Following WDA’s highly successful 2013 brand re-positioning and re-launch of premium car care brand MER ‘Auto Shine’ Technologie, this years integrated marketing and advertising campaign encourages car owners to ‘Be MERticulous’, and is already showing further sales growth with early year on year sales up 20% in main retailer Halfords.

Having seen several competitor brands try to echo elements of MER’s successful 2013 ‘Perfect Finish’ marketing campaign, WDA worked closely with the MER brand marketing team to push creative boundaries again to create a wholly ‘own-able’ brand communication platform/campaign built around a brand asset that can’t be echoed (or copied as in some cases!) – the MER brand name itself.

WDA’s ‘brand driven marketing’ strategy identified the opportunity to develop the distinctive MER brand positioning still further. Achieving this by building around the core insight that its target customers really do share a ‘meticulous attitude’ to car care, driven by their own demanding personal standards shown in most aspects of their life, not just how they look after their cars.

The ‘BE MERTICULOUS’ campaign was created out of that insight, and then creatively based around an easy and immediately understandable phonetic play on the adjective ‘meticulous’ (definition being ‘taking extreme care’) which epitomises MER’s target customer attitude. This establishes connection with customers not just rationally with the word, but emotionally with the attitude itself of being meticulous. It’s virtually impossible to say meticulous without saying MER!

Distinctive verbal communication must always work as part of an equally distinctive and emotionally engaging supporting visual message to be fully effective. WDA went against the car care marketing norm of primarily just showing a nice shiny car, by sensitively and subtly evoking the ‘being MERticulous’ brand attitude instantly through the arresting stare of a meticulously dressed woman and supporting message ’the very model of German excellence you might say…’

WDA’s brand driven marketing approach identifies the optimum way to ensure tangible ROI by creating brand attention, awareness and understanding, in this case clearly achieving the MER’s goal of converting that into increased sales. Supporting social media and PR activities together with new high-impact shelf merchandising units in Halfords work as part of an ongoing integrated marketing strategy aimed at continuing to drive sales even further.

Below are some behind-the-scenes images from the Merticulous photoshoot, a huge thank you to James Pearman, director of The Performance Company for the loan of his Audi R8 and Mercedes CLS350.

 

WDA are pleased to add another children’s charity to our continued support for the NSPCC this month, although indirectly through sponsorship of a clients quest to complete her first London Marathon.

Farecla marketing supremo Donna Howard will run for CLIC Sargent – the UK’s leading cancer charity for children, young people, and their families.

Already up to half distance in training, we are confident she will complete the course in a great time, and look forward to making our own contribution to her sponsorship campaign. “Best of luck from all at WDA!”

For more information on CLIC Sargent visit www.clicsargent.org.uk

Goodwood Festival of Speed 11-14th July 2013

For the past couple of months WDA have been busy working alongside MER Auto Shine Technologie, gearing up for their first official public outing since the re-brand at Goodwood’s prestigious Festival of Speed.

50% More visitors

Weʼre pleased to say the event was a massive success, with 50% more visitors to the MER stand than in 2012, which resulted in more exposure to the new brand, its range of new products and of course, more sales too.

When we first began the project, WDAʼs task was to create an exhibition stand, which not only displayed the MER products but also created a buzz about the brand. We needed something, which got people excited and talking about MER. We already had the fantastic GT3 Porsche to be polished and cleaned, but since this year was the 50th Anniversary of the Porsche we knew Goodwood would be swamped with them, we needed something more, something fun and interactive.

A Race to the Perfect Finish!

So we came up with The MER Scalextric Challenge. The idea was to have a custom built Scalextric track on the stand so that our visitors could compete with one another and win some great prizes courtesy of both Scalextric and MER. Based on our ‘perfect finishʼ advertising campaign slogan we invited show goers to ‘Race to the Perfect Finish’. We created a Top Gear style ʻLeader Boardʼ and even a winners podium, so participants could pose in front of the MER backdrop and share their success by publishing their photographs on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels – getting a great viral effect and further promoting the brand.

As predicted, Scalextric proved ever popular with all ages (in fact the competitive dads were even more enthusiastic than the kids!) On the first day the stand was busy  8 oʼclock in the morning. On the remaining three days as word got around the crowds were even more eager as a hive of activity was starting to form from 7am going right through until 6.30pm. We’re pleased to report that despite this severe hammering in 30 degree+ heat, the track and (most) of the cars survived despite only a very brief break when we powered down on day 3 as the Red Arrows flew over!

The Scalextric challenge proved a great way for the MER staff to get chatting to festival goers about their products and give away some free samples but thatʼs not to underestimate the other components of the stand. The black and orange Porsche GT3 attracted a huge amount of interest and was a great way to demonstrate the cleaning power of the new MER range; whilst the exhibition stand provided a great backdrop for the brand, to remind the public that the product, which used to be in the blue-bottle is now in a slick black bottle, with a shiny gold top!

