Automotive Website Traffic Analysis

AU T OM OT I VE WEBSI T EF T RAF

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I C AN AL YS I S.

By : Amal, D hir en, Ed, Sunny

Contents Page Page 3- Primary Research Page 5-Secondary Research Page 7-Traffic Analysis Page 11-Marketing Mix Page 23-Banner Advertising Page 27- Search engine optimisation Page 35-URL Page 36-Pay per click Page 37- Google ad word Page 38- Email Marketing Page 47-Sponsorships Page 51- Ad campaigns Page 53-Viral Marketing Page 60-Social media marketing Page 64- Online PR Page 66-Finanicial Analysis Page 72-Conclusion Page73-Reference list

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Primary Research 4

Survey Monkey was used to distribute the questionnaire, using Facebook as a means of distributing and reaching the masses.

Primary Research 5

From our primary research we were able to find out what was the best technique in order for a company to attract a consumers to their website. The survey was taken from a sample of 50.

We asked what type of advertisement do they feel is most effective when viewing an ad. 30 of our candidates selected TV ads, 15 replied banner ads and only 5 with viral marketing.

The majority of our candidates also selected that social media marketing if more effective rather than using online PR. From this we are able to see a organisation to increase traffic building to their website, they would have to use TV advertisements as well as social media marketing in order to achieve maximum.

Mintel - Secondary 6

The following graph shows a question which was asked to the people as to which brand they would prefer as a new or a second hand car. The result can be seen which shows that the ford has the highest rating in terms of what people would prefer a new or a second hand model.

Using the data above the four companies were chosen for this magazine, knowing they would be the most popular brands and therefore possibly have a large reach in the UK. More research on the left showing the top brands in the UK cementing our choice of company's chosen.

Mintel - Secondary 7

The following graph shows that what brands are mostly preferred by males and females which shows that males mostly keep their first priority as the Audi or the Honda whereas the females prefer the VW or ford.

Traffic Analysis 8

What are Page Views?

Page views measure the number of pages viewed by site visitors.

Multiple page views of the same page made by the same user on the same day are counted only once. The three-month change is determined by comparing a site's current page view numbers with those from three months ago. (Alexa,2012) What is Reach?

“Reach measures the number of users. Reach is typically expressed as the percentage of all Internet users who visit a given site.” So, for example, if a site like yahoo.com has a reach of 28%, this means that of all global Internet users measured by Alexa, 28% of them visit yahoo.com. Alexa's one-week and three-month average reach are measures of daily reach, averaged over the specified time period. The three-month change is determined by comparing a site's current reach with its values from three months ago. (Alexa,2012)

Traffic Analysis 9

From the Data on the pervious page it is apparent that Volkswagen hold a slight advantage on the total reach over the three months analysed closely followed by Audi, Ford then finally Vauxhall.

The graphic data I personally find surprising. This is due to Vauxhall and Ford having a more efficiently SEO’d web pages.

More on that later, in the coming chapters.

Moving on to the daily page views. Even though Volkswagen have a higher reach Audi’s website does a better job of keeping the user engaged and on the sight longer this is possibly due to the ease at which one can navigate through the webpage and the simplistic car configuration tool.

Ford & Vauxhall Traffic Build-up 10

It shows in China there is the highest regional traffic built up followed by Germany and Russia. one average there is about 2, 500 consumers visiting the Ford website.

Regional traffic building is the highest in America then followed by India then the UK. America has a traffic rank of 314,810.

On average about 63, 000 consumers visit.

Audi & Volkswagen Traffic Build-up 11 Audi’s traffic ranking is 150,000 on average per month.

This highest regional traffic rank is from the United States with 270,588

Has a global rank of 211, 062.

Volkswagen has around 200,000 consumer visiting their site around the world.

Regional ranking show still the United States has the highest rank followed by India.

Audi Marketing Mix 12

As shown in the data above the automotive industry did not invest much in terms of internet spending in fact it was only budgeted 3% overall and that Volkswagen in 2010 invested 14% and spent the highest amount of ad spend, Vauxhall spent the second highest amount of their budget and invested 8% on ad spend and lastly Ford spent 6%. Audi however were not in the Top 10 companies with the highest ad spend.

Audi Marketing Mix 13

Product Audi’s focused their attention on the new TT for print media and the new A6 model for the new superbowl ad, instead of pursuing to promote the R8 sport coupe at the superbowl like they did last year. This shows Audi decided to promote their cheaper models of cars, despite consumer confidence increasing. Audi are known for as a luxury car brand however they are trying to gain customers who can afford the cheaper models that Audi offer that may not be aware of and have taken a different approach to significantly advertising their desired supercar as much this time around.

Price Audi had a 15-20% increase in marketing planning in its US promotional spend in late 2009. ‘Audi practically tripled its ad spend in 2008, investing almost $90 million in measured media through October, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, up from $35 million the previous year.’(adweek.com/ ) Chief marketing officer Scott Keogh said the ‘incremental coverage a marketer receives when buying time in the Super Bowl is worth the price of admission. (NBC is selling 30-second spots for $3 million a pop.) ‘We did 600 million media impressions last year after the Super Bowl, which is what we usually get in the course of a whole year’. This meant Audi focused a lot of their budget advertising the newA6 and R8 at the Superbowl, knowing it would be extremely beneficial afterwards.

