Chrysler’s new campaign for the Dodge Dart is taking the ‘registry’ concept way beyond the wedding. Instead of the traditional engaged couple asking family and friends to purchase silverware and bedding, “The Dodge Dart Registry” is a new vehicle for millennials to raise funds to buy a new car.
Prospective Dodge Dart owners register on the site, customize the car, and set a goal for how much money they need to purchase it. The site cleverly breaks the car up into individual parts, allowing donors to ‘sponsor’ the engine, steering wheel, etc. with their contribution.
The registry is tied into social media, with users having the option to connect their registry to Facebook or Twitter. When users first enter the site, they have the option of either “creating” or “funding” a registry. There’s also a ticker on the bottom of the site, which allows potential users to see who has recently started a registry or received funding. Users can click on “Activity Feed” or “Browse Registries” to see how others are faring on the site.
The registry site is powered by crowd-funding platform RocketHub, which collects all the contributions. Fundraising ends when each registrant has reached his/her funding goal, or the expiration date on their registry. The registrant can then “opt out” with RocketHub and collect a check. Whether the check is actually used to purchase the car, however, is up to each registrant.
The campaign is meant to help people find a way to purchase a car, said Jason Russ, head of Dodge brand advertising. Comparing the campaign to more traditional new car ads, complete with red bow on top, he told AdAge that “What makes this different is that nobody has really taken a car and dissected it into different parts.”
So far, the registry only exists for the 2013 Dodge Dart. The campaign, created by Wieden and Kennedy, also features a new commercial, “How to Change Buying Cars Forever.” The spot explains the registry and suggests that with Dad, Grandma, and others funding specific parts of the car, it could soon be yours.
Will the concept work for the target audience of millennials? And more importantly, will the cars actually get funded – even partially? While there are currently over 400 registries created on the site, most have 0% funding. Can the promotion become a “game-changer” for a car that has, according to brandchannel, underperformed in comparison to other recent Chrysler offerings?
