The key to driving engagement

An internet-inspired shift in the car purchasing model was the key factor to emerge at this year’s IAB Automotive Forum.

Wednesday, 29 April 2009

“It would be remiss not to talk about the credit crunch,” said the IAB’s Kieron Matthews, opening this year’s Automotive Forum. The automotive industry’s difficulties during the credit crunch have of course been well reported, but Matthews was keen to highlight the fact that this recession is different from previous ones. “We have to be careful of regressing back to media and methods that got us through the last recession. This is the first time we’ve even had the internet in a recession. Online can be a fantastic tool in these times.”

Matthews was keen to stress that the automotive industry is particularly well placed to explore the potential of the internet. “The traditional buying cycle has changed,” he argued, pointing out that web savvy consumers have created a fundamental shift in the way people shop online for cars.

“A digital evolution”

This was a point picked up by Julie Forey, head of research and insight at Microsoft Advertising. Forey was discussing a new piece of research from Microsoft which sought to explain how the car buyer’s “cycle of consideration” had changed over the last five years. “The one thing most car buyers now have in common is a reliance on the internet,” said Forey.

Forey argued that in 2004 the most important source used when buying a car was car dealers. In second place were friends and family and third was the internet. Five years on, this situation has changed dramatically with the internet now occupying the top spot. As a result, Forey argued: “We are witnessing a digital evolution”.

This was a key feature of the day’s discussions. Ian Webber, category director, automotive at Yahoo!, for example, made continual reference during his presentation to “the new consumer” who does his car buying research online. Indeed, Webber unveiled the latest Yahoo! research which showed that 68% of people cite the internet as the main channel used to source automotive information – only 18% cited car dealerships.

So if we accept that this “new consumer” exists, how has this shift come about? Forey drew on Microsoft research to outline several key factors at play.

• The internet gives buyers confidence:

Seven out of ten people feel more confident going to a dealer if they have used the internet first and six out of ten people believe the internet helps them get a better deal

• The internet makes the process easier:

Six out of ten car buyers said the internet has made buying a car easier

• The internet inspires as well as informs:

Six out of ten respondents claimed the internet made buying a car more fun

As a result of these developments, Forey argued that, “a new, non-linear model has emerged”, what Microsoft calls “the expansion zone”.

“People don’t buy cars online”

Jon Myers, head of search at MediaVest Manchester, picked up on a number of the key themes explored by Forey. “We’ve seen a massive change over the last five years,” argued Myers. “Online has become central to all dealership marketing activity”.

According to Myers, out of an internet population of 36.9m, 9.6m people visit automotive sites. Within this active automotive audience, the average person visits an automotive site 3.71 times per month, spending 26 minutes per person and viewing 54 web pages.

Like Forey and Webber, Myers went on to argue that the internet is now more important than the car dealership. Quoting Google research he argued that online resources have overtaken car dealerships as the initial point of reference for car buyers – with a total of 86% of UK car buyers using online sources for research during the car purchasing process. As a result Myers was forced to wonder whether the internet is “the new dealership and forecourt”.

For all the importance of online however, Myers was eager to point out, “People don’t buy cars online. The measure of success is booking test drives and the like. It will be a long time before we see a shift from the online research and offline purchase model”.

The final step

So, while there has been a huge amount of progress in terms of the online marketing of cars, there is still some way to go. As Aaron Martin, executive creative director at Syzygy pointed out, huge strides have been made in the use of online video in automotive promotion. As Dan Ng, head of planning at Tribal DDB illustrated, great progress has made in the design and creation of highly responsive automotive websites. As Duncan Walters, a planner at iCrossing argued, much has also been done in terms of utilising online PR and social media to promote car brands. The future though may lie in the final step, persuading consumers to go through with a car purchase online.

Click here for more information on how the internet is impacting on the automotive sector, or download the IAB’s Automotive Vertical booklet here.

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