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Automotive Digital Advertising Case Studies
Two examples of automotive brands using digital advertising to attract customers are Mercedes Benz and BMW. Mercedes Benz has employed a mix of social listening, branded hashtags, and compelling content to successfully attract Millennials. BMW has successfully used a mix of customer engagement strategies and excellent visuals to attract customers. At present, BMW has the largest number of Instagram followers in the world compared to other automotive companies. We have included screenshots of the digital media advertising campaigns for Mercedes Benz and BMW in the attached Google document.
MERCEDEZ BENZ: GENERATION BENZ, BRANDED HASHTAGS & COMPELLING CONTENT
- In 2010, Mercedes Benz set up an online community called Generation Benz. This community was made up of about 250 people aged between 20 to 39 years who advised Mercedes Benz about buyer preferences and habits for their demographic.
- Through Generation Benz, the company incorporated social listening to design digital advertising and marketing campaigns that were perfectly suited for this younger consumer demographic.
- On Facebook, Mercedes Benz has 20,703,582 followers, this social media account has the brands largest following. Additionally, the company maintains separate micro Facebook accounts that focus on specific car classes, geographic regions, and events.
- The bulk of Mercedes Benz's content is visually driven, comprising videos, pictures, and live streaming videos. Also, their social media accounts publish a wide range of information including car racing news, company status updates and lifestyle news. Content is cross-promoted across all their social media accounts.
- Using the branded hashtag #MBPhotoPass, Mercedes Benz curates fresh user-generated content particularly from influencers, journalists and their team members.
- #MBPhotoPass was introduced by Mercedes Benz USA in 2014 on Instagram. At present, it is currently used across all their social media accounts and has remained very popular.
- The Mercedes Benz Twitter account has 3,348,019 followers. On Twitter, Mercedes Benz strengthens their social impact by using popular hashtags such as #MidweekMotivation with relevant brand content.
- Mercedes Benz has 19,297,539 followers on its Instagram account.
- According to the general manager of marketing services at Mercedes Benz USA, the company places great emphasis on creating original content. The quality of aesthetics and imagery are key to their success, particularly on Instagram.
- Mercedes Benz uses a mix of paid media, earned media and owned media to market itself to Millennials using its social media accounts.
- Mercedes Benz continuously tests the effectiveness of its social media adverts and targeting using tests conducted on its social media accounts.
BMW: CUSTOMER engagement & superior imagery
- As a brand, BMW is associated with comfort and luxury, the company's tagline is "sheer driving pleasure."
- Similar to Mercedes Benz, BMW has several micro Facebook accounts segregated by product or geographical region.
- BMW has 19,989,782 Facebook followers. This social media channel is used primarily for promotions and building brand awareness.
- BMW has a high level of customer engagement on Facebook as demonstrated by the number of shares, comments, and likes.
- On Twitter, BMW has 1,882,140 followers. Twitter provides an effective channel to spotlight BMW's innovation, style, and speed.
- BMW currently has 20,322,191 followers on Instagram. Furthermore, it is the most successful automotive brand on Instagram.
- In 2017, BMW had more than 10 million Instagram followers, and that number doubled by 2019.
- BMW engages customers on Instagram by sharing first-rate images, videos and content about its brands and technologies.
- The company also runs seasonal campaigns on Instagram. For example, in 2014, BMW created an engaging holiday campaign called Snowchat. This enabled customers to create custom holiday messages on the picture of a BMW covered with snow.
- In addition, BMW shares its brand's lifestyle with followers on Instagram thorough brand news, glimpses into its history or looking ahead to driving in the future.
- On Instagram, BMW effectively uses influencer marketing to engage customers.
- The company also has a YouTube account with 877,376 subscribers that provides customers with promotional and instructional videos.
- Using the #bmwrepost hashtag, BMW shares photos taken by customers. User activation through #bmwrepost has been very successful. The #BMW hashtag had been used more than 19 million times by 2017.
- Their social media strategy aims to maximize the special features that social media channels provide for BMW.
- On Instagram, BMW works to stimulate authentic dialogue with its audience. The company uses this medium to highlight its achievements and share their fan's enthusiasm.
Research Methodology
In order to present some examples of how automotive brands are using digital advertising to attract customers, we used a combination of marketing, automobile, social media, and digital marketing sources. We started our search by searching broadly among industry sources specific to advertising. However, this search turned up a plethora of general advertising information. Next, we narrowed down our search by examining digital and social media advertising sources. This search turned up significant useful information and helped us determine that Mercedes Benz and BMW are two of the most successful automobile companies with respect to digital advertising. After we selected these companies, we searched for their digital media campaigns broadly in industry sources and specifically on social media so that we could build up case studies about how they are using digital advertising to attract customers. We have included screenshots of the digital media advertising campaigns found on social media in the attached Google document.