Crashing Bimmerfest with Alfa Romeo
How do you compete when competitors spend 5x more on marketing?
Background
In the United States, Alfa Romeo is a challenger brand with an attitude, but it faces stiff competition. BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi enjoy loyal owners, extensive vehicle lineups, and substantial advertising budgets. So how do you compete with competitors spending 5x more on marketing?
Journey
Through data, social listening, search analytics, and other metrics, we uncovered that more than 60% of the people who test-drove Alfa Romeo vehicles bought one. Our goal was clear: get drivers behind the wheel.
To accomplish this, we decided to do something outrageous: we had Alfa Romeo crash Bimmerfest, the largest private-owner BMW event in the world. We set up a high-performance test drive course to let BMW drivers experience firsthand the thrill of an Alfa Romeo, and hosted a “My Alfa Romeo is better than your car—prove me wrong” event where BMW owners could challenge our product experts head-to-head on product features—and receive a little Italian enlightenment.
Outcomes
More than 300 BMW owners test-drove an Alfa Romeo, and we captured hours of social media content featuring real BMW owners converting to Alfa Romeo right before our eyes.
Most importantly, we left a lasting impression at Bimmerfest—and who knows, maybe we’ll even be invited back next year.
- 580Ksocial media views
- 440Ksocial impressions
- 20Kengagements
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