Audi Marketing Mix 14 Promotion Audi successfully increased the awareness of their cars and got recognised once again to have such a luxury line of cars due to creating a campaign by teaming up with intersection Magazine, submerging the car in a swimming pool, shooting it with girls lying on top for a photo shoot and cover section and the smashing the car up after the shoot. This was very controversial, however it soon went viral online about bloggers complaining about what a waste of a beautiful car which soon got people talking. Audi were once again in the limelight and completely reinvented themselves in the public eye as selling luxury cars allowing them to successfully compete with competitors such as Mercedes a lot easier.

Place In terms of promoting the new A4 Audi wanted to aim at the tech savvy, wealthy customer believing that their brand develops innovative products and manufactures cars with the most up to date technology. In other words Audi thought they were very similar to Apple in terms of target audience as well as ideas of innovation as their USP. Audi then decided to be the first car manufacturer to release a game created in just two week on the new iPhone in order to gain the same type of customer and rapidly increase this sort of image of the brand very quickly. The game had fairly poor reviews although it did gain 370,000 downloads by iPhone users which dramatically increased the awareness of the new Audi A4.

They continue to launch Apps on Apples Application Store as there objectives remain the same as well as the customer. There are now 500,000 apps on iTunes so it obviously was a worthwhile investment.

VW Marketing Mix 15

Product The group sold 174,655 Volkswagen vehicles in 2010 for an 8.6% market share, with its Golf and Polo models both cracking the top 10 selling cars. Volkswagen as shown in the data below spent the most of the budget on advertising spending and also sold the most cars that year. This indicates despite investing an incredible amount on advertising in was worthwhile in terms of sales.

Price VW was the highest ad spender in the automotive industry in 2010 ‘spending £73.5m, more than double the industry average Total spend stayed below the £80m mark for the second year running, yet remained £27.3m more than its closest competitor, Vauxhall.’ (/) 3.4% of the total spend was used on internet which didn’t change much from the previous year expect VW launching a website in order to show the ‘Unbelievable Value campaign’.

VW didn’t spend a lot of the budget on internet spending as 34% was spent on TV. However the graph above shows from 2009 there was a slight increase in internet spending.

VW Marketing Mix 16

Promotion In terms of promotion, VW spent 3.5 million on an advertising slot for the Superbowl and it turned out to be very beneficial by gaining 111 million viewers at the event. Advertising the new Passat resulted in 1.5 million views and became a trending topic on micro blogging site Twitter, where there are 300 million users. VW gained a 30% audience bonus by releasing the advert early on the internet, days before the Superbowl match had begun.

According to Chaffey and Smith (2008) online promotion

VW Marketing Mix 17

Place VW took an insight on online distribution and decided to use it heavily in 2012 for the superbowl by releasing the new car days before they were supposed to in a humorous and entertaining advert that lasted just over 1 minute on YouTube, it then used the advantages of Twitter and Facebook to get recognised very quickly and get people aware of the advert in very little time at all.

Vauxhall Marketing Mix 18

Product Vauxhall sold 247,265 vehicles in 2010, gaining a 12.8% market share, the company’s focus recently has been promoting the new Corsa with the C’mon puppets on a viral ad that brought people back to the feeling of nostalgia they remember from the band The C’mons that were very popular on hit music channel MTV in the 90’s.

The company then launched a ‘lifetime warranty; on all new cars from August in 2010, covering the vehicle for 100,00 miles as well as completely re-launching ‘its family model, the Meriva, aimed at making the model one of its top-three selling vehicles.’ (bradtop100.co.uk/)

Vauxhall Marketing Mix 19

Price From looking at the graph above it is clear that there was a decline in internet spending from 2009 from £537k to £528k and more of an increase in TV advertising.

Vauxhall was the second largest ad spender in this industry in 2010 with £46.2m Vauxhall invested £529k on internet, the least of any of the top ten, corresponding to only 1% of its budget. (http://www.bradtop100.co.uk/04-Automotive/02-vauxhallmotors) Although the company used the medium to host Facebook competitions for the new Corsa called ‘Corsa Pop Art Idol’, with the winners self portrait used in the TV ad campaign for the new model of their car. Although a social media campaign paired with home nations international football teams in 2011 allowed £25m sponsorship which could potentially result in an increase in online spending.

Vauxhall Marketing Mix 20

Promotion It shows viewers the latest endeavours of the C’mon Puppets as well as opportunitys to win prizes by uploading their own videos to do with the Puppets, with the best clips shown on C’mon TV. The channel was promoted by the distribution the commissioned viral clip which feature the most controversial video of the puppets so far. The channel Vauxhall created called C’mon TV can be found here ( http://www.youtube.com/cmons) Shelley Perkins, from Vauxhall said, ‘The Corsa is a fun, lifestyle-oriented brand and we are always looking for new, innovative ways to reach out to consumer.’ (http://blogit.realwire.com/?ReleaseID=7260)

Place Vauxhall started an internet campaign on YouTube for the C’mon Puppets on the advert increase on the awareness of the car which has already been a success virally. Although created the YouTube Channel there was very little activity on social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook which would have been extremely beneficial, despite it going viral.

