Into the Storm - Online Magazine for BMW

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New UK Online Mercedes Campaigns - B Class and Mercedes Benz world

As reported by Adverblog

Get ready for Mercedes Benz World
Mercedes Benz has recently launched two campaigns to target the British market. The first effort is dedicated to the new B-Class model which will arrive on the market at the beginning of September. Tv and print ads aim at building curiosity and driving traffic to the B-Class website.
The second effort is inspired to Mercedes-Benz World, a new retail and leisure complex to be opened in Summer 2006 at Brooklands. The Mercedes village will include a top class hotel, exhibition and conference spaces, kids' spaces, a restaurant as well as circuits for test drives. According to the description provided on Revolution Magazine, Mercedes-Benz World appears to be a large-scale experiential marketing effort to engage the entire family

KBB - Kelley Blue Book - is the Visited site Among US Used Car Buyers

Used AutoShopper.com Study Finds Kelley Blue Book 'Most Useful'
IRVINE, Calif., July 12 /PRNewswire/ -- For the seventh consecutive year, Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com maintains its status as the most visited automotive Web site among used-vehicle buyers in J.D. Power and Associates' 2005 Used AutoShopper.com study. The just-released study finds 55 percent of all Automotive Internet Users (AIUs) buying a used vehicle visit kbb.com prior to purchasing, and kbb.com was cited as "the most useful site visited in their automotive shopping process" more frequently than any other automotive site. Kbb.com attracts nearly as many unique visitors (among actual vehicle buyers) as any other three automotive Web sites combined, according to J.D. Power and Associates' annual report. In addition to kbb.com's consistent top position among used-vehicle buyers, J.D. Power and Associates' 2004 'New' AutoShopper.com study also shows kbb.com as the most visited automotive Web site among new-vehicle buyers for seven years running.

"Whether researching a new or used vehicle, consumers and the industry know kbb.com will provide the most comprehensive automotive information available on the Internet today," said Stephen Henson, executive vice president of sales, marketing and products for Kelley Blue Book. "Our continued top status in both J.D. Power AutoShopper studies shows that Kelley Blue Book consistently delivers on our 79-year promise of being 'the trusted resource.'"
The J.D. Power and Associates 2005 Used AutoShopper.com study was conducted among more than 14,000 used-vehicle buyers (2000-2005 model years). J.D. Power and Associates has been conducting the Used AutoShopper.com study since 1999, and kbb.com has been the leading site in the study since its inception. Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com launched in 1995; this is the first J.D. Power and Associates AutoShopper.com study that reflects the new kbb.com design, which was introduced in April 2004.

About Kelley Blue Book (kbb.com)
Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com is America's most used and trusted vehicle pricing, values and information resource. The top-rated Web site provides the most up-to-date pricing and values for thousands of new and used vehicles, including the Blue Book® New Car Value, which reveals what people actually are paying for new cars. Since 1926, car buyers and sellers have relied upon Kelley Blue Book for authoritative and unbiased information to make well-informed automotive decisions. The company also reports vehicle prices and values via products and services, including the famous Blue Book® Official Guide and software products. Car buyers have rated kbb.com No. 1 in overall customer satisfaction and experience, according to a survey by Keynote Systems. Kbb.com also has been named the No. 1 automotive information site by Nielsen//NetRatings and the most visited auto site by J.D. Power and Associates seven years in a row. No other medium reaches more in-market vehicle shoppers than kbb.com; one in every four American car buyers complete their research on kbb.com.

Car Marketing Session at Ad:Tech

In "Automotive Research Insights," comScore Chairman and Co-Founder Gian Fulgoni and Vertis Director of Marketing Research Scott Marden shared their smarts on car buyers. Marden focused on car shoppers' trends broken out by life stage, and he had so many stats that it's hard to recount any here. One interesting notes: he says African Americans represent the greatest consumer opportunity.
Much of Fulgoni's focus, meanwhile, was comparing car manufacturer sites against third party sites, and comparing how consumers search and shop for different car brands online.
Fulgoni said that from May 2004 to May 2005, total internet users increased by 5.8%, while the automotive category grew a scant 2.4%. Digging deeper, visits to manufactuer sites jumped 23%, while visits to third-party resources fell by 4.7%.
He also examined how consumers behave differently long before they're ready to buy a car compared to when they're buying a car in the next several months. Online configurations, finding a dealer, and financing all climb significantly as car buyers move from long term to near term. Consumers tend to use manufacturer sites for near-term buying and third-party sites for long-term buying.
Also reviewed are breakouts of shoppers for Asian cars compared with shoppers for domestic cars. Fulgoni noted, "The Japanese auto shoppers will tend to shop for Japanese autos and stay within the Japanese auto segment, whereas the American shopper will tend to look across both the domestic and the Japanese sites. There tends to be two segments of the market developing here."
Another finding was that there are hardly any demographic differences of consumers visiting a range of different car brand sites. "Demographics alone do not provide sufficient discrimination between shopper groups." The solution? It requires a new term (oh boy): "cognographics." Add this one to your marketing dictionaries. Fulgoni defines cognographics as "the complete details of a consumer's internet usage (sites visited, number of pages downloaded, time spent, transactions conducted, etc)." He says this more accurately reflects overall lifestyles.
If you attended Ad:Tech, Susan Bratton offers a friendly reminder that presentations will be online after the show, so be sure to get your stat fix then.

