An extremely successful campaign for SEAT, which reached the right consumers with the right communication. The campaign "Hands on the wheel settles the deal" also won two awards at the "International ECHO Award 2022" and an award at the "Danish Digital Award 2022."

SEAT chose to take an entirely new approach by using a combination of data-driven modeling, machine learning, a strong 1:1 approach through postal mailings and email communication, along with a well-planned digital campaign that reached the right consumers with the right communication over an extended period.

The engine of the campaign is data – and a specially developed predictive model that could assess every household in Denmark regarding the likelihood that the household would enter the market in the near future to buy a car, as well as the likelihood that this household would buy a SEAT.

All data was fed into an AI-based analysis model, which was trained to identify and document correlations between behavior, car data, and customer profile.

To fine-tune the predictive model and test its ability to make accurate predictions, the data output from the model was compared with a dataset of actual SEAT buyers in 2020.

Once the predictive model was accurate and ready, 30,000 names and addresses were extracted from households that had:

• A high likelihood of purchasing a new car within 6-8 months.
• Already owned one or more of the car brands from which SEAT primarily gains new customers.
• And were located within the shortest possible geographical distance to an authorized SEAT dealer.

One to one

Since SEAT did not have permission to digitally contact the 30,000 households in the target group, they opted for a targeted one-to-one direct mail in the mailbox with an 8-page brochure, communicating both brand messaging and a solid introduction to all the models in SEAT’s portfolio. The campaign was followed up by a hyper-local targeted Facebook campaign to influence the mail recipients, as well as an intelligent retargeting setup that influenced mail recipients who visited SEAT.dk.

The number of test drives in SEAT’s primary target group more than doubled during the campaign period.

At the same time, the number of test drives that resulted in a sale increased by 371% among those who had received a direct mail, compared to those outside the target group.

Based on this successful business case, SEAT has established a permanent setup with a data-driven predictive model that identifies the names and addresses of future SEAT customers each quarter and engages them in a well-coordinated analog and digital marketing setup.

So, data, machine learning, and AI predict the next SEAT owners, boost sales, and increase market share.

The SEAT team is celebrating the two prestigious ECHO Awards won in the Automotive and Direct Mail categories. The campaign has also been shortlisted for the Danish Digital Awards 2022.

The number of test drives in SEAT’s primary target group more than doubled during the campaign period.

Increased Sales

The number of test drives that resulted in a sale increased by 371% among those who had received a direct mail, compared to those outside the target group.