Media Mart: Rabbit Race
MediaMarkt, Germany's leading electronics retailer, needed to significantly boost store traffic, sales, and brand interaction during Easter 2015. They aimed to engage a broad German audience beyond typical holiday promotions, seeking an innovative campaign that would create buzz and drive customers back to stores.
Creative Idea
Turned purchase receipts into betting slips for a live, celebrity rabbit race.
MediaMarkt transformed Easter 2015 into a global spectacle by casting, training, and turning 10 rabbits into celebrity athletes for the world's first live commercial break sports event, the 'Rabbit Race,' engaging 21 million viewers by turning receipts into betting slips for cashback vouchers, driving unprecedented traffic and sales.
Training Ten Rabbits for Prime Time Glory
Three Months of Rabbit Boot Camp
To ensure the "athletes" didn't simply freeze under the bright lights of a massive TV studio, Ogilvy & Mather and Endemol Beyond hired professional animal trainers for a three month training program. Ten rabbits, including the veteran Sir Hoppel and the "bad boy" Der Zermöhrer, were coached to sprint in a straight line toward a finish line. The production mirrored a high stakes sports broadcast, utilizing 8 cameras, a live director, and the frantic, high energy play-by-play commentary of Frank Buschmann, Germany’s most famous sports announcer.
A Media First Across Nine Networks
The campaign achieved a "media first" by broadcasting the races simultaneously across 9 major private TV stations, including RTL, ProSieben, and SAT.1. This synchronized roadblock ensured that the races reached over 21 million live viewers, outperforming the viewership of many professional soccer matches. By turning the last digit of a store receipt into a betting number, Media Markt transformed a standard 5% discount brief into a high stakes gamble where winners received 50% of their purchase price back in vouchers.
Digital Fandom and Trading Cards
The "eventization" extended far beyond the screen. Each rabbit was given a distinct persona, complete with dietary preferences and music tastes, which were shared via social media to build individual fanbases. The brand even released physical collector cards and responded to fans in real-time with personalized digital greeting cards from the rabbits. This level of engagement resulted in a 259% increase in Facebook interactions and over 250 million total impressions, leading Warc to rank it among the top 10 most effective campaigns globally in 2017.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
MediaMarkt leveraged its leading retail position and production capabilities to orchestrate a massive, multi-platform live entertainment event.
Category
The electronics retail category typically relied on traditional Easter sales and discounts, lacking interactive, high-stakes engagement.
Customer
Customers sought entertainment, the thrill of competition, and tangible rewards, valuing experiences that offered both excitement and potential savings.
Culture
A cultural appetite for live sports, reality TV-style celebrity narratives, and the universal appeal of cute animals converged during Easter.
Company
MediaMarkt leveraged its leading retail position and production capabilities to orchestrate a massive, multi-platform live entertainment event.
Category
The electronics retail category typically relied on traditional Easter sales and discounts, lacking interactive, high-stakes engagement.
Strategy:
Transform routine transactions into engaging, high-stakes entertainment to drive participation and reward loyalty.
Customer
Customers sought entertainment, the thrill of competition, and tangible rewards, valuing experiences that offered both excitement and potential savings.
Culture
A cultural appetite for live sports, reality TV-style celebrity narratives, and the universal appeal of cute animals converged during Easter.
Strategy:
Transform routine transactions into engaging, high-stakes entertainment to drive participation and reward loyalty.
Results
The campaign achieved a net reach of 250 million. Facebook interaction with the brand's page increased by +259%. It garnered more traffic in stores and more sales, specifically customers increased by +18.2%. The live race was watched by 21 million viewers, which is more than the soccer World Cup semi-final.
250M
net reach
+259%
Facebook interaction
+18.2%
customer increase
Strategy Technique
Create a New Mental Shortcut
The campaign forged a direct link between MediaMarkt purchases and the thrill of a live sports event. This created a memorable shortcut, associating the brand with unexpected entertainment and value.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Gamification
The campaign transformed every purchase receipt into a betting slip, directly engaging customers in a live competition. This gamified the shopping experience, adding excitement and a tangible incentive to participate.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional in its ability to blend whimsical animal antics with professional sports broadcasting and integrated commerce, making a unique and highly engaging live event that drove significant results.
The execution of a live rabbit race as a major sports event, with multiple cameras, commentators, and simultaneous broadcast across national TV and digital platforms, was an unprecedented feat.
The creative styling of the rabbits as 'athletes' and 'celebrities' with costumes and personalized branding, combined with the professional sports aesthetic of the race, created a cohesive and highly entertaining visual identity.
Integrating the campaign across multiple digital platforms (YouTube, brand website, news sites, social media) with interactive elements like betting slips and rich content ensured broad engagement and participation.
The concept itself is a clever play on words and expectations (Easter bunnies as athletes), and the supporting content (rabbit profiles, quotes) extends this humor and narrative effectively.
The true genius of this campaign lies in the seamless synergy between whimsical concept, high-quality live event production, and deeply integrated commerce mechanics, which together amplified engagement and delivered measurable business results.
