AN EXPERIMENT by Mazda Australia of displaying its new top-of-the-range SUV to thousands of prospective buyers in shopping centres – even before the vehicle was officially launched – played a huge part in making the Mazda CX-9 launch a success, the company has claimed.

The pre-launch program, called an “activation program,” put the CX-9 – and occasionally other SUVs from the brand – in the forecourts and centre-courts of four major shopping centres on the east coast.

Mazda Australia marketing director, Alastair Doak, said the CX-9 was exposed to thousands of people and – though Mazda won’t release the results – that led to significant sales.

“It was very much a brand statement for Mazda and a good way to introduce our new CX-9,” he said.

“We used it to launch the CX-9 and introduce it to the public. When we started, the CX-9 was not on sale so it was a way of introducing it to the public and gauging reaction.

“The program was very successful, though I won’t talk about how many we sold.”

Mazda ran the program between June and October, placing the CX-9 in a shopping centre for five days at a time.

Mr Doak said, where space was available, Mazda added up to three vehicles from its SUV range.

“There were no sales at the shopping centres and we hired – and trained – outside agency people to interact with the public,” Mr Doak said.

“We didn’t use dealer salespeople or Mazda staff.

“There was a lot of communication with the public in a way you probably couldn’t get in a dealership showroom. The average time at the location by shoppers was 10 minutes.

“Our dealers are very happy with the results. We had given dealers a schedule of when we had the car on show at the shopping centres so they could be prepared for inquiries.”

Mr Doak said the success was measured through “a competition we had going at the same time, the amount of people who booked test drives with the closest Mazda dealer, and the requests we had for more information to be sent out”.

The competition was for a $500 Visa gift card for people who browsed on the iPads at the site and who registered their details for contact with a dealer. Mr Doak said about 1500 people entered.

“We will definitely be doing this again and, in the second quarter of next year, we will visit Western Australia and South Australia,” he said.

“It will be a bigger program in 2017 and we will feature the new-generation CX-5.”

Mr Doak said Mazda decided on SUVs and not passenger cars for its program “mainly because the program coincided with the CX-9 launch”.

“That also gave us an opportunity, where possible, to show off the CX-3 and CX-5,” he said.

Asked if this could lead to a more expansive relationship with shopping centres, Mr Doak said: “We have no plans to have a more permanent shopping centre presence because we are happy with results at our dealerships.”

By Neil Dowling