UX designer, Content Strategist
Brian Oko, David Denni, Phil Pearman, Dominic Quigley
We designed and implemented on Maserati's CMS, Tales of Gran Turismo, a Maserati.com subdomain site, designed to celebrate the 2018 Gran Turismo by taking the car on a Grand Tour across Europe and driving it, leg after leg, by expert guests. We also help manage their campaign messaging with a social media management company. The campaign used social media to drive traffic to Tales of Gran Turismo campaign site. The main content on the Tales of Gran Turismo page was a video episode of a Leg that highlighted the different properties of the GT model.
My role consisted of helping create the roadmap for the campaign website, researching for the guests for the legs, creating a structure for the storyboard and creating ways of working with the Maserati team effectively.
What makes the Maserati Gran Turismo different to the other cars? That was the premise of our pitch. During 5 days a 3 of us with the support of Big Radical management, worked to shape a narrative that could hold together the touchpoints of the campaign. That narrative was to make the journey the light that beams over the Maserati GT.
Firstly, there was a historical journey which referred to the entrepreneurial spirit that the Maserati brothers displayed when they founded and carried the company.
Secondly, was the travelling to explore different parts of Europe on a tour. The meaning of Gran Turismo comes from that practice.
Thirdly, is the journey of the people that are interested in discovering more about the Maserati GT.
In the pitch concept, the release of the GT used different touch points, the app where people could hear the sound, play with the audience using the app could interact and engage live with the car, the views and guests travelling with the GT through Europe.
Unfortunately, most of the initial ideas presented on the pitch hit reality. We didn't have much time to create the campaign. We were given 3 months. This was also the first time we won a campaign pitch. Due to technical limitations, budget and slow approval speed, the project came to us 1 month before the actual release.
The Grand Tour was a cultural tour of Europe formerly undertaken, especially in the 18th century, by a young man of the upper classes as a part of their education.
To honor the initial concept of Grand Tour, we designed Tales of Gran Turismo, a Maserati's subdomain site, designed to celebrate the 2018 Gran Turismo by taking the car on a Grand Tour across Europe.
The Grand Tour counted with a different famous guest in each episode sharing stories about their successful careers and how they related back to Maserati's entrepreneurial spirit and brand values.
The campaign consisted of using social media to drive traffic to the Tales of Gran Turismo campaign site.
Due to timing and a limited budget, we had to design the Gran Turismo campaign site in Maserati's CMS, Magnolia. We learned how to use the different types of modules used on their global site, including the limitations. With that knowledge, we managed to shape loose wireframes for the different stages of the campaign.
That would allow us to be flexible if any last minute changes or change of plans happened at different stages of the campaign.
To produce each episode we created Storyboard Pillars. Those pillars would allow us to interlink the personal stories of the talent to certain Maserati's values and the location of the trip.
Based on the Story Pillars, we would shape a broad storyboard to give to the videographers and production assistant. The storyboards would serve as the reference to determine a shot list. We also wrote a series of questions to prompt conversations between the interviewer and talent.
We delivered 3 elements that created the Maserati Tales of Gran Turismo website.
Our close collaboration with Maserati's marketing agency ensured that the posts across different social media platforms linked to the Gran Turismo website. The posts announced updates on events related to the GT launch and the legs of the Gran Turismo across Europe.