Citroën India engages with millions on Diwali with AR led campaign

Citroën, a globally successful brand of the auto conglomerate, Groupe PSA, has unveiled a mobile-led, interactive campaign inspired by the festival of lights, Diwali. The augmented reality ad is getting users to engage with the brand in an innovative way, leaving a lasting impression.

Citroën wanted its logo to be the highlight of its India launch, and in turn, create significant brand awareness. With the festival of lights just around the corner, the brand incorporated the essence of Diwali in the creative, to enhance the relevance of the ad among users. The overarching objective was to engage the audience with the brand and to be inspired by the festival of lights.

The campaign, conceptualised by mCanvas, the experiential storytelling platform, and MediaCom, the media network, activates the phone’s camera and asks users to pan their phone in an Augmented Reality to find the hidden firecracker. Upon discovering it, the creative encourages users to tap on the cracker to light it up. On bursting, it transitions into beautiful fireworks made of Citroën’s logo. The closing screen fades in with the copy ‘This Diwali get inspired by the lights!’, along with the brand’s logo. A ‘Know More’ CTA directs users to the company’s Facebook page, for more information.

Reaching over 6 million users, the campaign is witnessing an impressive 1.5% click-through rate, which is 6.5 times higher than the 0.20% industry average for mobile banners. Users are spending 9 seconds, on average, engaging with the creative.

Hariharan Vishwanath, Managing Partner, MediaCom said, “In a space, where users now have the liberty to choose what ads to interact with, creating mind-blowing concepts for brands is typically challenging. This innovative campaign has not only kept users engaged, but also managed to successfully enhance the familiarity of Citroën in the Indian market.”

Commenting on the campaign, Vishal Rupani, Co-Founder & CEO, mCanvas said, “We’re fully committed to helping brands tell better stories. For Citroën, we could use our proprietary Scroller and innovative technologies like AR, to take the brand’s narrative to greater heights, while creating immense impact among users. Our sincere gratitude to Citroën and MediaCom for trusting us with their campaign.”