Ford Marketing Mix 21

Product Last year Ford sold 280,364 cars for a 13.81% market share. The companys two leading brands are the Fiesta and the Focus, the Fiesta that was unveiled recently was the best selling car of 2010, probably due to the viral marketing and the promotion of this car as shown earlier in the report called ‘The Fiesta Project’.

Price In 2010 Ford spent £33.4m on advertising, a £15.7m drop on the year. Similar to their competitors, Ford, the market leader in the UK did not invest much of the budget on internet spending with a £300k decrease. Despite the decline, the 4% that Ford invested on online advertising in 2010 is the most it had spent in 5 years and the second highest in this industry. Online investment is the only area to have increased since 2005, when Ford invested £603k. Ford also became the first car manufacturer in 2010 to unveil a new model of their car on Facebook instead of displaying it at a car show. (bradtop100.co.uk/)

Ford Marketing Mix 22

Promotion Ford did extremely well by promoting the new Fiesta with funny videos on Youtube of it competing in a drag race against a Lamborghini and failing miserably. They then turned it on its head and showed the advantages of the new Fiesta and the things it could do that this supercar couldn’t knowing full well their car was never going to compete in some aspects with the Lamborghini such as speed. The Fiesta made a mockery out of the supercar by doing a ‘tight corner challenge’ straight after the drag race and showing how easy it was for the Fiesta to get around the track whilst its rival almost hit over cones. An actress then pointed out the key features such as keyless ignition and more room inside. The company did a number of these videos that went viral due to people finding them hilarious for thinking outside the box.

Place Ford released the new Fiesta 18months prior to the release in the US to target 100 socially vibrant individuals and ‘encouraged to share their experience with the Ford Fiesta over the 6 months on their Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube channels.’ (effbullas.com/

Ford Marketing Mix Continued 23

This shows the success of promoting it early and getting social networkers to post comments of the car. With the results below indicating how viral it really went. This was beneficial for increasing the awareness of the new Fiesta as well as sales in the US

•11 million Social Networking impressions •5 million engagements on social networks (people sharing and receiving) •11,000 videos posted •15,000 tweets.. not including retweets •13,000 photos •50,000 hand raisers who have seen the product in person or on a video who said that they want to know more about it when it comes out and 97% of those don’t currently drive a Ford vehicle •38% awareness by Gen Y about the product, without spending a dollar on traditional advertising ( Fords model “Fusion” doesn’t have that awareness after 2 years of being out in production and yet it has received hundreds of millions of dollars in traditional marketing spend).

Source: http:/ / www.jeffbullas.com/ 2010/ 02/ 18/ the-7-secrets-to-fords-social-media-marketing-success/

Banner Adver tising 24

According to Brassington,(2007) banner advertising is still the page willing (at the right price - either flat rate or pay per click.) to display the banner that can vary in size shape and obviously, content.

BMRB Internet Monitor found that 40 percent of internet uses clicked on a banner ad, even though over half agreed internet advertising is annoying (Brassington,2007).

Online Banner ’s

R anging fr om the infor mative

T hr ough to the cr ea

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Online Banners All of the major automotive brands use online advertising as a means of communicating and attracting its target audience.

The larger brands chosen for this magazine use online advertising extensively , specify online banner advertisements.

The examples on the previous page display the various types of advertising used by the different companies. From creative to informative all types of banners are used to attract traffic to the webpage.

I personally find the creative ads more involving and a lot more pleasing to the eye, the banner’s objective is to draw traffic and to crate brand awareness. The descriptive ad’s involve promoting a specific product as show by the Ford Fiesta advertisement.

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Search Engine Optimization 

SEO involves achieving the highest position or ranking practical in the natural or organic listing. (Chaffy, 2010)

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SEO <Title Defined> The title states the topic for the particular page, this is both important for the user and the Crawlers. Crawlers are programs that analyze webpage's.

If an incorrect title is used when describing the contents of the webpage the result may not show up in a search engine search. For example if Volkswagen use "<title> The official site for cakes" the Crawlers would associate Volkswagen with cakes.

Chaffey, 2012 states "<title> tag is arguably the most important type of mete data since each of the search engines place significant weight on the key-phrases contained. Therefore it is paramount that the optimizers perfect the title so as to gain as many clicks as possible.

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<Title> 30

Volkswagen <title>The Official Website for Volkswagen UK : Volkswagen UK</title> In the meta <tite> above Volkswagen associate the title of their main page with its brand name "Volkswagen". <title>Owners : Volkswagen UK</title>. Each webpage has its own unique title, as recommended by (Google search engine optimization starter guide, 2010).

