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Automotive case studies: we currently have 54.
Any agency or media owner can submit case studies to our team and these 54 are the strongest we have received, with the most recent case studies at the top of this page. If you're interested in more digital marketing case studies then review our complete case study library. If you're interested in submitting case studies then email our case studies manager to find out more CaseStudies@DigitalTrainingAcademy.com.
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Case study: Lexus uses ‘three screen sequence’ advertising with Microsoft
Car brand Lexus ran a six-week test to grab the attention of 25- to 34-year-old male users with a campaign for its F-series performance vehicles, using an ad campaign that spanned three platforms in partnership with Microsoft.
06/08/2014 | Full story...
Cannes Lions case study: Sound of Honda brings Senna to life with light display
This "Sound of Honda -- Ayrton Senna 1989" ad from from Dentsu Tokyo, caught the eye of the judges at Canes Lions 2014. We look at how the video went viral, getting over 4 million views for recreating a moment of sporting history with a sound and light display.
25/06/2014 | Full story...
'More robots than humans' saw Mercedes-Benz ad
Online ads for Mercedes were seen more often by fraudster robots than humans, according to a new report. The Financial Times reports that the Mercedes-Benz ads were accidentally placed on to fraudulent websites by Rocket Fuel, a Nasdaq-listed ad technology company that went public with a market capitalisation of nearly $1bn last year. According to Telemetry, a UK company which specialises in detecting ad fraud, in a sample of 365,000 ad impressions brokered by Rocket Fuel over three weeks, 57 per cent were “viewed” by automated computer programs rather than real people. The allegation will raise concerns about fraud in the fast-growing online advertising market, which expanded 15% last year to $120bn.
28/05/2014 | Full story...
Case study: BMW runs ‘ultimate driver’ InSkin ad
BMW used a page takeover format to promote its latest 2 Series Coupé following a competition to search for an ‘ultimate driver’ for the car maker. The firm worked with InSkin Media using a PageSkin ad format running across several high profile websites, featuring video integration and strong, viewable brand messaging. From the 40 finalists who took part in the Ultimate Driver track day, one man stood out. Duncan Smart, in the new BMW 2 Series Coupe, proved himself worthy of becoming BMW’s Ultimate Driver. The Pageskin format wraps around entire web pages in a takeover style, only served on screens that are large enough to display them in full. BMW could maximise campaign reach across multiple premium publishers through a single, fully optimized creative that remains in the user's eyeline for maximum brand recall.
View a demo of the Page Skin ad here
30/04/2014
China digital marketing case study: Porsche ‘birthday song’ and piano game reaches millions
In 2013, the Porsche 911 celebrated its 50th anniversary- marking the occasion with a birthday song on YouTube and Piano game that attracted millions of views and plays. This China digital marketing case study shows how the viral video for the luxury car brand achieved 2,840,316 views throughout the Chinese and overseas channels during two month.
Brand: Porche | Sector: Luxury, Automotive | Country: China | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Agency/ Partner: Fred & Farid Shanghai | Format: Viral, Social Media, Weibo, YouTube, video
17/03/2014 | Full story...
Lamborghini targets racing fans with live video streaming
In September 2013, Italian automaker Lamborghini introduced a live-streaming racing community to target aspirational consumers and racing enthusiasts. The new service went live at the Sept. 21-22 the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo race at the Nürburgring racecourse in Germany. The brand provided dedicated fans with moment-to-moment video and multimedia pertaining to the weekend’s races. Rather than inventing new content, finding ways to bring traditional events to social media can help Lamborghini bridge the gap between young and old consumers.
Brand: Lamborghini | Sector: Automotive, Luxury | Country: Global Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Social, Video
25/09/2013 | Full story...
Case study: Mercedes-Benz Tweet Race gets 2m YouTube views
Back in February 2013, Mercedes-Benz used Tweet-powered cars to compete in the world’s first social media road race. This case study looks at how the luxury car maker made smart use of social platforms and video content to generate 25 million brand related Tweets and 2 million YouTube views.