New US Saab Site - MaintainYourIdentity.net

"You're Different - So is Saab"

Includes a quiz, photos, and videos

AutoMakers Luring Consumers to Websites - comScore

Automakers are luring consumers to their websites with targeted offers and flashy advertising to counter competition from around the world, comScore reports. The number of visitors to the "Automotive – Manufacturer" category of sites increased 23 percent, from 19.4 million in May 2004 to 23.8 million in May 2005. General Motors sites were the most visited, with 7.9 million visitors, up 61 percent from May 2004. GM was followed by Ford with 6.6 million visitors and DaimlerChrysler with 4.5 million visitors.

Americans between the ages of 35 and 44 were 23 percent more likely than the average internet user to visit automotive manufacturer sites. They are focused on automotive safety information; for example, they are 42 percent more likely than the average internet user to visit the site for GM's OnStar, the in-vehicle communication system designed to assist drivers in case of emergency. And they are 52 percent more likely to view the National Transportation Safety Board site, which provides automobile safety information.

Meanwhile, Toyota-owned brand Scion is drawing heavy interest in the 13-to 17-year-old age group - its members are 99 percent more likely to visit Scion.com than the average internet user. Scion's online vehicle customization and targeted promotions have been successful in attracting younger consumers to the brand. Scion is drawing consumers to its site by pushing the brand through unique sponsorships such as The Ultimate Fighting Championship and the National VGL Video Gaming Tournament.

Dodge's Charger Muscles in on Web

Chrysler Group has undertaken its most elaborate web advertising effort to date after having increased its online ad budget this year by 20 percent over last, writes AdAge. The automaker is testing out its online muscle to reintroduce the 2006 Dodge Charger muscle car. The campaign will use a desktop toolbar to point users to Charger ads all over the web, not just at one site. Julie Roehm, Chrysler director of marketing communications, called the "Unleash Your Freak" online push its "most aggressive online campaign to date."

The internet is the lead medium for the campaign, on which Omnicom Group's Organic worked with siblings creative agency BBDO Worldwide and media planner-buyer PHD. Of the $1.6 billion Chrysler Group spent in all measured media last year, $36.1 million was for online ads, according to TNS Media Intelligence