Ford <title>Ford UK - The Official Homepage of Ford UK</title>, Like Volkswagen Ford follow a similar trend associating its main page with is brand name, and use a unique title for each of its pages. Therefore allowing the crawler bots to identify each page with its specific content. <title>Ford UK - The Official Homepage of Ford UK</title>

<Title> 31 Audi <title>Home &lt; Audi UK</title>. Audi follow the same path as the two previous webpage titles, associating its title page with its brand name. But, the title is shorter, possibly only adding what is required. "<title>Motorsport news &lt; Audi Motorsport &lt; Audi innovation &lt; Audi UK</title>" Just as the previous two Audi use a unique title for each of its pages.

Vauxhall <title>Vauxhall Motors UK | New &amp; Used Cars, Vans &amp; Commercial Vehicles</title>.

Vauxhall's title differs from the pervious trio. The title not only associates its title with the brand but also lists the different services/products the webpage has to offer. <title>About Vauxhall ¦ Vauxhall Motors UK</title>.

The similarities are back with Vauxhall using a unique title to link each of its titles with the specific content.

Conclusion Googles SEO starter Guide 2010 states - "choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page using default or using a single title tag across all of your site's pages or a large group of pages"" The review of the four webpages has shown that the pages listed use specific and relevant content for each of its page titles. But through the analysis it is apparent that Vauxhall's title is the most relevant of the four.

Stating the purpose and services provided by the webpage.

"Description" Meta Tag A page's description meta tag gives Google and other search

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engines a summary of what the page is about (1). Whereas a page's title may be a few words or a phrase, a page's description met tag might be a sentence or two or a short paragraph. " (Google SEO optimization guide, 2010).

The webpage's title can be further developed to add additional information about the webpage. Relevant content describing the purpose of the webpage can be added here.

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"Description" Meta Tag 33 Audi <meta name="description" content="View Audi new cars and approved used cars, features and finance or request a brochure. Arrange an Audi test drive today."/> Vauxhall <meta name="description" content="Explore Vauxhall&#039;s range of award winning new cars &amp; vans. View brochures &amp; latest offers with free Lifetime Warranty. Create your perfect Vauxhall." /> Volkswagen <meta name="Description" content="The official website for Volkswagen UK. Explore new Volkswagens. Find used Volkswagens. Advice on Volkswagen fleets."> Ford <meta name="description" content="Enter the Official Ford.co.uk homepage to find more information on all models of Ford cars. Pricing, Specifications, Promotions &amp; more can be found here.">

"Description" Meta Tag 34

By observing the meta descriptions on the previous pages it is apparent that Vauxhall and Ford's descriptions of their web pages purpose are more descriptive than its competitors. Both companies listed above state promotions that can be found on their websites, for example Vauxhall state their lifetime warranty.

Google SEO guide,2010 states : "avoid using a single description meta tag across all of your site's pages or a large group of pages" All the mentioned automotive webpage's use different metatags for each of their pages, therefore allowing the crawler bots to identify the content of the page.

URL I

" f your URL contains relevant words, this provides users and search engines with more information about the page than an ID or oddly named parameter would." (Google SEO optimization Tool ,2010).

"Spending the time to make your URLs as simple as possible for both users and search engines can help" (Google SEO optimization Tool ,2010).

If Ford owners services is searched using Google the section of the URL that links to the users search is bold in the listing.

Therefore linking the URL to the purpose of the page can generate more traffic.

The URL's from the different webpage's are all short and sweet.

No overly complicated sentences or session ID's, Only listing the brand and a two to three word summary of the page.

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All the URL's above are short and sweet, as recommended by Google, each subpage has a short section of the url describing the pages objective in a few lines. This allows the user interacting with the webpage to easily recall the brands 36 webpage from memory.

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PPC - Pay Per Click 37

A relevant text ad with a link to a company page is displayed when a user of a search engine types in a specific phrase.

(Chaffy,2010). Around a quarter or third of all clicks are PPC's, making them profitable for search engines (Chaffy,2010) The cost of the advertisement is only inured when a user chooses to click on the add, usually displayed on the left hand side.

Each of the four companies use PPC as a means of drawing traffic. An example of PPC by Vauxhall is shown above. If a user chooses to click on the link an advertisers fee will be charged by the search engine hosting the text ad.

Google Ad word 38

From the results below the company most searched on Google globally and UK is Ford. This should indicate a higher reach for its webpage when compared to its competitors , but we know from pervious results this is not the case.

The search for "UK car manufactures is small when compared with the searches for the manufacture names themselves such as Ford.

Email Marketing 39

According to Garrett (2012) e mail marketing in simpler terms means using e mail’s to distribute the marketing messages.

E mail marketing is now considered as one of the most important aspect in marketing terms. E mail marketing is to be one of the cheapest and best way to contact and communicate with the customers.

It also helps the company to analyze how many people are visiting their official website and placing a query.

Email Marketing Case Study.

EXAMPLE Automotive Case Study: COMP Performance Group

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This case study shows the effect email marketing can make if implemented correctly. 

COMP Performance Group™, an international leader of performance automotive technology and product development for classic, modern, domestic and international models, uses email marketing and social media to keep customers and prospects up to date on current deals and offers. Recipients receive information based on specific product lines that they have chosen to receive communications about.

