From car dealers to manufacturers, the automotive industry has embraced social media in a big way. Big names in this industry like Ford, Toyota and General Motors are more aggressive with their social media marketing strategies than before. While Facebook and Twitter are popular platforms, YouTube appears to be the new favorite with automotive brands.

Why YouTube?

Thismoment investigated why car brands, which previously dedicated bulk of their marketing budgets to TV, are now focusing on YouTube. Here’s what we found:

• YouTube’s exponential growth as a social branding channel has resulted in car brands extending their TV spots to the video sharing site.
• Besides being cost-effective, marketing on YouTube means car brands can promote their products by creating interactive, engaging brand experiences.
• Recent studies show video to be the top format to engage prospective car buyers.
• Six of the 20 most-watched YouTube ads of all time are automotive-related (Adweek, 2012).
• Social-savvy customers want more than to just watch ads on YouTube. To meet this demand, automotive brands are leveraging this platform to launch user generated content campaigns, focusing on sponsorships etc.
• Between June 2011 to June 2012, video shares across the automotive sector increased by a whopping 147.3% (Unruly media).

Marketing on YouTube: Three Best Practices for Auto Brands

The above studies indicate that the automotive industry is stepping up its use of YouTube for marketing. For car brands that have until now trudged along, here are three best practices that will help them cruise into the YouTube marketing space.

1. Showcase Your Virtual Showroom: YouTube, as a social branding channel, presents marketers with immense opportunity. However, to make the most of YouTube, marketers need to more than just deploy commercials. Let us explain with an example:
   

   Kia Motors America uses Thismoment Distributed Engagement Channel (DEC) to customize their YouTube channel , creating a virtual showroom in the process. This interactive, virtual showroom enables customers to browse through and obtain information about the latest launches in the Kia line up.

   Automotive brands can customize their YouTube channels, create virtual showrooms and showcase their models in high quality visuals and ads by selecting from one or more of the DEC theater modules.


2. Establish Emotional Connections: Research by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science shows that videos that provoke a strong emotional response are twice as likely to be shared than those that elicit weak emotional response from viewers. The research also highlights that the average automotive ad is not eliciting high intensity emotions. Therefore, it’s crucial that automotive brands overcome this challenge and increase “shareability” of their YouTube videos by taking viewers beyond the typical 30-second ad. This includes creating YouTube videos that are funny, thought-provoking etc. These videos:
   • Establish emotional connections
   • Pave the way for further brand-customer interaction
   • Increase “shareability”

   The Hyundai Santa Fe “Don’t Tell” YouTube spot (created on Thismoment DEC) is a great example of an ad that establishes strong emotional connections with viewers. Besides being funny, the ad focuses on the importance of connecting with the family and tells viewers to start their story in the new Santa Fe.


3. “Drive” Engagement with Challenging Contests: 2012 witnessed some of the big names in the automotive industry leverage YouTube to deploy various contests for the Super Bowl. Consumers were invited to participate in Super Bowl themed UGC contests, upload those funny videos etc. Super Bowl is a great time to launch contests and ads that drive high engagement. But there’s lots of untapped opportunity during rest of the year for automotive brands and we suggest they make the most of it.

   Using Thismoment’s UGC contest engine, for instance, automotive brands can launch engaging, creative contests on YouTube, during the Super Bowl and otherwise. What’s more, marketers can also enable voting, asking users to vote for their favorite model, ads etc. to further drive engagement. Check out Peugeot’s “Let Your Body Drive” UGC campaign on YouTube to know more.

The Road Ahead…

Although not leading yet, the automotive industry is cruising into the YouTube marketing space. In addition to dominating the Super Bowl over the last two years, car brands have leveraged YouTube to launch some memorable campaigns and contests. Besides focusing on sponsorships like the Super Bowl, we expect automotive brands to extend their TV spots to YouTube, in a move to drive greater engagement, increase sales and reduce marketing spend. However, there will be a noticeable difference between how these brands used YouTube earlier and how they will use it now to deploy campaigns. In addition to their regular share of commercials, car brands will focus more on UGC campaigns and design their YouTube brand channels to resemble virtual showrooms.

To know more about how you can add value to your YouTube brand channel, check out the recent webinar on “Unlocking the Power of YouTube Brand Channels” by Thismoment and one of our valued customers, TaylorMade Golf.

- Shama Ahmed
Thismoment

Andrew Sielen

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