Insurer alerts client by txt message when roads get icy

A Dutch car insurer for women recently launched a useful new service. As soon as weather warnings are issued about conditions that could make driving hazardous, Onna-onna sends its clients a text message advising them to be extra alert or even stay off the road. The company relies on weather reports from the National Meteorological Institute, and provides the text messages free of charge to clients who have signed up for them.

Aiming to reduce the number of accidents caused by heavy winds, icy roads and severe thunderstorms, the warning service is part of Onna-onna's wider efforts to promote road safety. Which isn't a purely philanthropic gesture, of course—lower accident rates are good for any insurer's bottom line. Onna-onna is planning to trial the service for a year before evaluating and potentially adding other SMS-based perks.

For companies trying to build their brand and forge meaningful relationships with their customers, text messages offer a relatively inexpensive way to keep in touch. And a powerful one, if used to share information that's both relevant and useful. What would your customers like to hear from your brand, in 160 characters or less?

Website: www.onna-onna.nl

Free car for the week-end, no strings attached

It’s the car-buying equivalent of being handed a cute puppy, knowing you can give it back if you don’t want it: Renault is hoping that once consumers spend a weekend with its new Mégane Hatch, they'll want to keep it. UK residents can log on to Renault’s extended test drive site to choose whether to try out a car for 24 hours on a weekday, or from Friday evening to Monday morning to get a real sense of ownership. To make the experience even easier, the car is delivered to and collected from test drivers' houses. The offer is managed in partnership with Avis, who deal directly with customers and take responsibility for car deliveries. The system was initially set up to encourage busy company car drivers to test drive the Mégane. However, realising the appeal of the offer, Renault has opened it up to retail customers as well. In tough times, getting as close as possible to consumers is a smart move, especially if you can partner with another brand to handle logistics, as Renault has done with Avis.

IKEA to Reveal a Concept car

We found a new mini site Ikea has launched to showcase the reveal of a ‘concept car’: http://www.roulez-leko.com/ The wrapped vehicle is called Leko. The concept car is a modular design which can operate as a coupe or as a convertible, and has the full backing of the World Wildlife Fund France. Rumor is that the car will be sold flat-packed and assembled with only an allen wrench. The site counts down to a few moments before April 1st.

Bauer Media and 4Music land new Peugeot campaign

The 13 week ‘Drivesexy' campaign, launched yesterday (15 March) in the UK, promotes Peugeot's latest small marque across media brands The Box, Smash Hits, Magic and Kiss. TV activity will feature 60 second promotions and 10 second blipverts running across Bauer Media/C4 TV channels Kiss, Magic, The Box, Smash Hits and 4Music. The six-figure-deal was brokered by Bauer Media and OMD, with all creative produced by Bauer Media's in-house TV division. Kate Sturdy, media and market research manager at Peugeot, said: "The Bauer Media/C4 activity, which includes 4Music Sunday's, compliments the targeting we began last year with Kiss FM and gives us a media presence to support our dealer network across the entire UK." Bauer Media claims 4Music is now the leading music channel in the UK. According to BARB, for the nine months to September 2008, 4Music achieved a 38% market share of music channel viewing in the UK.

Pink My Ride: Barbie Gets a Beetle for Her Birthday

To celebrate Barbie's 50th birthday, her friends at Volkswagen parked a custom-made Beetle full-size Dream Car in the driveway of her real-life 3,500-square-foot Dream House in (where else?) Malibu, California.
The already-cute subcompact was Barbified with a motorized vanity in the trunk, a rearview mirror adorned with rhinestones and a Barbie "ponytail" silhouette embroidered on the Katzkin leather seats. Of course, if it's a Barbie Dream Car, it's gotta be pink -- and this thing looks like the undercooked chicken at a Ponderosa restaurant. VW whipped five shades of pink paint into a custom blend for the exterior and covered the engine with what appears to be Pepto-Bismol.
We may never know if Barbie likes her new ride, because girls who look like her don't talk to automotive bloggers. Helping Barbie celebrate were Heidi Klum - that's her in the pic above - Lauren Conrad and a kouple of Kardashians. Sadly for us, they don't talk to automotive bloggers either. The New Beetle is the latest in a long line of Barbie Dream Cars. Our favorites include the Barbie Jeep and the Barbie Corvette (which, as kids, we always wanted to steal from our sisters and paint bright red). It's only fitting that a middle-aged Barbie get a retro remake of a '60s classic. We're glad to see her reducing her carbon footprint driving a smaller car.
Laura Soave, VW's marketing general manager, says Barbie wanted a VW because both she and the Beetle have "made a remarkable impact on pop culture history." We're glad to see that even at 50, Barbie hasn't gained any modesty.

Volvo campaign to include barcoded ads for quick response

Volvo is set to launch a pan-European advertising campaign for its C70 marque that will include print ads with a specially integrated QR (Quick Response) barcode. The Swedish car maker's Ice White campaign has been built around the theme "open up and come alive", and uses the print ads to provide readers with instant access to additional web content on their mobile.

Magazines included within the UK activity include Haymarket's What Car? and Autocar, and Dennis Publishing's Auto Express. The five-month campaign, planned by Mindshare's Invention group, launches next week (9 March) in the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

There will also be online display and search activity, driving traffic to a microsite with information about the Volvo C70. In addition, banner ads and e-mail promotions will be served through an online affiliate program with the objective of generating a guaranteed number of leads.

Paul Walder, global marketing investment manager at Volvo Cars, said: "This is of course a rational, targeted approach, but also one that provides the best way to test and measure offer and media impact in terms of sales lead generation. 

"In addition, the QR code application provides a great way to enable consumers to move from an offline to an online environment, to really enhance their information-gathering efforts."

Nissan's electric cars will be 'mass market'

Nissan will launch electric cars in Europe next year with different business models in different countries. The fact that Europe is made up of so many nations makes a single electric vehicle business model unlikely, said Andy Palmer, newly appointed head of Renault-Nissan's global electric vehicle business unit. "The most likely solution is some form of leasing, but this will vary from region to region," Palmer told Automotive News Europe.

Palmer said Nissan and Renault were exploring options where both car and battery are leased, or where just the battery - which costs around $10,000 (about 8,000 euros) - is leased. Palmer added that the cost of an electric car "should not be significantly different" to today's cars once the battery is taken out of the equation. Palmer was reluctant to give sales targets but said that "tens of thousands" of electric cars would be seen in Europe under both Renault and Nissan brands. "If it was a niche, we wouldn't be doing it."

Different charging systems will suit different countries, Palmer said. "The UK has more garages, so overnight charging is the obvious solution. The other solution is the quick charge, where a car can be recharged in 20 to 30 minutes." Palmer said quick charging would not harm battery life. Nissan is counting on a recharge every day for an ownership period of up to 10 years. Nissan's electric vehicles are all designed around the substantial size of the 250kg battery module, Palmer said. "This is no more different than designing normal cars for petrol or diesel, right- or left-hand drive." Nissan's electric cars will be a mixture of standalone battery vehicles and adaptations of existing models. "Our development budgets have not been cut," said Palmer, who is also in charge of global LCV business for Nissan in Europe.