Twitter Marketing Drives $716M in Car Sales

Auto marketers have been asking themselves if their tweets really influence people to buy cars…it seems that the answer is yes.  Marketshare, a marketing analytics company, measured the direct and indirect effects that Twitter had on auto sales for more than 20 volume midsize and luxury compact cars that accounted for 34% of annual U.S. sales in 2013.  MarketShare concluded that Twitter drove $716 million in auto sales among those 20 nameplates through Twitter Ads, positive brand mentions, amplification of TV advertising and the Twitter activity of the automakers themselves.  The new research from MarketShare highlights the power of Twitter for auto marketers, who can leverage the platform to not only build brand awareness and affinity with auto-intenders, but actually move cars off the lot.

One way auto marketers are using Twitter to their advantage is by sending out Tweets to correspond with TV commercials in order to give their messaging longer legs. The idea is that a user engaged enough with a TV show to tweet about it is very likely to have seen the commercials and is a perfect target for promoted tweets. 

Audi took advantage of this strategy this summer when it tied its A3 launch to the TV show “Pretty Little Liars.”  PPL viewers fit with the A3 target consumer demographic in terms of age and income and PPL had a built in reach stemming from its 2.46 million Twitter followers. In addition to running A3 ads during the show's commercial breaks, Audi took its outreach a step further by directing tweeters to its Snapchat mobile account, where it posted video clues and puzzles of what would happen next in the episode -- people took screenshots of the clues and distributed them on Twitter.  The Twitter push drew 876,000 engagements overall, and the campaign's #PLLAudi hashtag was mentioned nearly 30,000 times. The promotion resulted in 487 million social impressions on networks, including Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook.

While finding a direct correlation to sales in a campaign like this is difficult, a Nielsen brand-effect study found that Audi awareness ticked upward among those who were exposed to it.  When people were asked what cars came to mind when they thought of the luxury sector, Audi responses rose 30% among those who saw the "Pretty Little Liars" campaign. In addition, opinions of Audi became 56% more favorable among the exposed group.

Other auto makers have done similar campaigns using Twitter marketing to their advantage.  These include Jaguar and Acura.

Source: http://adage.com/article/digital/study-twitter-marketing-drives-716-million-car-sales/295618/