons to buy the new motor.

The integrated campaign - from Melbourne agency Whybin/TBWA/Tequila - produced outstanding results. Site visitors lingered for 4.35 minutes, the number of enquiries doubled, and in May and June, Nissan racked up $15.7m-worth of 370Z sales. Not bad when the overall Australian car market was down 22%.