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Do you remember the #YouDrive Mercedes advertisements that sparked social media hysteria back in 2013? If not, here’s a quick recap. The campaign featured a sequence of three ads to promote a new A-Class vehicle to younger consumers. Focusing on a musician and a professional driver and their run-in with the law, viewers were asked to choose what the characters should do next by using the hashtag #YOUDRIVE on Twitter. The end result? The Mercedes team reported a whopping 3.8 million views of their YouTube channel in the three weeks following the campaign. Just think of the brand exposure!
It’s this type of digital advertising that automotive brands should be doing more of. Yes, traditional TV advertising is still successful, but imagine the potential of tapping an even broader audience through digital. According to eMarketer, automotive digital spend is up +19.6% YOY and is expected to reach $7.3 billion in 2015. Smart marketers are developing strategic digital plans in order to take full advantage of this golden opportunity. And what an opportunity it is! Consumers are tapping into digital technology more than ever before to research and purchase new vehicles. In fact, Polk.com revealed that 75% of car buyers said that the internet was the most beneficial platform when researching dealers. To top it off, consumers are using eight or more digital sources before actually getting to the dealership.
In addition to the shifting behaviors of the auto consumer to digital, the target consumer himself is also evolving. Take Millennials for instance. This generation has developed tremendously over the past few years and can now be considered a growing target audience for auto marketers. Although this group currently only makes up about 12 percent of the U.S. new car sales, Millennials will account for 40 percent of new car purchases by 2020 according to AutoTrader. And considering how digitally savvy this audience is, the best approach to fully captivating this this soon-to-be-spending group is digital advertising.
Based on those stats alone, now is the time to put the shift to digital marketing into overdrive and take advantage of it at every stage of the consumer funnel. Need some guidance? Here are a few tips for automotive marketers looking to jumpstart their digital advertising engines:
Digital plays a stronger role
Mobile is a must
Invest in high performance
Build consumer intimacy
To learn even more about the automotive consumer, check out this quarterly review presentation and handy e-Book from our strategic insights team.
Do you remember the last ad that struck a chord with you or pushed you towards an action? Whether it’s information collection or a product purchase, all campaigns are planned around a specific call to action or a desired outcome. One of our latest clients, a political group, came to us with the challenge of igniting state-wide change.
With a pending veto referendum regarding state taxes on the horizon, the client needed the support of voters to choose against it. The political group’s goal was to increase awareness of the referendum and impact the audience’s vote. In order to carry out its vision, the group needed a strong digital partner that could develop a comprehensive digital strategy to reach voters across all devices and channels, and a campaign that could be quickly activated and optimized. Given the budget, this also needed to be done efficiently in order to receive the most bang for the buck.
With access to industry-leading research, data, campaign planning tools, and vast experience working on political campaigns (Thanks, Obama!), our team built a complete digital strategy for the client. To start, we used third-party research, historical data, and the client’s campaign objectives to recommend appropriate ad frequencies and budget allocations to efficiently reach the client’s desired markets. We also utilized the client’s existing data to establish device, inventory and audience targets, adding lookalike audiences with insight from third-party data segments. With only one month to deliver the budget, Centro’s analyst team closely monitored the campaign throughout its run time to ensure that all ads were performing optimally.
The campaign was a success. It delivered 17 million impressions, generated over 23,000 clicks to the client’s voter initiative website, and brought in over 2.5 million completed video views. The overall reach from the campaign equated to approximately 3,200 GRPs in every metropolitan area across the state. But most importantly, the client achieved its goal of getting voters to veto the state referendum. Following this success, the client has started to work with Centro on similar ballot initiatives across the country.
At Centro, we offer a modern approach to digital media. With over 13 years and 100,000 campaigns to our name, we leverage advanced technology, proven tactics, and industry expertise to build campaigns around the channels and platforms that drive the greatest results for our client’s specific business needs. People and technology are at the heart of Centro, and are the essential parts in every #CentroInAction story.
More than 20,000 runners from all over the world embraced the streets of Manhattan on Sunday for the United Airlines New York City Half Marathon. A few of those individuals just happened to be our very own Centrons – a magnificent group of seven who raced towards a cure for a disease that affects more than one million people in the United States each year.
Back in the beginning of February, we touched on their fundraising efforts and reported a total of $5,395 in funds raised. We are proud to announce that our Centro team – Tannis McKenna, Kaitlyn Pearsall, Emily Chow, Rob Kohn, Justin Haber, Sam Yee, and Sarah Solso – was the #1 fundraising group for the American Cancer Society, bringing in over $11,500 to help fund cancer research and support those who are currently fighting their own personal battle with cancer.
