With 40 per cent of new car purchases in the next 10 years expected to come from millennials; the launch of PCP schemes to help young drivers own new cars; and 38 per cent of consumers consulting social media before purchasing a car, there’s never been a better time for automotive brands to up the ante online.
But despite these compelling statistics, many senior car marketers rank the effectiveness of social media when it comes to acquiring new customers behind other, more trusted forms of digital marketing, including email, search, advertising and loyalty programmes.
This was the talking point at a recent Bell Pottinger Blogger Breakfast where senior marketers from Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover, BMW and Ingenie were joined by online influencers and journalists from across the automotive sector to discuss the future of digital, including Chas Hallett and Hilton Holloway, Brand Editor and Associate Editor of Autocar, respectively; Stuart Masson, Founder and Editor of car blog The Car Expert; and Adnan Ebrahim, Founder and Editor of Car Throttle.
Nikki Rooke, Head of Public Affairs, Events & Sponsorship at Volvo was quick to offer reasons why social media fell lower down the marketing mix, by pointing out that “showing the value and relevance of social conversations and engagement to board members who are used to more traditional metrics can sometimes be a challenge.”
Sales results aside, building an engaged online community is essential for automotive brands when trying to raise brand awareness within the millennial market, particularly as it helps to keep their brand front-of-mind when their audience are considering a new car purchase.
Leveraging the social following of online influencers is also a steadfast way to boost a brand’s social community. Consequently, there’s an expectation from brands for bloggers and online media to have significant followings before brands consider working with them. Chas Hallett, Brand Editor at Autocar, acknowledges: “We’re all fighting for the same audience and we all face the same challenges – we have to build our audience and we also have to generate engagement.”
For the automotive industry, collaborating with influencers carries more financial risk than other sectors, such as retail. Loaning cars for trial can cost up to £2,000 a time, which is significantly more than sending an item of clothing for review. Due to the financial implications, many brands are reluctant to loan cars to individuals without the right credentials, given that it may not always produce positive reviews or generate tangible financial results.
However, one brand bucking the trend and investing heavily in generating influencer reviews is Ford. In an attempt to reach the millennial audience through content that engages their everyday interests, it recently loaned 100 bloggers in the music, fashion, food and sport industries, a Ford EcoSport SUV for six months. In return, bloggers were expected to share their best moments on social media, with focus on Ford’s in-car connectivity system Ford SYNC.
Through its campaign, Ford shows intent to boost its online community and drive engagement on social channels by leveraging the following of the bloggers. It then followed up by offering consumers the chance to win a limited addition of the model on Facebook. The first 500 EcoSport models were promoted exclusively via the platform ahead of the official rollout in May, placing sponsored posts in the News Feeds of its fans to deliver personalised messages and in turn, high volume of shoppers to the conversion page. As a result, it sold out of all 500 units available in five days.
Facebook still yields the biggest following for automotive brands; some 90 per cent of all new car buyers are on the platform and up to 30 per cent of them use it at some point during their car buying journey. Adnan Ebrahim, Founder and Editor of online blog Car Throttle, says: “for every link that gets shared [on social media], we see six times more traffic on Facebook and 0.3 times on Twitter.”
However, it comes as no surprise that as the second most popular social platform among teenagers and with engagement levels 18 times that of Facebook, brands are keen to start making a greater impression on Instagram. Mazda, for one, recently launched a three month long Instagram campaign using the platform’s grid layout to curate content in an innovative way. Through 60 Instagram posts, the car manufacturer posted images and videos that plotted the course of one of its cars.
Throughout the car’s ‘Long Drive Home’, Mazda included mentions of followers, videos of sponsored events and references to cultural happenings like Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl. The campaign helped grow Mazda Canada's Instagram following by more than 300 per cent and ended with one lucky follower getting keys to a brand new car.
For automotive brands keen to prove ROI, tapping into consumer behaviour is imperative. With the advent of the connected car, more brands able to use driving data to launching marketing campaigns based on proven in car behaviours.
Through data gathered from in-dash systems, cars will be able to form a deep understanding of their owner’s habits and make personal recommendations as a result. For example, by logging in to Facebook or Twitter via an in-dash system, a car will be able to notify its driver when a friend is nearby, or what deals are available in the area.
Greater volumes of user generated content will be another bi-product of in-car systems. Luke Eales, Chief Marketing Officer at Ingenie, a black-box insurance company that records driving activity to reward young drivers with lower insurance prices, recognises that “connected devices naturally create sharable content, which provides the millennial audience with a new type of content they can share with their peers on social media”.
With many marketing options available to them, both dependable and new, the challenge now for car brands is to engage millennial audiences via the right platforms and on topics that are appealing to their everyday interests. While it may take a while longer to demonstrate the true value of social conversations and engagements, brands that use the data available to them wisely, generate relevant content on social channels and secure clever collaborations with online influencers, can be sure to reap the commercial rewards in the long run.
By James Thomlinson, Partner & Managing Director of Bell Pottinger Wired.