Citroen UK has launched a new direct mail and smartphone marketing campaign to raise awareness of its DS brand to customers.

Over 200,000 target customers will an mailer - of which there are 192 versions - each personalised with a Citroen dealer’s details and includes scannable digital watermarks for the DS3, DS4 and DS5 - making a total of 576 individual watermarks. Scanning the watermark then prompts the customer to download a smartphone app.

A customer can then access nine images, three videos for each of the DS line models, as well as their local dealer’s full details through.

Customers will also have the ability to participate with a number of calls to action. These include making a call to their dealer, requesting a brochure, requesting a call back, booking a test drive or expressing an interest in a ‘DS Discovery Day’.

DS Discovery Days are being organised by Citroën dealerships from March 15 as part of the official launch of the new DS5 on April 2.

Citroen says it will be able to measure the success of the mailing piece and app with reporting dashboards “enabling a clearer understanding of how the customer engaged with the content”. All interaction within the app can be collected, managed and directed to the relevant dealers.

The campaign was designed by creative agency We Are Acuity.

Peter Cronin, Acuity’s managing director, said: “Brands in this space are particularly keen to engage with customers and to build themselves into a lifestyle.

“Social media is particularly topical, as well as other emerging technologies and apps.

“However, print is still a great method of communicating with customers en masse. In spite of the unprecedented levels of personalisation now achievable by digital print, the vast majority of direct mail still follows a fairly generic model of a standard print piece, possibly personalised with a dealer’s details. This new approach represented a great opportunity for Citroën UK to further stand out from its competitors.”