In addition to collecting donations from a few office fundraisers, the team received monetary donations from Centro through both the Giving Tree as well as its company match program. Of the total funds raised, $1,200 was contributed by the Giving Tree, our philanthropic program that encourages employees to commit their fundraising time and efforts to various associations and organizations. Furthermore, as part of the company match program, Centro matched up to $100 for any runner that submitted a formal request.
“Sunday was a really incredible day and it was made even more spectacular knowing that our miles were helping such a great cause and that we had so much support from such an awesome work family!,” said Tannis McKenna, Centro’s team captain.
Congratulations to all the members of Centro’s Team DetermiNation on your incredible feat and thank you for such an awesome contribution to society. You truly epitomize the idealistic characteristics and qualities outlined in our company manifesto – we couldn’t be more proud to have you as employees.
For those of you who are about to Google the headline, we’ll save you the search:
Millennials aren’t just keeping up with the Kardashians. They’re keeping up with the news, too. And in this post, the latter part of the headline is the real story.
Recently, we touched on a few projections regarding Millennials and their booming spending habits, heightening stress levels, and increasing travel tendencies. So what else are Millennials spending their time on? Surprisingly, the news! In fact, according to a new report released by the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research (A.K.A. Media Insight Project), 85% of Millennials say that keeping up with the news is at least somewhat important to them and 69% say they get the news daily – often via a social networking site. A fortuitous finding for a generation notorious for being constantly connected to each other, yet disconnected from the news. Stereotypes aside, Millennials do, in fact, consume a lot of news – thanks in large part to mobile devices and social media platforms. Check out more of the study’s findings>>
This week’s madness has begun! No, we’re not referring to March Madness, though Centrons are keeping a close eye on their brackets. Right now, we’re talking about events! In order to continuously bring you the best and brightest in digital advertising, we attend, sponsor, and speak at some pretty incredible events. Check out our schedule below to see where we are at over the next two weeks. If you’d like additional details or would like to set up a meeting, email us at [email protected]. We’d love to chat!
What: SXSW Interactive – 3/13 – 3/17
Who’s going? Ryan Manchee, Heather Robertson, Noor Naseer
Where: Austin, TX
What’s going on? SXSW Interactive is the incubator for cutting-edge technology and digital creativity. Packed with five days of compelling presentations and panels from the brightest minds in emerging technologies, SXSW Interactive brings together industry leaders for exciting networking events and unbeatable programs showcasing the best new websites, video games, and start-ups.
What: NAA MediaXchange – 3/15 – 3/19
Who’s Going? Michael Mahler, John Hyland, Jeff White, Ben Zelikovitz, Katie Risch, Megan Lutz, Jessica Burget, Garrett McClure
Where: Nashville, TN
What’s going on? The largest annual gathering of industry executives in North America for publishers, NAA offers unprecedented networking opportunities and programs. Centro will be onsite to meet with publishers to discuss how we can better resolve their questions and concerns pertaining to the digital landscape.
What: St. Patrick’s Day Party – 3/17
Who’s going? Josh Lawson, Lyndsey Barfield, Dayna Schram, Emily Sciantarelli and Charlotte Moss
Where: Oklahoma City, OK
What’s going on? We are hosting a St. Patrick’s Day happy hour social for our clients in Oklahoma City. Be sure to wear your green and come thirsty!
What: 6th Annual Bowling for Breast Cancer – 3/19
Who’s going? Tom Burg, Leah Holzman, Jason Danahy, Matt Bassil, Ashley Thorn, Joe Pospisil, Grace Briscoe, Keith Brewer
Where: New York, NY
What’s going on? Breastcancer.org is hosting its 6th Annual Bowling for Breast Cancer, the organization’s largest fundraising event, which contributes 10% of the funds to women facing breast cancer. Centro is the ‘Bowl the Lane’ sponsor and is fielding a team of eight!
What: March Madness Bash with Carmichael Lynch – 3/20
Who’s going? Dan Monfre
Where: Minneapolis, MN
What’s going on? Centro is throwing a NCAA March Madness party at Carmichael Lynch in Minneapolis to mark the start of the Big Dance.
We hope to see you around but if we don’t, have a wonderful week.
Employers, say goodbye to workplace productivity this month – the 2015 NCAA March Madness Tournament is expected to break some pretty impressive records. And we’re not talking about points or free throws! In fact, according to outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, from the time the field of 68 teams is announced on March 15, or Selection Sunday, to the time the title game is played on April 6, “the cost in terms of lost wages paid to distracted and unproductive workers could reach as high as $1.9 billion.” Between the 60 million Americans filling out brackets and the first two days (or 12 games) of the tournament taking place during work hours, it’s obvious who the real loser of the tournament is – employers!
