Through a series of small scale integration campaigns in 2009, Auto Trader looks at the learnings that the company has taken onboard, and discusses its plans for the future.
Although Auto Trader’s heritage lies happily with 30 years of a great magazine, the past decade has seen the brand embrace the emergence of digital technologies quickly and effectively. As a result today, the company serves the majority of customers via digital platforms like Autotrader.co.uk, its thriving website.
In 2009, the company demonstrated the strength if its digital investment, with the delivery of a new web and mobile site. Combined, these two platforms not only meet the expectations of today’s consumers, but also provide a solid foundation to build on in the future. Today, the website boasts over 8 million unique users a month (Omniture Jan 2010) and the mobile site enjoys consistent growth ahead of the market, now welcoming just under half a million users a month (Omniture Jan 10: 431,000 uniques).
Auto Trader’s three platforms (print, web and mobile) provide UK motorists with a relevant service at every stage of the car buying cycle, easily accessible on whichever media suits their consumption habits.
The challenge for Auto Trader’s marketing team today is to understand how to leverage the benefit of new channels like mobile and social media, incorporating a ‘pull’ strategy in addition to more traditional ‘push’ tactics.
After small scale integration campaigns in both channels through 2009, in line with site launches, the end of the year unveiled the value of these emerging channels by integrating them fully into the marketing mix. Making the conversation timely and relevant has been the key to making the overall campaign a success.
Mobile
mMarketing testing was conducted throughout 2009 to gauge insights to both the consumer and media response. As well as boosting site traffic significantly, key learnings were derived from campaign activity, there was a notable correlation between ATL activity and response in mobile. TV and radio advertising especially, had a positive effect on the number of searches for the Auto Trader brand and generally improved the performance of mobile marketing itself.
Key overview of Mobile activity:
In 2010, Auto Trader signed a significant deal with Yahoo and three mobile network operators. This has helped to build the brand’s accessibility in mobile and reach customers at the moment they engage with the mobile web. The campaign has been mapped against TV and radio campaigns for the coming year.
• January saw a huge traffic surge, with a 60% increase month-on-month. The traffic surge was 40% above Auto Trader’s previous highest unique figure.
• Although a dramatic burst of acquisition activity can often lead to a natural decline in users engagement with a site, this acquisition activity actually improved these metrics month-on-month. User sessions and pages viewed per user both increased by 3% whilst the number of searches per user increased by 5.3%.
• February continued to see dramatic growth month on month. The mobile campaign has been boosted with the launch of both online activity and TV, again demonstrating the effectiveness of a fully integrated campaign.
Social Media
In 2009, Auto Trader created and built a framework on key social network platforms, including; Facebook, Twitter and You Tube. Auto Trader approached social media with a “test, learn and refine” methodology, allowing the team to fully understand the needs and wants of its customers within this space. By taking this approach, Auto Trader plans on implementing its learning’s into a more robust and proven long term plan. It focused on driving advocacy and interaction, as well as broadening perceptions of Auto Trader’s relevancy.
Key overview of social media activity:
• In addition to increasing the number of return visits and time spent on its site, Auto Trader utilises this element of the campaign as a cost effective seeding and market research panel
• Social media was the centrepiece of a recent multi-channel marketing campaign, allowing advocates to spread a relevant and time sensitive message to peers on Auto Trader’s behalf. Most importantly, advocates were able to provide feedback and thoughts about the campaign in a real time environment
• During this two week campaign, Auto Trader experienced a 48% growth in social media subscribers and an impressive 400% growth in interactions in its social media channels
• Going forward, Auto Trader will pursue independent social media campaigns to continue to increase the awareness and grow the size of the platforms
• It will continue to integrate social media into wide scale marketing campaigns to utilise the benefits of an integrated approach
It’s clear that the media consumption habits of consumers are changing faster than ever before, and as a consequence, it’s no surprise that more and more brands are making good use of these new platforms. It’s important that brands understand where their core audiences are consuming media, and develop offerings which make the best use of the technology available, ahead of jumping into the space.
By taking the time to understand and observe the nuances of each new channel and evaluating how a brand’s offering can best adapt to these developing channels, tangible success can be realised and demonstrated.
Auto Trader will continue to explore the demands of consumers in these channels via smaller scale campaigns, whilst building insight that allows it to establish a firm foothold in both social media and mobile channels. By effectively using mobile and social media to complement more traditional channels, Auto Trader will continue to pursue effective acquisition, conversion and retention, cementing its position as a pioneer in the digital space
Jonathan Williams
Director of E-Marketing
Trader Media Group
www.AutoTrader.co.uk