Mercedes-Benz Tweet Race from thepixel on Vimeo.
Brand: Mercedes-Benz | Sector: Automotive | Country: US | Partner/agency: Razorfish | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Video, YouTube, Viral, Social media
31/07/2013 | Full story...
Mercedes targets young drivers with internet star
Mercedes-Benz USA was looking for a creative way to bridge the gap between the January announcement of the Mercedes CLA, a new model targeting a younger demographic, and the vehicle going on sale in September. To reach this audience, Mercedes engaged with director and social star Casey Neistat to create a series of films and a TV spot, which will air in the fall. To keep the CLA top of mind, Microsoft worked with Razorfish to create an engaging experience that takes advantage of how Casey is documenting his creative process using social platforms. This new execution seamlessly aggregates and arranges real-time content from multiple social channels (Instagram, Facebook and YouTube) to create an interactive, immersive and shareable narrative to keep consumers interested and engaged until the model is available in the fall.
Brand: Mercedes | Sector: Automotive | Country: US | Partner/agency: Microsoft/ Razorfish | Objective: brand awareness, consideration and purchase | Format: Social media, Publishing
03/07/2013
Video case study: Volkswagen's '5 second YouTube ad' sparks consumer curiosity
Volkswagen used YouTube video ads in a smart and fun way to create curiosity amongst viewers and lead them to engage with the brand. The ad was short and fast that the viewer could not skip and would be curious to know more about the advert. This was supported with an InVideo banner redirecting the viewer to the new Golf GTI’s website. The YouTube 5 second wait to skip ad turned around as a benefit by the brand and created the fastest ad on YouTube to create curiosity.
Watch the video case study below:
Volkswagen Golf GTI - "Click if you can" case from DDB España on Vimeo.
More on this case study…
Brand: Volkswagen| Sector: Automobile | Objective: build brand engagement | Format: YouTube advertising | Agency: DDB Spain
16/05/2013
Harley-Davisdson fosters brand loyalty through mobile discounts
Motorcycle tour company Route 66 Harley-Davidson created a 'mobile club' to promote its discounts and foster brand loyalty. The company used a social media campaign, in-store marketing and previous customers of the dealership. Members then received daily alerts offering a 20% discount on a different merchandise item each day. This increased customer awareness of the merchandise inventory and drew more customers into the store during a time of the year when sales are typically slower. The dealership had significant increase in sales of the specific items discounted during the campaign period. High-dollar items also saw increased sales. On sale T-shirts purchased on T-shirt Day was over 250% more than a normal day, on Leather Jacket Day, seven leather jackets were sold at the 20% discount, representing a 16% increase over jacket sales the previous week. These numbers also represented an increase in dealership traffic.
More on this case study…
Brand: Route 66 Harley-Davidson| Sector: Automobile | Objective: increase sales | Format: Mobile and social media | Agency: 7 Media Group | Duration: December 12 – 24, 2011
16/05/2013 | Full story...
Skype case study: Alfa Romeo ‘conversation’ ads get 50% click through
Alfa Romeo used Skype to promote its new ‘Supermini’ car, using targeted ads when users were consulting trusted friends and family. This case study looks at how the car maker used a combination of homepage takeovers and ‘conversation’ ads to increase brand awareness over 20% and generate clicks of over 50%.
More on this case study…
Brand: Alfa Romeo | Sector: Automotive | Country: US | Objective: Build brand engagement | Format: Skype, Display ads |
25/02/2013 | Full story...
Social media case study: Super Bowl blackout hands victory to Twitter
A 35 minute power outage on the pitch at this year's Super Bowl XLVII led to a surge in traffic on social media. The showdown between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers was shut down for 35 minutes when half of the lights in the New Orleans Superdome went out. The resulting confusion led to a surge in traffic on social media sites talking about what became known online as "the blackout bowl." Advertisers were quick to capitalise on the sudden ad space opportunity. Within four minutes of the outage, advertisers had sent out their first tweets 'newsjacking' the event with their own branded take on the story.
