Spark wasn’t for people who love cars – it was the car for people who love phones.

Our target obsessively uses technology to connect with everything in their lives – friends, family, entertainment, shopping, jobs...everything. They had a major appetite for access. Given the outstanding technology available in the 2016 Chevrolet Spark (phone integration tech, built in WIFI, etc), it had real leverage with this audience.

Since new cars don’t typically grab Millennials’ attention, we launched the 2016 Chevrolet Spark like a new phone. We designed the packaging and announced the arrival of the Ultimate Mobile Device. We left typical car advertising behind for tactics more commonly associated with phone launches.

If we could avoid the typical car clichés and position Spark in a unique way, they just might pay attention – and maybe even visit a Chevrolet dealership to check out a Spark. That was our road to success.

We pulled a classic tease and reveal. Anywhere urban millennials were – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, search, key tech media sites and blogs, bus stops, the commute – so was the Ultimate Mobile Device. As intended, the tease phase quickly reached the velocity of a new mobile release. Then we lined up top Canadian tech bloggers to host our public unboxing and livestreamed it on YouTube and Periscope.

Once the secret was out, we flipped the switch on the teaser campaign overnight and literally ‘unboxed’ all the ads. What was once a mysterious box, was now an open box with Spark right beside it. We even placed little 3D-printed Sparks, complete with price tags, in flagship Best Buy stores’ mobile sections, and parked real Sparks amongst the smartphones inside a selection of their mobile outlets.

In 10 days, the campaign’s tease phase served over 10 million impressions and generated a well above average click-through rate of 0.16%, sending 16,000+ visits to the unbranded microsite and the teaser video got approximately 400,000 views. In fact, there was so much speculation at one point, #SparkMobile trended at #2 on Twitter in Canada, exceeded only by #DonaldTrump.

After the big reveal, consumers still wanted more. The official Spark page on Chevrolet’s website saw over 312,000 visits and 420,000+ video views. Search queries were up 88% during the campaign versus the same period the previous year.

In Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal – sales of the category leader, Nissan Micra, were down an average of 17%. Meanwhile, Spark sales were up an average of 420%.

Sales exceeded our wildest dreams – 24 consecutive weeks of unprecedented sales growth helping achieve the entire sales goal for the year in six months.

The chosen media for this campaign played an integral role in it's success. Instead of placing typical car ads on billboards, TV and automotive websites we launched a new car like you would a new phone in order to capture the attention of our audience.

The core target was millennial women and men, 25 to 35 years old, living in major Canadian cities. And based on previous attempts to sell the original Spark model, and on the gradual decline in small car sales generally, we knew this audience was largely disinterested in vehicles.

We developed a deep understanding of urban millennials – examining their behaviours and beliefs, how they connected to each other and the world around them, and the culture in which they lived. What were they passionate about? Was there a consistent need that we could identify and fill?

A powerful trigger in our research was mobile technology. Even the rumour of a new iPhone garnered a tidal wave of buzz for them. Mobile technology – devices, apps and possibilities for new connections – was a hot, consistent topic of interest.

The original Chevrolet Spark entered the Canadian market in 2012, but didn’t perform to expectations and sales of the overall category were declining year over year. Urban millenials weren’t interested in buying cars. They’ve got public transit, plus options like ride sharing and Uber were just starting to emerge.

For the brand, it was critical to appeal to a younger target. Young consumers are essential for Chevrolet’s future help as they transition through life stages and vehicle needs; it’s easier to sell a vehicle to a brand loyalist than it is to “conquer” them from other brands.

But with little or no positive perception of Chevrolet, and no sense that they even needed a car, urban millennials weren’t visiting dealerships. And without a test drive, there was no chance of proving how well Spark fit their lives. It’s safe to say there was a lot riding on this campaign.