Chevy Uses Location-Based Service to Lift Brand Perception

The Chevrolet team is down in Austin, Texas this week for the South by Southwest (SXSW) technology and arts festival. As part of Chevy’s marketing effort, they teamed up with location-based service company Gowalla (a competitor to the better known Foursquare) to create a nicely done driver service for those checking into the Austin Bergstrom Airport.

Basically, when one checks into the airport’s location on the Gowalla application some people are randomly served up a free ride from the airport to downtown Austin in a Chevy vehicle of course.

I really like the online, offline integration here. It definitely provides Chevy with some positive brand lift for the well-connected people attending the SXSW festival. It's a nice way to reach a socially active audience that is sure to Tweet, blog or even talk in person about what a cool thing Chevy and Gowalla did on their trip.

For one blogger’s personal experience with the Chevy Gowalla offer checkout this post from the blog DigitalBeforeDigital.

Crayon's Joseph Jaffe shares his impression of the Gowalla Chevy execution:

Ford KA, So Little, Can You 'Find It'?

Ford's UK campaign for their KA compact auto will be launched with a mobile phone campaign called "Find It". The work will debut in January 2009.

From Marketing Magazine: "According to the company ‘It's the first ever campaign in mobile marketing, by an automotive brand, to use augmented reality...[which] is a field of computer research that deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data, where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time.'

"Direct packs have been created by youth experiential group Don't Panic, and will be distributed in bars, clubs, fashion boutiques, universities and at music events. The packs contain QR code stickers, which by using a wap link through a camera phone projects a 3D Ka onto the screen, available in three designs. " more.