unBoxed 2023: Acura boosts awareness for Precision EV Concept with rewarded ads on Fire TV and Prime Video Custom Sponsorship

11 December 2023 | By Jareen Imam, Sr. Content and Editorial Manager

Acura

This year, Prime Video audiences got much more than an exhilarating thrill ride through the Acura vehicle lineup in the brand’s “New World. Same Energy.” campaign. Working with Amazon Ads, Acura created an immersive experience that introduced audiences to their Precision EV Concept, while teasing the brand’s electrified future and fuelling engagement with the rewarded ads Fire TV landing page and Prime Video Custom Sponsorship.

Prime Video credit

Using rewarded ads, Acura gifted audiences a Prime Video credit for interacting with the brand’s campaign content.

Acura worked with the Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab to drive awareness for the Precision EV Concept and their lineup of performance vehicles, reaching both fans of Acura and a wider audience of new Acura buyers.

The campaign officially debuted during the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where Acura, the official vehicle of Sundance, featured prominently through festival activations like talent interviews and panels, day-to-night entertainment programming at Acura Sundance event spaces, and a fleet of Acura vehicles transporting filmmakers and talent around the festival.

“Our goal with Acura’s recent brand campaign was to evoke a visceral and emotional reaction from viewers and Sundance festival attendees, including next-gen customers, while celebrating Acura performance and sharing a first look at the brand’s all-electric future,” said Meliza Humphrey, senior manager of marketing at Acura. “As part of Acura’s Sundance media activity, Amazon was selected to bring the excitement of the brand’s festival presence into homes for everyone to enjoy.”

Acura’s campaign media strategy

Acura’s campaign media strategy focused on building stronger connections between the brand and consumers.

Acura wanted to make their brand campaign reach go further. With Amazon Ads, their “New World. Same Energy.” campaign media strategy centred around creating an experience to build stronger connections between Acura and consumers. Rewarded ads helped cultivate that experience by gifting potential Acura customers a Prime Video credit for interacting with Acura campaign content, which was positioned within Fire TV native ad placements, such as a screen saver and an inline display banner. Consumers clicked through to the custom landing page, which spotlighted Acura’s long-standing partnership with the Sundance Film Festival and featured film titles.

Once on the custom landing page, viewers could explore a 360-degree experience of the Acura Precision EV Concept. If viewers completed the featured video on the page, they received a $3 Prime Video credit to rent or purchase any Prime Video offering, including a selection of films that premiered at Sundance.

360-degree experience

Viewers could explore a 360-degree experience of the Acura Precision EV Concept when they entered the custom landing page.

“The custom landing page on Amazon, which went live during the festival, amplified the on-site activity during Sundance while displaying Acura’s vehicle lineup on the largest screen in the home via Fire TV,” Humphrey said. “Showcasing the campaign on large-canvas environments was a unique way for Acura to highlight our performance products while also connecting relevant audiences with our long-standing Sundance partnership.”

For the first time ever, the custom Fire TV landing page was available in both English and Spanish, which consumers could easily toggle between, offering a much more favourable experience for the consumer. As a result, 25% of the campaign’s page views were tied to the Spanish-language experience.1

Acura’s Fire TV experience drove engagement and awareness with relevant audiences. Overall, the campaign delivered 76 million impressions over the span of the campaign’s nine-week flight.2 The Amazon Ads team also found that rewarded ads on Fire TV helped Acura drive a higher click-through rate by 75%, above benchmark by including the Prime Video credit offer on the display creative.3 Customers stayed with the experience for an average of 46 seconds, and engagement for the campaign was 7%.4 Finally, the campaign generated an 8.1% increase in brand awareness and 4.5% increase in brand favourability among those who were exposed to the ads at least 7X.5

In the end, the campaign was a success for Acura.

“We saw strong engagement on the Amazon custom landing page that kept consumers engaged, exceeding the automotive benchmark on Amazon,” said Humphrey. “We also were delighted to see the number of redeemed video rentals, which helped introduce potential new Acura customers to our relationship with the Sundance Film Festival.”

1–4 Amazon 1P data, US, Jan – March 2023
5 Lucid Impact Brand Study, Acura Brand, US, Jan – March 2023