The encyclopedia · Marketing & Brand · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
Dacia let Moroccan owners do the test drives, and sales rose 16%
Dacia replaced dealer showroom pressure with a peer-to-peer test-drive app run by real owners — sales up 16%, 39,331 cars.
Dacia · VML Casablanca
The solution
In Morocco, buying a car is a family decision shaped by people the buyer trusts. A local proverb says to ask someone who has experienced it, not someone who knows it — yet the standard route was the showroom, where a salaried closer pushes the sale and the atmosphere is formal. Dacia's problem was skepticism: buyers doubted the brand's claims.
Instead of more advertising, Dacia and VML Casablanca built a peer-to-peer test-drive platform. An app let interested buyers find a nearby Dacia owner, book a slot and drive the car in a normal setting — chatting with someone who lives with the car daily. The company unlocked an asset it already had: the fleet of satisfied owners and their credibility.
The numbers backed the bet. Sales rose 16% year on year to 39,331 cars (about 5,000 more), app downloads grew 60%, and 70% of downloaders booked a test drive. Brand perception improved 50%, and the campaign generated 17.8 million impressions.
Judges agreed: Dubai Lynx 2025 gave it the Gold Lynx in Creative Strategy and AME Awards a Silver in Activation & Engagement. Test My Dacia is a reminder that when trust is the bottleneck, the most credible media is a satisfied owner.
Why it worked
- The offer replaced high-pressure selling with a peer, which is exactly the channel Moroccan buyers already trusted.
- It monetized an asset Dacia already owned — owners and their cars — instead of building showrooms or fleets.
- Every test drive doubled as a word-of-mouth moment, so the campaign scaled without paid media doing the persuading.
- The relaxed setting lowered the barrier to trying the car, so more prospects converted into bookings.
What can be applied
When a market trusts people over institutions, turn your existing customers into the sales channel. Real-user testimony outranks dealer claims, and the asset — owners' cars — already exists.
Aftermath
Repeat app visits rose 30% after the campaign, per Dubai Lynx, and the platform kept matching owners with prospects. The idea was built as a product, not a one-off stunt, and earned regional recognition at Dubai Lynx 2025 and the AME Awards.
Sources
- Winners Spotlight (Test My Dacia)
- Winners Gallery: Test my Dacia
- Dacia turns users into salespeople, sales up 5,000 units
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.