More on this case study…
Brand: Oreo, Tide, Audi | Sector: FMCG, Food and Beverage, Automotive, Household goods | Country: US | Objective: Build brand engagement | Format: Twitter, Social Media |
14/02/2013 | Full story...
Windows 8- how are brands using in-app advertising?
Following the launch of Windows 8 Ads-in-Apps (AiA) Microsoft has unveiled the latest campaigns to make use of its new cross-platform ad formats. This case study looks at 4 brands- Jeep, Delta, Sony Pictures and Ford as they capitallise on the new Windows 8 format.
More on this case study…
Brand: Microsoft, Jeep, Delta, Sony, Ford | Sector: Automotive, Film, Travel | Country: UK | Agencies: Razorfish, Universal McCann/Sapient, Team Detroit, This is Tommy | Objective: Build brand engagement | Format: Display, Video, Mobile, Windows 8 |
14/02/2013 | Full story...
Citroën lets fans customise cars using Facebook
Car maker Citroën invited its Facebook fans across the world to vote for a selection of consumer-created designs to customise its new Citroën DS3. In October last year, Citroen tasked eYeka's creative community to “create stylish designs inspired by French Luxury” to customise its Citroën DS3 model. In just two weeks, Citroën received more than 180 high-quality designs from all over the world, and awarded €10,000 between the top three winning entries from Germany, Hong Kong, and France respectively.
More on this case study…
Brand: Citroën | Sector:Automotive | Objective: Build brand engagement | Agency: eYeka | Format: Facebook, Social Media |
17/01/2013 | Full story...
Twitter case study: Toyota offers sweets for tweets
To promote its new Etios car in South Africa, Toyota promised to make people smile. The Sweets for Tweets installation, created by HelloComputer and ThingKing, did just that by rewarding virtual smile tweets with real-life candy via a Wonka-like contraption. The campaign matched the new Toyota Etios tagline, “Here to make you smile”, promoting a positive brand message and putting the car across as a fun machine to drive.
More on this Case study …
Brand: Toyota | Country: South Africa | Agency: HelloComputer, ThingKing | Sector: Retail, Automotive | Format: Twitter,Mobile, social media
21/09/2012 | Full story...
Volkswagen uses 'The Force' to net 45m YouTube views
This Volkswagen ad originally aired during the February 2011 Super Bowl broadcast, featuring a little boy dressed as “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader. He tries to use The Force to get his dog to rise, open the dryer, move a sandwich across the counter, and all in vain. Finally, dad comes home in the Passat. Junior Darth starts with the Jedi gesticulations to get the car to do something. Dad uses remote start from inside the house to fire up the ignition. His son is shocked. He got the force to work. He thinks he started the car with Jedi mind tricks. The ad combines humor with feel-good cutesiness and pop culture, and was one of the biggest virals of the year, generating a huge 45 million views on Youtube.
More on this Case study …
Brand: Volkswagen | Media: Video | Country: US | Sector: Automotive | Agency: Deutsch LA | Format: YouTube
01/08/2012 | Full story...
Video case study: Mercedes ‘invisible’ car gets 9m YouTube views
This clever publicity stunt from Mercedes has earned the car maker many plaudits. The YouTube video features an 'invisible' car was seeded on numerous sites, including digital media blog Mashable, and attracted more than 9 million views in a couple of months.
More on this case study:
Brand: Mercedes | Media: YouTube, TV, Social Media | Agency: Jung von Matt | Country: Germany | Sector: Automotive
04/04/2012 | Full story...
How Volvo used mobile advertising to build brand engagement
Getting mobile users to engage with a brand for a whole minute is a tough challenge, but Volvo put its mobile advertising to smart use to build brand engagement. This case study shows how Volvo used mobile and video ads to create buzz around the launch of its new sedan S60. A series of interactive video ads showcased a fast-paced 30-second video of the S60 and allowed users to browse additional images of the car and even visit the site, all without taking the user out of the video ad and the original content that they were browsing. According to its research partner InsightExpress, the campaign resulted in an 88% in purchase intent.
