Even the most respected automotive brands find marketing a daunting task because of the noisy environment in a media-saturated market. More and more consumers are making digital media and referring to the internet before making any purchasing decision. Now, automakers and dealers must take their marketing across digital platforms like Instagram, which is now the most attractive marketing platform.
Auto brands are using Instagram to reach out to customers and launching marketing campaigns by collaborating with top Instagrammers or through brand channels. One of the most impressive marketing campaigns on Instagram is the one started by Mercedes Benz named ‘Take the Wheel’ that garnered over 2 million likes and 87 million impressions. BMW, too, uses Instagram aggressively for marketing, and many of its campaigns illustrate how automakers can fuel their marketing campaigns with brand-sponsored posts. A recent survey has shown that auto brands enjoyed the highest engagement on Instagram, which underscores the platform’s popularity for marketing.
The performance metrics of marketing on Instagram are easy to understand by looking at the number of followers that point to brand popularity and the number of ‘likes’ garnered by the campaigns that indicate the popularity of specific content or campaign which influences the brand too. While leading brands have a ready following, new brands take time to develop followers by consistently posting high-quality content. To save the time it takes to garner ‘likes’ organically, many marketers buy likes on Instagram to jumpstart the campaign.
The top car brands are investing time and money in Instagram marketing dominated by Mercedes and BMW, with the former using multiple brand channels to own the top 20 list and the latter having a formidable army of 5.7 million followers. Other brands like Chevrolet, Toyota, Maserati, and Jaguar, to name a few, are also tapping into the power of Instagrammers to bolster their marketing campaigns.
Buy likes on Instagram to stay on the top of your game
Instagram is a notch above other advertising media, which is one of the reasons for automakers choosing it. The uniqueness and appeal of the Instagram platform to carmakers are not only because it is a visual media but also for its ability to provide a viable way to marketers to promote their brand within specialized niches, an aspect that television advertisements fail to achieve. The niche interest prevails upon Instagrammers who create content around niche interests like food, fashion, tech, autos, etc.
Car brands can maximize brand messaging and relevancy by targeting Instagrammers who already integrate automotive interest into their aspirational content and lifestyles, which paves the way to reach out to the Instagrammer’s audience. As cars are now lifestyle products, it is easy for auto brands to assuredly target receptive and engaged audience on popular social media channels.
Top auto brands are marketing their stories
Telling a story is one of the most potent ways to market brands and carmakers who tie-up with top Instagrammers to make the most of influencer power to showcase cars through captivating photos as well as short video clips. Instagram marketing gathers great impetus as Instagrammers integrate the sponsoring auto brand into adventure photos, traveling posts, or by attending auto-related events. It adds a personal dimension to products and helps their followers experience the brand in a fresh, unique, and engaging way.
Event oriented campaigns
To define brand identity, automakers are developing a campaign around events to address niche audiences, which effectively targets markets that already accept the company’s ethos. For example, Jeep partnered with World Surf League, which allowed the brand to reach out to crucial Instagram adventure enthusiasts by using branded hashtag #JeepWSL to display their Jeep Renegade, redesigned in a new avatar. Jeep roped in Keanu Asing, a professional surfer with 21,500 engaged followers was an ideal way to reach out to the audience that it could have never reached in any other way. It gave the brand ready access to a large audience that could witness the Jeep Renegade being given away to the surf competition winners.
Jaguar connects to new audiences with the help of fashion Instagrammers
To promote the Jaguar XE, the company’s new sports sedan, it collaborated with Instagrammers and top fashion bloggers. Targeting market niches was evident in the campaigns of BMW and Mercedes that enjoyed high success by collaborating with Instagrammers to target specific demographics that embrace a particular lifestyle. Jaguar XE is now well known among 6, 45,000 people who are followers of Claire Marshall, lifestyle blogger.
Wrapping up
Instagram is an excellent place for sharing stories and what can be better than telling stories through videos to reach out to the majority of car shoppers. The car dealers consider that the stories play a vital role in the customer decision making.