Built a VR configurator solution from concept to product in three months
Improved conversion rate for customers who go from configurator to sales lead
Increased engagement time on the configurator and assisted in setting new sales record
Stable cloud environment allows developers to push weekly updates with zero downtime, supporting 200% increase in configurations forwarded to dealers
Delivers life-size digital configurations at Aston Martin's retail stores
Luxury car brand Aston Martin Lagonda and MHP deliver a next-generation vehicle configurator across web, VR, and retail stores using Google Cloud to deliver a world-class luxury customer experience through innovation.
Luxury car brand Aston Martin Lagonda and MHP deliver a next-generation vehicle configurator across web, VR, and retail stores using Google Cloud to deliver a world-class luxury customer experience through innovation.
The new way to configure luxury vehicles
We want to create experiences that tap into the beauty and joy of buying an Aston Martin. Leaning on MHP and Google Cloud, we're delivering an innovative luxury experience for a fraction of the cost and risk compared to doing it for ourselves.
Azhar Kholwadia
Global Head of Digital and Growth, Aston Martin Lagonda
Whether sitting behind the wheel or thinking about their dream vehicle, Aston Martin customers expect luxury. When someone buys an Aston Martin, they're often looking for something that's made just for them. The brand sought to build an online configurator to fulfill this desire by allowing customers to bring their vision to life, comparing colors and options from every angle and in a variety of lighting conditions and scenarios. The idea was to provide Aston Martin dealers with the tools and experiences needed to convey the emotion and excitement that accompanies an Aston Martin purchase.
Google Cloud partner MHP brought this innovative configurator to life across computers, life-size screens, and virtual reality environments with a custom solution built on Google Cloud.
Why Google Cloud?
Aston Martin worked closely with MHP to deliver a vehicle configurator that goes beyond the typical digital experience through the use of virtual reality (VR) technologies. VR gives customers a chance to change colors and options while sitting inside a virtual Aston Martin. At the flagship immersive showrooms — Q by Aston Martin — in New York and Tokyo, customers can interact with the configurator on digital walls for life-size renderings.
Combined with a VR headset, the configurator provides an innovative experience where users design the exterior and interior components in incredible detail.
MHP created all of these digital experiences by taking advantage of flexible microservices running on Cloud Run. The backend consists of ten containers running the ten services used on Aston Martin's global websites and digital platforms.
Google Cloud is very simple to use with a great monitoring stack. I can create a new container and it scales perfectly every time. I spend a lot less time maintaining the system, which means more time helping Aston Martin create innovative experiences for its customers.
Kim Wagner
Manager, MHP
MHP dramatically reduced development time by using a microservices architecture. It took just three months to take the VR experience from concept to launch. Developers can reliably update the configurator with fixes or new functionality weekly. This helped the configurator keep up as Aston Martin continues to add new vehicles to its lineup.
While MHP can adjust capacity manually, such as before a new vehicle launch, autoscaling in Cloud Run automatically increases or decreases volumes as needed to maintain excellent website performance even when there's unexpected spikes in traffic due to a new launch or a Formula 1 race.
The frontend leverages virtual machines running on Compute Engine with NVIDIA T4 GPUs. T4 GPUs have helped MHP deliver better experiences on the same hardware and are also more widely available, assisting with scaling during launch events. Compute Engine provides the right combination of scalability, cost-efficiency, and availability to quickly generate and serve virtual images with the right colors, options, and environments to the configurator. MHP also delivered a globally available Web configurator to allow customers in any location to enjoy the experience.
Using Google Analytics, Aston Martin continuously looks for ways to optimize the configurator and improve experiences based on data and insights. Ultimately, this is an ongoing pursuit to create even more personalized experiences for each customer. As a result, the company has seen overwhelmingly positive customer response. Engagement time has gone up, as have conversion rates, with more customers submitting their designs to dealers and becoming digital sales leads. Further, the number of configurations forwarded to dealers has increased by 200% compared to the previous solution.
With Aston Martin, MHP, and Google Cloud working together, the configurator continues to evolve at a tremendous rate and act as a perfect basis to further develop user experiences, proving to customers that if they're looking for innovation, performance, and design all in one place, they can rely on Aston Martin.
Aston Martin is a leading British manufacturer of luxury high performance sports cars.
Industry: Retail
Location: Global
Products: Cloud Run, Compute Engine, Google Analytics
About Google Cloud partner- MHP
MHP, a Porsche company, specializes in digitalization, consulting, and IT implementation services for mobility, logistics, and manufacturing companies.