Ford Fusion uses Flashmob Marketing in the US

Going the urban route, like the Scion

Internet Automotive Market Has Room to Grow

Jul. 3--For a 10-year-old, the Internet automotive market is quite successful. But like most 10-year-olds, it still has a lot growing up to do.
A decade ago, eBay, Autobytel, Yahoo and Kelley Blue Book began to provide automotive information and listings online. Yet, the Internet hasn't even come close to dominating car purchasing. Nor has it made the traditional dealership obsolete as some had predicted -- and some, frankly, had hoped.
But the Internet has changed the way consumers research a car and, dealers say, has brought them a flood of new leads -- 20 million prospective customers a year last year, by one estimate -- who they might not have had otherwise, according to auto industry analysts.
More than half of car buyers use the Internet for research, but most close the deal the way it's always been done: face to face at a dealership. A relative few venture deeper into cyberspace to solicit bids from multiple dealers via the Internet, to leave deposits online or to arrange financing.
According to Jupiter Research, only about half a percent of the 17 million new vehicle purchases in this country last year were made on the Internet. It predicted the percentage wouldn't increase to much more than 1.5 percent by 2009.
"People are concerned about being hassled by the dealer" if they try to purchase a car online, said Jupiter's lead auto analyst, Julie Ask, who's based in the company's San Francisco office. "They're not sure if their information is going to be misused. And they prefer to be in control of the process."
But Jupiter said one in five new car sales, about 3.5 million a year, are "Internet-generated" -- that is, are researched online and lead to an Internet referral to a particular dealership. That number is expected to nearly double by the end of this decade.
The brief history of online car shopping matches that of the dot-coms: fueled by a lot of hype in the 1990s that proved in the new century to be overly optimistic. "It was a bit of a land grab early on, and everybody wanted to create a Web site," said Jeremy Anwyl, president of Edmunds.com, a Web-based auto information service that offers pricing and product information and acts as a "third party" to refer prospective customers to dealers, who pay for each referral.
With trade-in, financing, insurance, options and extended warranty issues to complicate things, buying a new car can be uncomfortable for some in the impersonal world of the Internet, said Dennis Galbraith, senior director of auto marketing solutions for the research company J.D. Power and Associates of Westlake Village, Calif. "Live communication or video communication is more complete than voice or text," he said. "When I can see your facial expression, I can have a greater confidence that we have an understanding and I know who I'm dealing with. The Internet has not taken away that obstacle yet."
But use of the Internet for research has soared among car shoppers. In 1998, only about 25 percent of all new car buyers went online to gather information about cares and dealers, according to Power. By last year that number had risen to 64 percent for new-car buyers and 54 percent for used-car buyers
So most dealers have set up Web sites where consumers can check inventory and in many cases make credit applications. Dealerships like Ramp Chevrolet and Hummer in Port Jefferson Station and St. James, respectively, and Paragon Honda/Acura in Woodside have separate sales staffs -- nine people at Ramp, four at Paragon -- to handle Internet-generated customers. "We get a large influx of leads each month through our Internet department," said Ramp marketing director Barbara Gasparik. At Paragon, general manager Brian Benstock said his Internet operation, too, delivers a significant share of prospects. "It increases our capacity and velocity," he said. "We can handle more transactions per hour."
For automotive research, the amount of auto-related information available online on manufacturer, dealer, government, trade group and other Web sites, most of it free, is overwhelming, including wholesale vehicle and options prices, specifications, dealer and finance locators, crash-test ratings, reliability ratings and reviews and articles from magazines, on TV and in newspapers.
"I spent an hour or so a day for weeks kind of working through it," said 50-year-old Michael Marks of Smithtown, the president of a Hauppauge energy consulting company who eventually settled in October on a new 2004 Nissan Murano, an SUV.
He and other buyers say their online research helped get them a better deal with less aggravation. "I don't like going to different dealerships and playing that game," Marks said. "I like using a local dealership, and if you know what you're talking about, they're pretty good." In this case, the dealer was Smithtown Nissan.
But, as most buyers still do, Marks said he preferred to deal face to face with a salesman and e-mail any personal contact information. "I don't want dealers call me, because I don't know when they're going to leave me alone," he said. "They can be a little aggressive."
Although many consumers describe buying a car as an unpleasant experience, there is often an emotional element to choosing a vehicle that can't be duplicated online. Doreen Leo-Huneke, a 55-year-old social work pyschotherapist from East Islip, said she considered using a service like Autobytel that would link her with dealers interested in bidding for her business. But objectivity went out the window, she said, when she visited a Chrysler dealership in Bay Shore and fell in love with a PT Cruiser on the showroom floor. "It was a really, really spiffy model," she said. "I said, 'I gotta have that.'"
Others, though, don't want to go near a dealership. For them, the operators of Web sites like CarsDirect.com will do the negotiating and even deliver the car to the customer's home. About half of CarsDirect.com's customers take it up on that offer, said spokeswoman Elke Martin. One was Devra Bressler, a 58-year-old retired elementary school teacher from Lake Ronkonkoma who had a new Toyota Camry driven right to her door. "It was very nice," she said. "The guy who delivered the car put on the plates and showed me how to work the car." Carsdirect.com doesn't disclose specific numbers but said thousands of new and used cars are purchased each year through the site.
Many dealers also will deliver cars at the customer's request.
The king of all sites for car buying, according to Jupiter, is also the king of all Internet commerce: eBay, which created its eBay Motors auction Web site in 2000, listing mostly used vehicles and parts. eBay Inc. won't disclose specifics, but its claims of a vehicle sale a minute through its site would add up to more than half a million vehicles a year. It charges $40 to list a car and another $40 when it's sold.
Most of the sales are by dealers, and most are across state lines, said Rob Chesney, eBay's director of vehicles. To help protect buyers from fraud, the site makes available comments about the seller left by previous buyers. "It's a simple but powerful self-policing marketplace," Chesney said.
Other protections include arranging vehicle inspections for prospective buyers who want them and, in certain circumstances, reimbursing buyers victimized by misrepresentation by a seller.
Mike Curry, a 48-year-old Massapequa man who describes himself as a landlord and part-time carpenter, bought a used Honda motorcycle for $5,000 from a private owner in New Hampshire who listed it on eBay. "I looked at a couple of classified listings, but really eBay is the best," he said. "Everybody puts everything on eBay."
But 32-year-old New York City sanitation department worker Jagdesh Daneshwar of Richmond Hill said, "I wouldn't buy a car on eBay. I like to look at the car and test-drive it." He said he used the Internet in November to thoroughly research the minivan he was looking for, finally settling on a used Mercury Villager, purchased for $11,000 from a local dealer.
Not everyone, though, has been satisfied in attempts to buy vehicles online. Kenneth Pischel, a 39-year-old from East Northport who has made his living in commercial equipment leasing, said in an e-mail, "I've tried a few times, but the information you get is limited. ... Also, the dealers are slow to respond to online requests." He located the last car he bought, a Ford Mustang with the unusual combination of six-cylinder engine and stick shift, on his own in New Jersey.
For 54-year-old retired tax accountant Jack Hirsch of Levittown, the Internet armed him with details he said helped him get a good deal last month from Westbury Toyota on a new Camry. "You have to do your homework," he said.
For dealers, the Internet has meant change -- in some cases unwelcome. Some experts say Internet-generated customers tend to have done more research and are more serious about buying than the average tire-kicker. Power's Galbraith said the Internet-savvy customer is more likely to be a more loyal customer when it's time to buy the next vehicle. "They got the right car the first time, and they know it's a good deal," he said. "In previous years customers had no way of certifying that it was a good deal."
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To see more of Newsday, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsday.com
Copyright (c) 2005, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

