To Dodge, the launch of the Dart created a set of “New Rules" for the auto industry. It marked a new way to design a car by giving smaller teams greater creative control and shorter timelines. It marked a new way to manage a company by moving the CEO’s office to the ground floor. And now with Dart Registry, Dodge has created an entirely new way to buy a new car. Dodge Dart Registry works like any gift registry, except every gift on the list is a part on the 2013 Dodge Dart. You go online to pick out the features you want, and then invite friends and family to sponsor parts of the car as gifts for special occasions. Dad might sponsor the engine for graduation. Your friend from college might sponsor the tires. Once you reach your fundraising goal you collect your funds, go to the dealership and pick up your new car. It’s the first time an automotive company has ever used crowd-funding to help people buy a new cars. Our trusted partner for this experiment was Rockethub.com, who handledThe launch of the Dodge Dart created a set of “New Rules" for the auto industry. And with Dart Registry, Dodge has created new rules for buying a new car. DodgeDartRegistry.com works like any gift registry, except every gift on the list is a part on the 2013 Dodge Dart. You go to the Registry website to customize your Dart and pick out the features you want, and then invite friends and family to sponsor parts of the car as gifts. Once you reach your fund-raising goal, you collect your funds, go to the dealership and pick up your new car. It’s the first time an auto company has created a crowd-funding platform to help people buy a new car. It’s also the first time that social media has been used to make the burden of buying a car more affordable to more people. A fund-raising goal can be any amount: from a down payment, to a few thousand dollars to make monthly payments more affordable, or even the full price of the car (if you have rich and generous family and friends). The gift registry platform created an entirely new behavior within social media, but did so by playing off one of the most popular social media behaviors there is: wishing each other a happy birthday. Now, after someone posts a birthday note on a Facebook wall, they can be reminded that an easy gift that person really wants is a part funded on their Dodge Dart Registry. Dart Registry launched on January 20, and registrants began signing up immediately. Some even had charitable goals. Portland animal welfare group The Pixie Project set up a registry, and USC’s Zeta Beta Tau registered in hopes of raising enough funds to donate a new car to Meals on Wheels. Since its launch, over 6,000 people have signed up for their own Dart Registry, spending an average of 11 minutes on the site additional impressions are created by everyone visiting those registries to fund parts.
