MRM//McCann Detroit Profiles Designers Behind Cadillac’s XT4

When Cadillac began designing its newest crossover vehicle, the XT4, it gave its young team of designers one directive: “Go design the car you would like to drive.” In many ways, the team at MRM//McCann Detroit interpreted the Cadillac missive into: “Go design a campaign you would like to see.” And that’s just the beginning of how the ‘It’s By Design’ campaign helped to introduce this exciting, dynamic vehicle to the marketplace.

The team quickly found themselves in a situation familiar to many teams—one where the assets to convey the right message about a vehicle were not available. Their solution: Develop un-scripted, documentary, behind-the-scenes video content, featuring the young Cadillac design and engineering teams that developed the XT4. In this way, 'It's By Design' became a universal story we can all relate to—the story of designers and their inspirations and collaboration and innovation that from the right group of people at just the right moment in time. 'It's By Design' became more than traditional launch assets—it became a crafted story that would hook their audience.

‘It’s By Design’ is targeted toward an audience of “handraisers.” These are people who have opted in to know more about the XT4, and are anticipating the launch. Broadly, this group believes hard work and ability lead to advancement, they like to demonstrate their success by purchasing high-end items — and they want to learn about the products they engage with. Additionally, the MRM//McCann Detroit team was armed with the knowledge that 87 percent of users prefer to watch video online if it contains behind-the-scenes content.

The end result was a series of videos that give fascinating insight into the design and creation of the XT4, including compelling interviews with the team of young designers behind the vehicle. Going far beyond standard vehicle images, the video gives consumers the chance to truly engage with the XT4 and those who created it. Consumers receive an email that includes an eight to 10 second video clip, which directs them to visit cadillac.com to see the entire video and find out more of the story. The goal is for people to engage with the website and continue to search out additional information that will lead to purchase.

The videos will be on the Cadillac website through 2019. You can view them here.