On 8 September 2015 Rolls-Royce Motor Cars broke new ground by presenting Dawn, the marque’s acclaimed new Drophead Coupé motor car to the world’s media via an interactive, globally streamed online launch.
This bold approach was borne out of an intimate understanding of the rapidly changing profile of the marque’s customers and enthusiasts, whilst acknowledging and adapting to the digital media landscape. In total, 4,000 journalists and influencers from around the world witnessed the ‘Digital Dawn’ live, with many posing questions directly to Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. This was a landmark moment in the marque’s ongoing commitment to pioneering new digital approaches to interacting with customers, media and fans of the brand.
The success of the Digital Dawn launch was affirmed by the story trending as the number 1 most searched term on Google that day. On the same day, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars also unveiled the marque’s new website and mobile platforms (www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com), seeing a 300% increase in traffic to the new site.
The newly designed website is informed by the marque’s intrinsic principle of delivering effortlessness, with users presented with a simple, responsive and intuitive platform to explore the brand. Stories, images and films are served in an unexpected way, delivering an experience far more akin to an online luxury journal than that of a traditional automotive website.
“Rolls-Royce customers are amongst the most highly connected, mobile members of society. They are used to conducting their lives globally and instantly” said Fintan Knight, Director, Sales and Marketing Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. “We constantly strive to evolve our platforms to allow us to serve their desires to interact in a highly mobile and social way.”
Effortless navigation…
Every possible consideration has been made to ensuring effortlessness and augmenting the user journey. As they navigate the site visitors are presented with specially curated, closely related content, ensuring the marque’s extraordinary story is presented in a highly appealing and intuitive way.
Editorial content, commissioned to inform the lifestyles of the marque’s customers’ sits harmoniously beside image-rich product information, films and stories that reveal the history of the world’s most revered super-luxury brand.
The new design also acknowledges the fundamental shift in the way patrons of luxury wish to interact with online content by serving itself in an intuitive ‘touch first’ manner. Navigation of the site is a simple pleasure, ensuring the user experience is as effortless and enjoyable on a smartphone as it is a tablet, laptop, interactive TV or traditional desktop browser.
A growing social following…
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is one of the most engaging brands in the world on social media. The new website, and the overarching digital strategy that informs it, therefore reflects the importance of these channels in creating and sustaining conversations with customers and fans of the brand. The marque’s following onInstagram, for example, has grown 400% in 2015 – reflecting the changing profile of the marque’s customer base.
Instead of simply following the crowd, Rolls-Royce has also successfully pioneered the use of new platforms. Wraith ‘Inspired by Fashion’ was unveiled to the world in the first ever launch of a car on revolutionary social streaming platform Periscope.
The new online home for the marque has already been awarded by one of the most widely recognised authorities in web design and innovation, the FWA.