Challenge: Prior to working with Blue Sky Factory, COMP Performance Group™ had been using an internal approach to email marketing. This meant that they did not have any metrics behind their email sends: no hard bounce stats, opens, or clicks.

Approach: As a new Blue Sky Factory client, their client services manager immediately suggested they do a reengagement campaign in order to determine the viability of the existing database. This would help them cleanse their email list and identify engaged subscribers.

Solution:

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A five-step process was implemented for the re-engagement campaign:

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Step 1 – A master list of emails for each of the seven product lines was created, possible duplicates across lists was inherent

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Step 2 – A subscriber preferences page was set up, allowing users to update their profile. This allowed the user to see which products they were currently receiving information about and to make updates and changes to their existing profile.

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Step 3 – Together, the client and Blue Sky Factory created a re-engagement email that asked users to click through to the subscriber preferences page to update their profile. View the email creative.

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Step 4 – They reviewed the send metrics in Publicaster after each email was sent to determine which users had clicked through to the subscriber preferences page and updated their profile.

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Step 5 – After a two-week period of time, if the user had not clicked through to update their profile, they were subsequently taken off the list.

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Results:

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Prior to the re-engagement campaign, COMP Performance Group™ had 57,933 contacts in their master list.

When the re-engagement campaign concluded, 9,600 contacts remained (meaning 9,600 had chosen to update their preferences). This statistic may appear extremely alarming at first blush; however, it was apparent that 84% of the current database was no longer engaged and should be removed.

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Since then, emails sent to the retained 16% have garnered open rates of 35% (above the industry average) and sales of products have been steady and ongoing. (Blueskyfactory,2010)

Pros & Cons of E-mail Marketing 41 According to Garrett (2012) Pros of e mail marketing are as follows: 

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Low Cost – Communicating via email has many of the advantages of traditional direct mail but with much lower costs Speed – If required then a message can easily come out to a specific folder very fast Ease (both for you and the reader) – For your marketing to be a success it has to be easy for the recipient, but it helps that email marketing is easy for you too as it means you can do it yourself Push – While websites and RSS are “pull”, in that the visitor has to come to you, with email you can send your messages out, reminding and re-engaging readers Personalized – The more information you collect, the more messages can be tailored and personalized. Email also has the particularly special ability to segment, meaning you can split people off into smaller, more focused lists.

Viral – It’s so easy for people to forward your message on to others, spreading further than you could alone.

Cons of email marketing 

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Branded a spammer - Without singling out any particular instance, even the best lists will get marked as spam occasionally because some people can’t be bothered to use the unsubscribe links.

Breaking the law - Be aware that due to nasty spammers there are very strict laws around the world and it is easy to break them Delivery issues – As people become more and more sensitive to spam there are more and more innocent messages landing in junk mail folders

Ford's E-mail Marketing 42

Ford has given the option of ‘keep me informed’ on its front official page which helps the customers to make their desired model choice and then the customer’s get easy feedback on their models through their e mail. The following slide shows the little application form which is filled up by the customer in order to receive their e mails for their desired car.

The image on the right shows the campaign which the Ford had made in order to have analysis on the future of ford. This campaign took place in 2003 and at that time this was a very new technology which was done for marketing the company.

Ford's E-mail Marketing 43

The company here then gives the customer to make their 2 nd opinion on the different types of models available with the ford company.

•Also the company has shows the option which can be selected either way by the customer whether they want to make a future contact with the company or not.

The company has given the option of keep me informed which helps the company to keep a contact with the customers through e mails.

The contact details which are filled up by the customer on order to receive its updates .

Vauxhall's E-mail Marketing 44

Vauxhall offers the option of ‘request a quote’ which helps the customer in knowing about how much a particular model is going to cost them.

Also the company has shown the ‘call me back’ option which helps the customer to give their contact details on their official page and then one of the company representative will call back to the customer regarding their query. This also becomes a kind of money consuming from a customer point of view.

The company had created branded events and festivals in 2010 for launching a season of branded events for car enthusiasts to make its VXR racing brand the “ultimate car cub”.

The company had used the a digital campaign with email marketing and via the VXR Forum, as well as a direct mail campaign to promote the event. This then eventually helped the company in getting more and more customers which led to the increase in their sales for different models. The next slide shows the launch of the brand events and festivals.

Vauxhall's E-mail Marketing 45

The customers can then give their contact details with their names which would help the company to know about the person and also the location where he/ she lives. This will eventually help the company in knowing that which areas in the UK adds to their highest and lowest sales.

The company has shown the option of select a model which helps the customer to select their desired car.

Audi's E-mail Marketing 46

Audi official page does not show any kind of e mail marketing process. The company has highlighted the basic things in its official page which includes their models and to build your company and many more. The company has not focused much on the e mail marketing aspect for its website. Also the website has a customer service option but it is just for a feedback update.

The Audi company had set up and used the e mail marketing option to promote its Audi A1 model. The campaign which was send out to the people through e marketing service explained about a 1 week test drive of the car.

Also the company had placed the instalment option in the banner which was made so that the people can get more interest towards the car.

