Škoda
Redditor Edit
The Škoda Octavia has been a well-loved, affordable all rounder for over 25 years. Despite a solid reputation it’s often overlooked in a crowded market full of innovation. Without the big budgets and big news of our competitors we needed to launch the new, 4th generation model.
The Opportunity
So we went looking for the people who kept the sales of their humble car steady year after year. But we didn’t find a fan club, we found a cult … On Reddit, we found the UK’s largest car community – r/CarTalkUK – a group of people fanatical about the Octavia’s quiet brilliance, to the point where they lovingly refer to it as “Our lord and saviour, the Škoda Octavia.” This level of endorsement felt tantalisingly powerful. How could we use it without falling foul of Reddit’s notorious anti-brand culture?
The Idea
So, when one Redditor suggested we should create a CarTalkUK version of the new Octavia, we thought, why not? To keep up with the speed of conversation on the platform we quickly created a selection process using the platform’s native comment and voting mechanics. Our super-fans voted in their thousands on everything from body shape to paint colour, engine to headlights. And so, the first ever car configured by a Reddit community was born: The Redditor Edit available to buy, for real, on our website.
The Results
Boy, did we engage the community … The Octavia achieved number 1 spot for share of conversation on r/CarTalkUK during our campaign, beating everything from the VW Golf to the BMW 3 Series. There were 23,000 mentions of the car during the campaign with an impressive 84% positive sentiment to them. But this wasn’t just hype, we created a real commercial impact. We beat our website traffic forecasts by 44% and took 255% more orders for Octavia than we expected. A major win for the community and brand evangelism!