Citroen crowdsource the UK’s first ever car in partnership with Facebook
Citroën and Facebook have collaborated on a Facebook app where the public can design their own Citroën C1 Connexion. It’s being billed as the UK’s first ever crowdsourced production vehicle.
It’s a shame then that the concept is more exciting than the final exection. Options for customising are actually quite limited and whilst the app makes it feel like a fresh experience, within Facebook, you can only choose the number of doors, the interior and exterior colours. There’s no denying that this is a very polished app and has been cleverly marketed but in terms of actually crowdsourcing a production vehicle, personally it falls well short of the mark.
The most popular configuration will be produced and will be on sale in 2012. As an added incentive for those who take the time to be involved, they will be entered in to a competition to be among the first to win one of the cars hot off the production line.
Featuring the tagline ‘You like it. We make it.’, you can configure your own car over on their Facebook page… Here’s one I made earlier, blue peter style.
Here’s some quotes from Citroën UK and Facebook themselves with their thoughts:
Melina Kacherou-Carage, head of digital marketing at Citroën UK, said: “This is a really exciting project for Citroën, collaborating with Facebook to use the platform in this way. With a touch of ‘Créative Technologie’, we are taking the choices of many to create a car for everyone. This is crowdsourcing in action. The New C1 Connexion will be a car created for the Facebook generation, by the Facebook generation.”
Stephen Haines, UK commercial director at Facebook, added: “We are pleased to be collaborating with Citroën on this project. With the C1 Connexion, Citroën is integrating the interactions and the stories people have with the brand into the products they create. They’ve built the experience around people, so their fans can have a personal experience through the app and share that with their friends. Facebook shouldn’t just be bolted on to an existing campaign, it should be an integral part of the brand’s full marketing and strategic plan. With this app, Citroën is demonstrating that effective campaigns take in social from the very start.”
Here’s one I made earlier, blue peter style.
It feels to me like Facebook has had more involvement in this than Citroën and of course they want to show off the social experience, I just find the end product to be removed from the initial vision.
