Navigon: Driving post-Christmas Sat-Nav sales
Sales during the three months after Christmas are slow for many consumer products. This is particularly so for Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs), which enjoyed growing interest amongst auto-enthusiasts and informed travellers in 2004 but little awareness outside this segment. Navigon, developer of quality software for navigation, professional solutions and driving assistance solutions, briefed Hotwire to help overcome the annual sales slump, and to expand its reach beyond traditional markets.Hotwire recommended the release of a limited-edition Navigon PND, co-branded with Paris’ leading entertainment magazine Zurban and was instrumental in establishing the relationship between the two organisations and defining the product. The co-branded product was launched to coincide with Zurban’s annual event that attracts 3,000 attendees including influential luminaries and celebrities and was supported with a media relations campaign.
How could Hotwire turn the programme, which was driven exclusively by PR with no advertising support, to an overwhelming success: extensive press coverage (women’s, lifestyle, trade, auto and mobile media as well as radio and TV) resulted in all post-Christmas stock being sold out within 10 weeks, and a repositioning of Navigon amongst the Parisian-chic?
The challenge was that, in addition to the ongoing need to raising Navigon’s profile amongst the IT, auto and mobile media, Hotwire was tasked with driving sales during the notoriously difficult post-Christmas period and to broaden Navigon’s reach into consumer lifestyle media. A further difficulty was to address the perception of PNDs as a ‘long-journey’ assistant, rather than a tool for everyday use within Paris.
Given the challenge in generating coverage for PNDs in consumer lifestyle media Hotwire’s strategy centred around establishing a partnership with a relevant, high-circulation publication to generate major consumer cut-through. Zurban was identified as the perfect partner. With a circulation of 52,000, a readership of well-off urban professionals between the age of 20 and 40, and being Paris-based, where nearly 80% of all PND purchases in France are made, it made the perfect partner.
As a listings guide it provided the ideal opportunity to incorporate Zurban’s information into the product so people had both ‘where to go’ and ‘how to get there’ in the one unit.
Hotwire and Navigon together recognised that while media partnerships generate guaranteed coverage, co-branding a limited edition product had the potential to deliver so much more in terms of both awareness and sales.
Beyond helping establish the partnership and advising on the development of the limited edition Zurban Navigon, Hotwire coordinated the media launch of the device.
Hotwire further encouraged attendance and coverage by devising a treasure hunt competition promoted on the night. Hostesses were trained and briefed to provide product demonstrations to the attending media to ensure journalists had visibility of the limited-edition co-branded PND.
In spite of the challenging conditions, the results of Hotwire’s campaign for NAVIGON far exceeded the client’s expectations. The launch, which was 100% driven by PR and managed by Hotwire, resulted in a total sell out of the units within ten weeks of the launch.
In addition to the sales success, the co-branded product was considered a breakthrough in putting GPS into the minds (and hands) of the Parisian-chic.
NAVIGON has extended its media partnership to include an edition of their software linked to ‘Le Guide du Routard’ (the French equivalent of the ‘Lonely Planet’ guide).