Volkswagen's E-mail Marketing 47

VW’s official page has not shown any effective medium of e mail marketing . The company has made the official page very simple and also the company has not given any option which can make the customer to make a contact with the company.

The company has shown the basic information to contact the company by giving the option of ‘about us’ which then becomes a long process to make a contact and then the customers are not bothered to do a long process.

The VW company has launched a e marketing campaign in 2011 to promote a its range of vehicles.

The company had send out messages to possible customers highlighting one of its 18 cars, with one message tailored to each individual.

More over the company came out with a £500 discounts as the company seeks to project the image of customer value.

Vauxhall's Sponsorships 48

Vauxhall has been sponsoring many events in the year 2012 which was done to increase the overall sale and to make themselves more active in the automotive market, further increasing its brand awareness.

On the left are the different types of sponsorships Vauxhall have sponsored.

The company sponsors events which are attended by people coming from different back grounds . The company intends to attract the attention of the people towards the company who are of a low medium or high budget. The company has different models and a variety to offer to its customers of different financial backgrounds which helps the company to be known easily in the eyes of all the people.

Audi Sponsorships 49

Audi company has been sponsoring many major events which include the ‘festival of speed’ and ‘le mans 2011’ event. It is observed that the company mostly sponsor major and huge events which are rated as a high profile event.

The company focuses on this idea because the company intends to attract more people who are eligible and can buy their models. The secondary research shows that the company has got more male customers than the females who prefer Audi. The people who prefer Audi models are the once3 who are aged between 35-44.

Ford Sponsorships 50 

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It is observed that the ford company has not been in much sponsoring events. The company has been a sponsor with the sky news for over 15 years. Even though the company had used that sponsorship to launch its car ‘mondeo’ in one of the ad breaks during a match.

According to the secondary research it has been observed that the females are mostly preferring the ford brand whereas according to the Alexa (2010) the males who prefer the brand are the once who have no college education and use their car for domestic use.

The company has shown only few areas in sponsorships which can be seen in the next slide

Volkswagen Sponsorships 51 

The VW company has been sponsoring its events in order to make people feel their presence in the market. For this the company had entered into the world’s biggest event which was the Olympics and sponsored the event in 2008. The company did this to gain more customers for their company and also to spread out the name of VW to the people around the world which would help the company in its growth.

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Also according to the secondary research the company analyzed that the women are more V.W lovers than the men. The women account of purchasing more VW models rather than men. Where as on the other hand according to Alexia(2012) which states that the VW models are purchased by males who are in the age range 35-44, have children and have no college education.

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With the help of the sponsorship the company has been able to lift up its position in the eyes of the people which helped the company to make a overall development.

Fords & Vauxhall Ad Campaigns 52

Recently ford have just implemented a new ad campaigned called “swap your ride”. This consist of consumer able to swap their competitor vehicles for a Ford. The user can test the Ford for a whole week. Through the campaign Ford were hoping to surprise the consumer with its : 'class-leading fuel efficiency, quality, smart technology, advanced safety features and headturning design of Ford products".

Recently Vauxhall have taken the responsibility to sponsor the England national football team.

The new Vauxhall meriva ad campaign drew thousands of people to this brand new car which can open door almost at a 90 degree angle.

Watch this ad campaign here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjhevsWjD6s

Audi & Volkswagen Ad Campaigns 53

In Spain, the most recent ad campaign was undertaken advertising the new A1, received an amazing response for their target audience, as the mobile ad, had 50,000 hits in a couple of days.

Online banner ad's were used on Elleuk.com a online fashion magazine, advertisement was chosen on Elle due to the target audience being a regular visitor to the site.

In Singapore, the A6 has been released and the advertising has began. Audi are there ads through TV.

At this present day Volkswagen feel there ad campaigns are slipping away as their competitor’s ads are increasing.

Currently at this present day, Volkswagen have not produced and unique ad campaigns but they are still remember for those which are their most memorable.

Viral Marketing Audi 54

Major companies were increasingly At the time this seemed a good relying more on ‘word of mouth’ advertising due to the impact of the recession in 2008. This method is cheap and effective way to increase interest and exposure to a company such as Audi. It seemed a good idea to the company to use this non traditional marketing method to gain potential customers in order to increase sales. An example of Audi’s word of mouth campaign that has had mixed reactions was the game A4 Driving Challenge 2.0 that was created for iPhone users.

idea as the iPhone has just taken the mobile phone market by storm becoming the first multi functional media device with its innovation and key features. It attracted wealthy tech savvy customers which so it was important for Audi to capture a similar audience.

"The iPhone is an ideal platform to help

introduce the entirely new Audi A4 to the public," said Scott Keogh, chief marketing officer, Audi of America. "Audi customers are smart, sophisticated and technologically savvy. As a brand, we are committed to progress and innovation at At the time this seemed a good idea as every turn.

Innovation is the foundation of the Audi the iPhone has just taken the mobile brand," said Scott Mellin, CEO of Factory phone market by storm becoming the Design Labs.

first multi functional media device with its innovation and key features. It attracted wealthy tech savvy customers which so it was important for Audi to capture a similar audience.