New Peugeot 1007 site for France - the car with the sliding doors.

Good Viral videos, showing people in 'normal' cars getting trapped by a bloke with a fork lift truck.

& a game where you have to open the car door as fast as possible and smash it into a fire hydrant.

Auto Ads Work Best on Auto Sites - Dynamic Logic Market Norms


Automotive Ads on Auto Websites Dramatically Increase Purchase Intent
Recent analysis of Dynamic Logic's MarketNorms® (Q4/2004) shows that auto ads can build Brand Awareness very well on just about any type of website, but can dramatically increase Purchase Intent on auto sites.

The chart below shows an indexing of the average delta, or impact, on Brand Awareness and Purchase Intent/Consideration for four different types of websites. For awareness, there is little difference in advertising performance based on website type (they all hover around the index red line, which represents the average impact for all automotive advertising), confirming the ability of automakers to make consumers aware of their brand across auto, business/finance, news & info and sports sites.

However, when consumers are past the awareness stage and are more engaged in the buying process, auto advertising is most effective on auto-type sites. In fact, advertising on auto sites is considerably more effective at improving Purchase Intent/Consideration than the average impact on non-auto sites (see the higher blue bar on the left side of the graph). Since the message reaches consumers while they are further along the purchase funnel, it is not surprising that advertising on auto sites can have a greater persuasive impact. People who are in the market to buy a vehicle are more likely to be receptive to messaging about pricing deals and product differentiation.
Some reasons why:
Auto site visitors are likely to have a higher level of interest in cars or trucks and may already be more informed than other consumers about vehicles in the marketplace. Therefore, baseline awareness may be higher among auto site visitors than among visitors to other sites, leaving less room for improvement. In addition, aided awareness among all consumers for many vehicles is very high, reducing the potential for large differences in the impact of advertising on this metric across sites.
The messages delivered on auto sites may already be different from those delivered on business/finance, news & info or sports sites. Since auto site visitors may be closer to purchase, advertisers may tailor messaging on these sites to create persuasion rather than awareness.
Simply stated, lower-funnel messaging to drive favourability of a brand or intent to purchase has less impact on people who are not considering purchasing the product at that time. To be most effective, marketers should leverage a broad range of website types when the goal is to drive awareness, then focus persuasion-oriented auto advertising on auto-specific sites to increase intent to purchase.
NOTE: Dynamic Logic's MarketNorms® is a marketing effectiveness database. These findings are aggregate in nature, reflect past results and are not a guarantee of future results for individual campaigns

Renault Sells Out of Logans in France in One Week

Renault's Logan model out of stock in France just 1 week after launch - report 06.16.2005, 03:39 AM PARIS (AFX) - Renault SA has exhausted its stock of Logan models in France just one week after the low-cost sedan was launched in the country, French daily Le Figaro said. Renault had previously indicated that it was only planning on selling 5,000 Logans in France this year and did not launch an advertising campaign to push sales, partly because strong demand for the low-margin vehicle could hurt sales of other Renault models. According to Le Figaro, Renault has no immediate plans to raise Logan production to meet the strong demand. Dealerships have found that Logan clients range from young households buying their first car to white-collar executives purchasing a third car for their country home, indicating a broad interest in the functional, no-frills model, the report said.
paris@afxnews.com