20,000 Jeep owners in the Middle East are part of unofficial Jeeps clubs. When they play with their cars, they capture a lot of content, which they proudly post to their social channels. Most of these people are ordinary social users. But when you add all of their contributions up, they have a social reach greater than all of Jeep’s competitors combined. Instead of promoting Jeep, our campaign promoted Jeepers, turning each one of them into a micro-influencer. All their individual content pieces united under our campaign umbrella, resulting in our largest social campaign ever.

The Middle Eastern automotive landscape is unique.

1. It’s very competitive. Less strict import restrictions have resulted in a wider range of car brands available than anywhere else, including many Jeep knock-offs. Bigger disposable incomes and cheaper fuel amplify consumer demand.

2. The Jeep community in the GCC is the most active in the world, for several reasons.

They have a bigger disposable income and, therefore, have more means to invest in an expensive hobby like cars. In addition, people in most parts of the Middle East spend a lot of time indoors due to the hot climate. Urban entertainment, like malls and indoor theme parks, is a massive pastime. Adventurers, like the ones in the Jeep community, yearn to spend time outdoors. Up to 85% of adventurers in major Middle Eastern cities are expatriate Asians, Arabs and Westerners who are far away from family and friends. So, they seek out every opportunity to spend time with like-minded individuals. As a result, they form very close bonds with the Jeep community, but also with their cars. Hence, the Middle East Jeep community is far more emotionally invested in our brand and their vehicles.

For decades Jeep’s positioning has been “There’s Only One.” It is the original SUV that helped people to go anywhere and do anything. However, Jeep is no longer the only capable SUV on the market. More and more carmakers in the region are designing vehicles which physically resemble Jeeps, communicating functional Jeep capability and reliability. We needed to remind people with an adventurous mindset that Jeep is the one brand that truly delivers on their desire for freedom.

Other brands can copy our designs. But the one thing that differentiates Jeep, our greatest asset, is our powerful community – a network of passionate enthusiasts. They are a vibrant and welcoming group – a place for owners to connect with like-minded, free-spirited people where they can make lifelong friends.

It was time for Jeep to reinforce its bond with existing and prospective consumers to maintain our brand positioning.

Many brands copy Jeep’s designs. But Jeep isn’t a car. It’s a way of life. Jeepers have powerful bonds with their vehicles. Their Jeeps are an extension of their personalities. They modify them and give them nicknames. So, while there are many Jeep lookalikes out there, there’s only one Ariana, Tornado, and Dark Knight.

So, instead of launching another car commercial of a Jeep that our competitors could copy, we replaced every Jeep in our campaign with a unique car owned by a Jeeper enthusiast.

Then we harnessed our community's passion and creativity. Instead of promoting Jeep, we promoted them. Their social channels took centre stage, proving that Jeep is more than a machine. It comes to life in the hands of the people who modify it and give it a special name. This reinforced our campaign mantra, that we don't make Jeep. Our customers do.

People value individuality and pride themselves in owning their unique identity. 10% of Jeep owners in the GCC are categorized as ‘doers.’ They LOVE their Jeeps. They participate in organized group trips to the great outdoors. But more interestingly, they spend a lot of time and money on customizing their Jeeps. Their Jeeps give them the freedom to express their personalities, creativity and passion. Most Jeepers even give their vehicles a nickname.

We wanted to nurture our relationship with this audience, while attracting new consumers who have the Jeep mindset.

Jeep has 20,000 passionate community members in the Middle East who upload content every time they take their cars on adventures. Their content celebrates their deep connection with their cars and captures their unique bond with our brand. We wanted to harness the creativity of these individuals to remind the world There’s Only One 4x4 quite like ours.

We replaced every Jeep that our competitors could copy, with a range of community-owned Jeeps no other brand could copy – “Original copies.”

These unique cars appeared on our website, social pages and ads in English and Arabic. We featured Jeep owners’ usernames next to their vehicles, driving people to their social channels. This effectively turned Jeep community members into micro-influencers. We also put media money behind our community’s content, instead of directing people back to Jeep.com. Organic Jeep fan content became Jeep branded content, turning social profiles into Jeep showrooms. In addition, templates and soundbites on social allowed anyone to create Reels with their own content. Finally, we released a social film, completely made of UGC, tagging our community as creators, again driving viewers to Jeepers' social profiles and content. All campaign elements work in unison to prove our belief that we don't make Jeep. Our customers do.

- Defying advertising conventions, we didn’t show shiny, new cars. We only showed used Jeeps covered in dirt and scratches.

- People who would ordinarily not spend much time on official Jeep channels, spent time interacting with Jeep content we never made or owned, but smartly claimed for ourselves.

- 8x greater engagement with Jeepers’ content compared to Jeep brand content.

- Reach greater than our competitors combined.

- 17,000 website visits

- 23% growth in Jeep club membership numbers.

- 25% increase in Jeep community outings.

- A 15% increase in women participating in community events

- Used cars sold new cars: Wrangler/Gladiator sales increased over 59% claiming back market share against our biggest competitor. Our campaign generated sales 6.9% higher than the industry standard.

- 17% increase in customizations of new cars sold.

- Our campaign was picked up by major industry blogs and magazines across the world.