"This is the first application by an automotive OEM, but it's also reinventing the shopping experience. In combination with the A4 iPhone web site.

This shows that at that time Audi had similar objectives and target audience as Apple iPhone for example Audi thought they were a very innovative brand as well and thought they could use the large audience Apple gained in order to promote a similar product in terms of innovative greatness.

Viral Marketing Audi 55

As shown on the right ,the game which only took two weeks to make didn’t get very good feedback, the positive reactions were that the game had good graphics however it was the playability that resulted in the poor reviews. Despite the poor reviews it still had a positive effect on the brand due increasing exposure to a large audience as 370,000 iPhone users downloading the game. The game was still a success in terms of informing iPhone customers of the new Audi A4 as well as being the first car manufacturer to take advantage of iPhones applications which are now extremely popular in the public eye with over 500,000 applications now available, however ‘Audi is pioneering new ways of attracting customers that have remained previously untouched in the industry.’

Looking at the page on iTunes it is clear Audi thought it was worthwhile targeting the same audience as Apple and continue to develop a number of Audi apps for iPhone and iPad.

Viral Marketing Audi 56

In the last 2007, Audi paired up with Intersection Magazine that combines fashion and cars for a controversial photo shoot. Audi decided to submerge the new Audi TT in a pool in England shoot the car for a cover shoot and spread in the magazine, after the shoot the car was trashed. This was considered a publicity stunt, however it resulted in a viral heated discussion about a waste of such a fine looking car online.

This reinvented Audi amongst the public eye and allowed people to see what a luxury range of cars they sold.

The reason the campaign was such a success was through word of mouth, the fact bloggers and car enthusiasts commented on what had just happened online to such a mass market within seconds of witnessing this definitely increased people’s awareness of Audi’s line of beautiful cars and showed the new TT in a different light as people noticed the magnificence of this car due to it being wrecked. This was thinking way outside the box which is probably why it worked and competitors will now have to consider to follow the same path in order to remain in a similar position to Audi.

Viral Marketing Ford 57

A viral ad worth mentioning that Ford carried out in 2011 was the new Ford Fiesta ‘The Fiesta Project’ videos. The clips how the new Fiesta is better than its competitors in a clever way with a hint of comedy value. ‘Many times the American version of the vehicle was somewhat of a let-down due to its diluted character, styling and performance.’(automotiveaddicts.co m), this had to change so Ford stocked the car with more innovative device such as cutting-edge SYNC voice activated system, capless fuel filler, and a modern-day styling that gets-along with young and old Americans even when doused in bright eccentric paint colours.’ (automotiveaddicts.com), The purpose of the campaign Ford aimed to shift from the European market to America, the company did this by releasing the European version of the Fiesta 18 months before the release in the US to 100 ‘socially vibrant’ people who were ‘encouraged to share their experience with the Ford Fiesta over the 6 months on their Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube channels.’ (jeffbullas.com/)

Viral Marketing Ford 58

The video shows the differences between the small Ford Fiesta and the huge super car the Lamborghini in a humorous way as it is clear in a drag race as shown the Lamborghini humiliates the Ford and there was always going to be one winner, however Ford knew their car wasn’t built for speed, so they point out the other advantages of having the new Fiesta and the thing it can do that the Lamborghini can’t from capless fuel filler, Ford tuned suspension allowing the car to boast in this video.

The fact that the Fiestas cornering as shown in the ‘Tight Corner Challenge’ is considerably better than it’s iconic rival in this advert. It makes up for the humiliating drag race by pointing out the flaws of the Lamborghini in a hilarious attempt to compete with the Ford as a racing driver almost hits a number of cones going around the circuit. The creators of this video deserve praise by turning the tables on one of the most appreciated, desired supercars in the world.

One of the reasons the campaign was such a success was through the non traditional methods of word of mouth to get positive messages to a large audience in matter of time.

Another thing was that directing the messages towards loyal customers allowed and inform people similar to them of interest such as these.

Viral Marketing Volkswagen 59

VW took full advantage of the 111 million viewers of the Super bowl in 2012, despite it being a gamble in terms of whether the ad is a success with a 30 second slot of ad space costing $3.5 million. However the risk can be worth it as it can generate a lot of attention for companies and products after the game. The advert about a kid in a Darth Vader costume using the force to start up the new VW Passat resulted in generating 1.5 million views and became a trending topic on micro blogging site twitter, which was unusual for a Super bowl advert to be shown days in advance.

By Super bowl Sunday the ad had been viewed on YouTube 10 million times, which is very viral on top of the 111 million at the game, which resulted in VW gaining a 30% audience bonus before the game even started.

Viral Marketing Vauxhall 60

Vauxhall haven't had as much success in terms of viral advertising, possibly due to them being a smaller car manufacturer than the likes of Audi and Ford.

However and advert that got people talking was Vauxhall Corsa’s Cmon Campaign that lasted from 2007 to 2010. The purpose of the campaign was to rebrand the Corsa from one of function and cheapness only to Style, Form, Fun and Vibrancy –‘Put the fun back into Driving’(media.edusites.co.uk).