That being said, work productivity numbers aren’t the only figures taking huge jumps. According to Turner Sports, NCAA March Madness Live, the online streaming service for the NCAA tournament, delivered 69.7 million live video streams in 2014, which is the equivalent to about 15 million hours of office downtime. If that doesn’t get your pulse racing, this will – executives expect that those numbers will get eclipsed this year! Why? Hania Poole, senior director, product management and operations at March Madness Live, argues that the omnipresence of video anytime and anywhere in combination with the enhanced, more seamlessly integrated March Madness Live system will have a huge impact on viewership figures. The enhanced system will feature archived videos, tournament-field-tied rankings and statistics, new content, and social networking components.
With those viewership numbers in mind, marketers are capitalizing on the digital opportunity revolving around March Madness – particularly, platform sponsors like Capital One, Coke Zero, Infiniti, and AT&T. The bad news? Officials say digital inventory for NCAA March Madness Live is officially sold out. But don’t give up yet! There’s still time for some social engagement. According to the NCAA, 7.7 million social media comments about the tournament are made during telecasts. So get involved in the conversation, extend your reach, and possibly get a few new eyeballs on your brand. Oh, and one more thing! Join your fellow March Madness loving Americans and get in the game by downloading this NCAA bracket for your upcoming bracket battles. Good luck!
Recently, we discussed the spending habits of millennials in a blog post and infographic, as well as revealed how they are the most stressed generation in America in an accompanying post. So that leaves just one question – what exactly are millennials spending their money on that’s leading to all this stress? Well – according to Hotwire’s 2014 American Travel Behavior Survey – traveling! In fact, one-third of millennial respondents, more than any other age group, intend to travel more often this year. To top it off, 35 percent of millennials intend to take one of two large vacations in 2015, compared to just 23 percent of travelers ages 45 to 54. As the presence of this generation continues to boom, travel and tourism marketers need to capture the business and devotion of this new breed of travelers. Here’s your first step. Learn how millennials are impacting the travel industry>>
When it comes to snacks, everyone has a favorite. It’s hard not to, especially with the enormous influence of creative advertising. It’s common knowledge that the best snack campaigns result in increased brand recognition and, ultimately, more products purchased. But for some brands, improving brand recognition on a regional level can be challenging, and many find boosting local awareness easier said than done.
A national soft drink label came to us with this exact issue. It had plans to launch a sweepstakes campaign at quick service restaurants that served the drink. Customers who purchased the client’s product at participating locations could enter the sweepstakes by accessing a microsite via a snaptag on the packaging. The strategizing, planning and execution process required for these local digital campaigns proved to be challenging for this company, and would require greater bandwidth and resources than the client had. Additionally, the client needed guidance on market budgets to fit its media plan. Without help in these areas, the soft drink’s campaign would go flat.
Centro’s vast experience with local digital campaigns simplified the entire process for the beverage company. Through early research, the team found that gamers in the regional markets were some of the biggest consumers of soft drinks and were also very active online. Furthermore, the research and strategy team used its subject matter experts, access to data, and historical performance insights to help recommend media spend levels that would maximize reach to regional audiences.
In order to properly recommend ad frequency and budget for each market, the Centro team applied third-party research to the client’s campaign objectives. This resulted in a campaign strategy that included a combination of audience buying tactics to reach a broader population, custom gaming units for maximum engagement and a narrow targeting strategy to track the customer’s social behaviors.
The campaign was a great success. With Centro’s help, it delivered 15 million impressions, 38,000 clicks and over 500,000 unique engagements, all for a CPC of $3.26. This digital performance led to a 6% overall increase in soft drink sales among the participating quick service restaurants during the campaign’s runtime. The client was so pleased that it approached Centro to handle all of its future local marketing initiatives.
At Centro, we offer a modern approach to digital media. With over 13 years and 100,000 campaigns to our name, we leverage advanced technology, proven tactics, and industry expertise to build campaigns around the channels and platforms that drive the greatest results for our client’s specific business needs. People and technology are at the heart of Centro, and are the essential parts in every #CentroInAction story.
We recently touched on the notoriously heavy spending habits of millennials in a blog post and infographic, revealing that this generation will spend $1.4 trillion annually by 2020 – accounting for 30% of U.S. retail sales. Yet, isn’t it ironic how a newly released report from the American Psychological Association has found that among generations, millennials are the most stressed – due in large part to money and financial concerns? In fact, the Stress in America study found that members of the group (people ages 18 to 33) have an overall stress level of 5.5 on the 1-10 scale, compared to the average stress level of 3.7 that was reported by the matures generation (people age 67 or older).
To take a deeper dive into the statistics, check out this article from MediaPost>>
