|
Best Use of Mobile award demonstrates the success of the Autotrader.mobi
Over the past decade Auto Trader has been quick to embrace the emergence of new digital technologies and develop integrated campaigns to complement its traditional print magazine. As a result, today, the company serves over half a million customers via Autotrader.mobi, its thriving mobile website. For the last two years mobile has been a key pillar in Auto Trader’s digital growth and it is at the heart of its strategy to reach more car buyers than ever before.
Brief
Auto Trader’s mobile brief began with the promise to make the ‘world of cars easy’ for consumers. This was to be achieved by utilising the platform to serve car buyers for the next generation, while also providing sellers with maximum exposure to the ads that they placed. Auto Trader identified that the emerging consumer demand for ‘right here, right now’ interaction with brands alongside the rising use of mobile lent itself well to an integrated strategy with mobile at its core.
Strategy
Auto Trader planned to capture the consumer demand for mobile by developing a campaign which would meet the needs of an increasingly mobile audience and deliver a higher number of sales for its sellers. Ahead of jumping into the mobile space, Auto Trader took the time to understand and observe the nuances of the channel. On behalf of its sellers, Auto Trader needed to identify where their core audiences where consuming media, and develop offerings which made the best use of the mobile technology available.
Execution
A simple WAP version of the Auto Trader site was first launched in 2006 and the company appointed Mobile agency, Sponge, in 2008 to develop and deploy a phased redesign strategy. An updated version of the mobile site was initially launched in July 2008, a major redesign followed and the site was re-launched in July 2009. Extensive mMarketing testing was carried out throughout 2009 and as well as boosting site traffic significantly, key learnings were derived which formed the basis of the campaign activity.
Results
Today Autotrader.mobi receives over 500,000 unique users each month and over the past year the number of mobile searches has skyrocketed. For instance, in April 2009 there were 561,086 mobile searches on Autotrader.mobi compared to over 1,617,982 by April 2010, representing 288% growth year on year.
The success of the campaign was recognised in June when Auto Trader and Sponge scooped the award for best “Use of Mobile” at the AOP Digital Publishing Awards. The team fought off strong competition from the Financial Times, Guardian News & Media, ITN News, Blast Billiards Thomson Reuters and Touch/Mousebreaker to win the award, which cemented a successful year for the company as well as recognising its innovation in the industry.
Graham Bentham, Trade Marketing Director at Trader Media Group comments: “We are delighted to win the AOP award for Best Use of Mobile and it is a true credit to the steps we have put in place to ensure we are meeting the needs of the mobile savvy consumer.”
“Auto Trader is clearly the partner of choice for advertisers and dealers wanting to boost their mobile presence. In March we also launched our iPhone app which went on to top the Apple download charts and caused mobile searches to grow 400% year on year. Auto Trader Mobile generates fantastic growth and response rates, but there is still more to come. We are in the process of developing several new smartphone apps to enhance our mobile offering even further, we’re really looking forward to the exciting and prosperous months ahead.”
|