Seventy Percent Played CD-ROM Game Within 24 Hours - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Brandweek, April 16, 2001 by Angela Taylor

John Ahlstrom, the General Manager of Saturn of Rockford, needed an exciting way to generate sales leads. He turned to Abetting Productions.

Abetting's President, Jeff Palmer, showed him an interactive CD-ROM he had made for another client. Ahlstrom had found his solution.

Playing off the success of ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" game show, they developed a CD-ROM game called "Who Wants to Be a Vacationaire?" One of the CDs would be stamped with an instant winner for a Caribbean Cruise and two more opportunities to win would be on match and win certificates that customers could use for discounted oil changes at the dealership.

The initial batch of discs was handed out at a business party hosted by the Rockford Chamber of Commerce. Ahlstrom says the response was great. "We got a bunch of e-mails telling us how fun and informative the CD was." The CD started with a short video showing details of Saturn's cars and then went into the game: ten questions that gave information about Saturn. Also on the disc was information about Saturn's financing options and a trade-in calculator to determine the value of a used car on a trade-in for a new Saturn.

Encouraged by the feedback, Ahlstrom ordered 5,000 more CDs to mail to a list of competitive-make owners. Curious about how the product was performing, Palmer decided to make follow-up calls to that list. The results were astounding. They discovered that 70% of the target mailing had played the disc within 24 hours of receiving it. The other 30%, Palmer reports, did not have home computers and so waited until they could use a computer at work or borrow a friend's. But 100% of the CDs mailed by Saturn of Rockford were eventually played.

A few months later, Ahlstrom ordered another 5,000 discs, this time mailing them to Saturn owners, encouraging them to trade in for a new model. Again, the results were impressive. One month after mailing the CDs, Saturn of Rockford had their biggest month ever, moving 163 cars.

Ahlstrom took the CD to a regional meeting of Saturn dealers and showed his peers what he had done. Not only did they vote it "Best Business Idea" for the quarter, but his regional manager took the CD back to Saturn's corporate headquarters. Saturn was so impressed that they offered to match funds for production of the disc in other regions. Abetting has now produced the CD for dealers in Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina.

The bottom line is that the CDs worked for Ahlstrom. "The instant winner from the first mailing came in to collect her prize and ended up buying a car. She had been driving an Oldsmobile. She told us, 'You know, I never would have considered buying a Saturn before I got this CD."'