Vauxhall haven’t had as much success in terms of viral advertising, possibly due to them being a smaller car manufacturer than the likes of Audi and Ford.

However and advert that got people talking was Vauxhall Corsa’s Cmon Campaign that lasted from 2007 to 2010. The purpose of the campaign was to rebrand the Corsa from one of function and cheapness only to Style, Form, Fun and Vibrancy or in other words ‘Put the fun back into Driving’

Social Media Marketing Ford 61

7 secret step in increase social media marketing 

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By posting ad on facebook and twitter, the likely hood of consumers to talk about fords product or services are going to be high. This is word of mouth Consumers who listen to the business news a lot, get them involved by letting them do the talking.

Showing consumers the brand is passionate to them as well as them being towards the brand Running competitions involving social media.

Implementing more than one social media site create a digital buzz.

Getting consumer on board with the directors and the board at Ford.

Aggregating the content on the Fords Fiesta’s movement website.

The Twitter page has over 16000 followers with people tweeting positive comments for and driving tips for ‘Tweeters’ to take note of.

As shown from the Facebook group created by Ford to promote the new Fiesta has just over 15,000 fans with positive feedback from people comments such ‘love fiesta’ and ‘just ordered mine’.

Social Media Marketing Vauxhall 62

Using Facebook, Vauxhall have decided to promote the national football teams.

Vauxhall feel they need to engage with their consumers and fans more than before in order to create a better and welcoming reputation.

Facebook campaign to support its new Corsa ‘Street-style’ TV ads. "Fans of the Corsa will have the chance to design a paint scene featuring the new model with entrants in the running to win a new Vauxhall Corsa Limited Edition model.

Social Media Marketing Audi 63

The use of social media, Audi are able to allow consumers to talk about their products online and offline due to networking site such as facebook and twitter. Audi feel this type of marketing is cost effective, and efficient due to word of mouth.

Like other companies Audi has walked the path towards engaging with consumers via social media : "Audi, the German luxury car brand, has directly merged old-school advertising with new media, making it the first company to feature a promoted Twitter hash tag in a Super Bowl commercial."

Social Media Marketing Volkswagen 64

During the super bowl Volkswagen used characters such as Darth Vader to promote their products and services.

From this one ad, Volkswagen’s international Facebook had thousands of hit and likes.

Online PR 65

This engages people to read about the manufacture and may want more details about what future prospects the company have, enabling them to visit the website, allowing more traffic building to their site.

PR - Ford and Vauxhall Audi and Volkswagen 66

On the 16 of February Ford th

stated they would be launching their eco-boost engines to the press. It stated to improve the drive during winter weathers as well as the health and safety.

Audi set competitions for their consumers to win keys for V6 and R8 for a day. The competitions are advertised through magazines and newspapers.

This engages people to visit the website more often and checking their status on the competitions, building traffic to the sites.

When Vauxhall are launching a brand new car, they are sure to put the launch date in the press, enabling more consumers to see the release date. This widens the targets audience for Vauxhall.

At this present day, Volkswagen do not have a good online PR. It began, as Greenpeace targeted VW for the least amount of eco friendly car engines. Greenpeace called this ‘star wars spoof’.

Audi Financial Analysis 67

The following slide shows the financial analysis of the Audi company according to their models which had sold 2008-09. the graph shows the sales made by the company in terms of selling their different models.

Audi Financial Analysis 68

An analysis of the graph shows that the company had faced a decline in their sales from 2008 to 2009 which was a difference of around 76,642.

The next graph shows the cash flow statement for Audi from the year 2008 through to 09.

Volkswagen Financial Analysis 69

The financial analysis shows that the VW company has shown a boom in its sales which can also be seen in the following graph. The graph shows that in the year 2010 the company has a record year with the highest sales so far when compared to its previous years.

Volkswagen Financial Analysis 70

Volkswagens balance sheet highlights that the company has gained assets of 22,215 when compared with the figure of the previous year.

Ford Financial Analysis 71

The ford company has improved itself over the past couple of years. The company has been able to lift its sales up in the year 2010. the company has shown an increase of sales of about 12,671 since 2009.

Vauxhall Financial Analysis 72

Vauxhall company has been able to maintain its position in the market since 2009. the company has a tough competition with the Renault which ranks no.1 in the market whereas the Vauxhall is ranked as the 2nd best, which has shown increase in its sales in the year 2009.

Conclusion 73

Each manufacturer chosen for this magazine use the same form’s of media to reach out to its target audience. What differs is the Advertising budgets, how much each company is willing to invest In the each specific form of media, and the manner the adverting campaigns are carried out.

From analysing ad spend on all four of the car manufacturers it was clear to see despite Volkswagen investing the most out of their budget, they had the largest sales figures out of all 4 of the companies. This showed that it was worth spending more in order to create more awareness of the new products especially had the superbowl where they got 111 million views with their video going viral which in turn may be the reason their had such an increase in sales unlike their competitors.

This is all backed up by Volkswagen having the largest reach of all the four websites. Therefore the higher adspend as allowed the brand to reach a brand awareness level that cannot be matched by its rivals.

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