Brand: Volvo | Media: Google Admob | Country: North America | Sector: Automobile | Agency: Mobext | Format: Mobile display & interactive video Ads
Download the Case Study: Volvo
24/10/2011
Case Study: Cambria Automobiles | Media: Google | Countries: UK | Sector: Automotive | Objectives: Direct response, lead generation, targeting, optimisation | Format: Search
Cumbria Automobiles (www.MotorParks.co.uk) in the UK needed a marketing tool to drive their expansion in tough economic conditions. To achieve these goals the company invested in Google AdWords to promote new dealerships and utilised the the reporting on Google Analytics. As a result, MotorParks.co.uk quadrupled its market share and helped fuel exponential growth of new dealerships.
Download the case study: Cambria Automobiles - Google AdWords | Google AdWords | Cambria Automobiles
27/04/2010
Case Study: Vauxhall | Media: MSN | Sector: Automotive | Objectives: Brand awareness, targeting, integration | Format: Online advertising
Microsoft Advertising’s behavioural targeting technology ensured a high performance launch for Vauxhall’s new Insignia, steering ads directly to those actively engaged in researching auto purchases.
Download the MSN case studies compendium
26/04/2010
Case Study: Toyota Prius | Media: MSN | Country: Japan | Sector: Automotive | Objective: Brand awareness, brand repositioning, purchase intent | Format: Rich media
The Toyota Prius, the world’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, went on sale in 1997 as an environmentally friendly car. However, many consumers were put off by the new look of the vehicle. A light-hearted driving adventure, with users riding alongside through online video travelogues and Windows Live Messenger, persuaded consumers to spend more time with the Toyota Prius.
Download the MSN case studies compendium
23/04/2010
Case Study: Mazda | Media: MSN | Country: Spain | Sector: Automotive | Objective: Brand awareness, purchase intent, integration | Format: Online advertising
Fuelling its launch of the Mazda2 through a mix of TV and online advertising delivered roaring results for Mazda. Exposure to the online ads increased awareness of the Mazda2 by 7 percentage points, with test drive applications increasing by 193 per cent during the campaign.
Download the MSN case studies compendium
23/04/2010
Case study: Jaguar | Agency: Incentivated | Sector: Automotive | Objectives: Brand positioning, click-through | Format: Mobile
Mobile enhances passenger experience for BA
A mobile banner advertising campaign across the whole Yahoo! US mobile network
on the day of the motor show, as well as at other times on other sites. The ads clicked through to a mobile internet site* where user could read about the design, performance and innovative
features of the car or download videos and wallpapers. (*As well as unique iPhone site) Users could also submit their email address to receive the XF email brochure or enter their zipcode to locate their nearest dealer to arrange a test drive.
Download the Jaguar mobile case study
10/06/2009
Case study: Autobytel | Agency: Greenlight | Sector: Automotive | Format: Search
Autobytel.co.uk is a leading internet car retailer that combines extensive motor industry expertise and cutting-edge technology, to offer a convenient online car buying process. By working with Greenlight's in house ad feed tool, Adapt, Autobytel.co.uk has seen their Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns become more meaningful and relevant to search activity, which has driven better qualified traffic to the site and resulted in an explosion of enquiries and sales.
Having found that traditional bid management and manual campaign creation were not producing a steady flow of relevant enquiries, Autobytel.co.uk wanted to overhaul their approach to PPC in order to improve the quality and quantity of enquiries and reduce the cost per lead.
Download the case study | www.autobytel.co.uk
17/05/2009
Case study: BMW Films | Sector: Automotive | Format: Video, viral, microsite
The multi award-winning BMW Films project was one of those rare moments when an advertising campaign is so powerful it succeeds in changing the medium it works within. High budget, all-action and with blockbusting stars like Madonna under the stewardship of A-list directors like Ang Lee, the movies were an instant cult success. They showcased the best in movie-making, and delivered it in the context of a message of brand association BMW had carefully crafted. By creating compelling media they generated their own self-selecting audiences without the need of heavyweight media spend.
11/03/2009 | Full story...
Further automotive case studies
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