£1200.00 raised for DMUK

The stand also had a charitable element to it as well, we asked anyone wishing to participate in the Scalextric Challenge to make a small donation to the Disabled Motorists UK. MERʼs promise was to match that pound for pound; and in total we raised nearly £1200.00, which was a great gesture for a well-deserving charity who campaign for better rights for disabled motorists and their families and carers. Overall it was a fantastic event, which provided great PR for the MER brand and most importantly achieved exactly what we set out to do – to attract record visitors to our stand, engage them with the new brand – and drive sales!

WDA would like to say a huge thank you to all MER staff who worked hard to keep the stand running smoothly throughout the festival, Tony at Corporate Layouts who built up the Scalextric track and Marta from Disabled Motorist UK, who also joined us to promote the charity.

To see more shots from the day, click here

WDA have just completed a major rebrand of the MER car care brand. Intended to put the famous range back on the map, the big changeover happened last month with an online reveal to existing MER customers and the launch of an all new website: www.merproducts.com

As we publish this post, major retail partner Halfords will have completed stock replacement and merchandising, and the all new packs and brand blocked retail display systems should be in your local store with roll out amongst the independent retailers following on throughout Q1.

In addition to the repositioning, new visual brand identity, packaging and POS, WDA have devised a national on and offline integrated advertising campaign, plus a whole range of new campaign collateral and are currently finalising specific advertising executions and producing a range of viral and instructional videos.

Blue sky thinking

It’s often true that the best ideas come to us in the shower. With MER, the idea for the brand positioning was actually drafted on an iphone whilst sat in the grounds of a Derbyshire castle one Sunday morning last summer! Based around the history of the MER brand and its German roots, WDA discovered a heritage which was simply not being used, and a whole back story waiting to be told surrounding the inventor of the original formulations – Franz Billich. This German positioning enabled an alignment with many other prestige German marques and a reputation for automotive excellence through the appliance of technology. To learn exactly how we did it read the case study here.

What’s being said

Since acquiring the MER brand in 2008, we had been searching for an agency who could help us to extract the true potential for the brand that we believed existed. WDA conducted an intensive grass roots review of the brand, identifying a unique position for the brand and an ownable route to mind with the consumer. WDA tuned in to the commercial challenges that we faced and created not only an outstanding brand design and integrated consumer awareness campaign, but immediately understood and supported our internal infrastructure and demands of our retailers. WDA are an exciting agency who challenge the norm and deliver outstanding value for money. Lee and his team are a pleasure to work with and on top of supporting us to launch on time an outstanding brand, WDA have helped us improve our marketing skills and thought processes. I would have no hesitation in recommending WDA, they are an exceptional agency! Donna Howard Business Manager – Retail, Farécla Products Ltd (MER)

A huge thank you to all the team at WDA for their obscene amount of hard work in making the MER re-launch a reality. From detailed category research to striking design work, everything you have touched has been first rate. The whole team are a pleasure to work with and I have been particularly impressed with how brand focussed everyone has been. WDA are not like other agencies, I can only describe them as an extended part of the marketing team and I would have no reservations whatsoever in wholeheartedly recommending them. Victoria Dringer Retail Brand Manager, Farécla Products Ltd (MER)

@wdaautomotive Thanks guys for the great research, striking creative and marketing knowledge. We wholeheartedly recommend your dynamic team. Official MerCarCare 11th Jan via twitter

New packaging looks very smart Already sent off for my free sample, looking forward to trying it out. Natalie North detailingworld forum 14-01-2013

Loving the New Packaging looks very classy with the Black Bottles with black and white labels. They Do look very striking and have a quality look to them….the German Flag should help distinguish the difference to the old especially moving away from the blue bottles. Amazing how a logo and colour change alters ones perception on an item. James detailingworld forum 09-01-2013

These look great in the flesh really classy and very slick. The Gold and Black go very well together giving the product much more appeal imo – really great new design yet to try the re formulations but looking forward to it. ‘Whizzer’ detailingworld forum 14-01-2013

45% sales uplift

“WDA are proud to have given MER a story to tell, and we are looking forward to helping deliver that story over the coming launch year by building a strong, consistent campaign centred around the new positioning platform we have created.

With the packaging and POS already fully implemented and on the shelves, we have to say the packs look superb and create the desired level of differentiation and stand-out to hopefully drive sales beyond target. Early signs are good with very positive year on year figures being reported after just a few short weeks on sale – one product up 45% which given the snow has to be encouraging!

I would like to give praise to the WDA team involved with this ongoing project, and also thank MER’s marketing team for being so open to new ideas and having the faith to test  – and subsequently implement – such a radical solution. Watch this space because WDA plan to put the MER rebrand up for an industry award in the near future so that everyone involved can share official recognition for what we have achieved. Lee Waterhouse, Managing Director WDA

Is your brand really doing the business? Contact WDA for a free consultation at: [email protected]

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