Augmented Reality brings Advancer to life during the Dealer Days at Thermo King Costa Eugenio

Our Advancer unit should have been the highlight of IAA (Internationale Automobilausstellung) 2020. Should, since the event got canceled because of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. As an alternative, our dealers hosted more than 30 Dealer Days in over 10 different countries. It’s where their key clients could meet our brand-new trailer refrigeration unit face to face.

We sat together with Cristina Costa of Thermo King Costa Eugenio in Parma, Italy, and discussed the success of their Dealer Day. “After our event, we were discussing the sale of 18 Advancer units – quite a success, especially here in Italy”, says Mrs. Costa.

Covid-safe organization

It is important during these times to organize events as safely as possible. “To promote Advancer, we hosted our Dealer Days on six dates at the end of September/beginning of October – in groups of 15 persons. In doing so, we made sure that we had only a small group of customers at our premises, guaranteeing their safety.”

“It also allowed us to organize our Dealer Days both during business hours and the weekend, ensuring that business managers and CEOs could come and visit our unit on Friday and fleet managers on Saturday when they were less busy at work.”

“And finally, working in small groups made it possible to spend more one-on-one time with our clients”, ensures Cristina Costa. “That’s why our Dealer Days were so successful. Two of our clients showed interest in buying the Advancer unit. We might sell 18 units.”

Our clients experienced the airflow in AR!

Augmented reality enhancing the real unit

“We had three units on display. One mounted against a trailer and two in our workshop where our technicians showed the Advancer inside-out. Our clients could see that Advancer has fewer components compared to our previous models. And that, of course, leads to a lower total cost of ownership and more uptime.”

“Simultaneously, we ran a virtual AR experience. Our clients could watch the airflow of our unit on an iPad – that we disinfected for every client. They walked through the trailer and experienced the fully variable airflow.”

“However, the showstopper was the controller on the outside. With our AR experience, our clients could play a mini-game – and see for themselves that they could really access everything on the controller within 3 steps.”

Our customers were especially interested in low fuel consumption.

Sustainability as a key selling point

“The low fuel consumption was important for most clients. And the fact that Advancer starts paying itself back after just 24 months really made an impact.”

“You see, most trailers here in Italy have a lifespan of 11 years. The disadvantage of the decade-long lifespan of a trailer is sustainability. These outdated trailers are anything but good for the environment.”

“Luckily, we could address this issue with Advancer – which is built with sustainable ambitions at its core. When we told our customers that the saved CO2 emissions are the equivalent of planting 50 trees a year, they were more than convinced”, concludes Cristina Costa.