2021 Winner
2021 Winners
Volkswagen
Dealership Done Digital
The objectives of this campaign are threefold. Volkswagen needed to adapt speedily to the new business paradigms brought forth by COVID-19. And as plummeting sales plagued the automotive industry, Volkswagen sought a way to mitigate loss in sales and thus, build purchase intent for its brand.
While 96% of car buyers researched online and consulted an average of six different online touch points, research showed that 98% of purchase decisions were still made at the physical dealership. nOn March 15th, 2020, COVID completely changed the car buying journey in Canada as the country entered lockdown and dealerships were forced to close. The dealer’s role as both information provider and deal closer needed to urgently be replaced with an alternative.
Come April, automotive sales had plummeted 75%. Sales were hemorrhaging and first-mover advantage was at stake. New reasons to shop emerged. With COVID, new forces were shaping the automotive market. Leveraging a semantic research tool, a technology that determines what users mean when they type in certain keywords, they identified multiple new need states and emerging consumer trends, such as 38% of the population abandoned public transit and could be looking for alternative modes of transportation, divorce was rising +20%, which could bring a new type of consumer into the category (families who owned one high-end vehicle might consider trading it for two entry-level models) and increased price sensitivity exacerbated by market uncertainty drove 37% of consumers to consider used vehicles.n These insights became cornerstones of both audience strategy, and Virtual Showroom initiative.
The three pillars of their strategy:
(1) Adapt to cost-conscious consumers’ shopping journey. Automotive websites do not guide consumers through their decision tree as a salesperson would: “With my budget, am I better off with a basic SUV model or a premium Sedan?” Corporate websites also have a blind spot in the decision tree: used cars. “For my budget, what is the best option: a used Mercedes or a brand-new Volkswagen?” To bridge the gap between website and purchase floor, and to adapt their digital strategy to today’s consumer decision tree, they simplified the online shopping journey by bringing all elements found online and in the physical showroom into one place. This gave birth to the virtual showroom, a dynamic digital experience hosted outside of Volkswagen’s corporate website, which integrated the consumer shopping journey across both new and used cars.
(2) Finding data signals specific to new shopping behaviours. They created new strategic data pools by tapping into the emerging shopping behaviours. How did they do it? They took the keywords identified in the semantic search tool (divorces, fear of public transportation, employment uncertainty, etc.) and followed, in real time, consumers who had typed these keywords on their social media posts into their other mobile apps and browsers. They were thus able to understand the feelings states of their target group en masse, including perceptions of their competitors. It allowed them to strike at the used car category, by identifying users most likely to consider Volkswagen over a used competitor.
(3) Integration to the dealership network. 98% of purchase decisions were still made at the physical dealership, and that would not change overnight. Their solution needed to be both a short-term solution during lockdown and a long-term solution which would acknowledge the role of dealers in closing the sales loop.
The Virtual Showroom is a one-stop shopping experience, based on a “choose your own adventure” concept. Consumers who were looking for a used car were led to the Virtual Showroom which pushed for a comparable new VW model, like a salesperson would. To bring it to life, they partnered up with AutoTrader, Canada’s 3rd party leader in new and used automotive marketplaces. Autotrader possessed the data, scale, and targeting capabilities to create this shopping experience.
The showroom complemented Volkswagen’s corporate website through third-party endorsement (integration of AutoTrader’s editorial content) and providing the guidance between options (new and used) through spec comparisons and a chatbot. The virtual showroom also recognized the critical role dealerships play in closing sales:live nearby dealer listings, for all of VW’s 146 locations and real-time tactical offers linked to regional sales programs.
First, AutoTrader leveraged its organic traffic to drive visits to the showroom. Secondly, Volkswagen activated the new audiences outside and inside the walls of AutoTrader. They tested these new audiences against the pre-COVID ones. The results were gargantuan, driving 53% more efficient traffic. They personalized promotional creative specific to users’ reasons to shop in environments such as “first-ever '' bespoke Volkswagen-intender eblast using AutoTrader’s first party in-market list, organic and boosted social amplification and corporate persona on LinkedIn.
Unlike the corporate website, Volkswagen’s Virtual Showroom drove incrementality by also positioning their compelling new car offers to buyers newly considering a used vehicle due to the state of the economy.
In April, automotive sales plummeted 75%, first-mover advantage was at stake, the virtual showroom needed to come to life in record time to reverse this trend. By August, it had already contributed to an 8% overachievement of quarterly sales objectives, despite the Q2 sales plummet!
Brand Lift Study shows a +6 pt lift (3x comparative benchmarks), in purchase intent, their key marketing objective. The Showroom execution also attracted new targets to V: lift was highest from groups that had less familiarity, affinity, and favorability for Volkswagen before the Showroom. Their new COVID-adapted audiences drove 53% more efficient traffic vs pre-COVID, demonstrating the power of their identified intent signals.
The virtual showroom achieved the best-ever engagement, brand interest and the highest lift on purchase intent rates in AutoTrader’s history and real customers have reached out to provide a testimonial on how the experience changed their car buying journey: “Thought AutoTrader was a place for used cars but we found the showroom. Set up an appointment in Barrie and bought the Cross Sport.”
While 96% of car buyers researched online and consulted an average of six different online touch points, research showed that 98% of purchase decisions were still made at the physical dealership. nOn March 15th, 2020, COVID completely changed the car buying journey in Canada as the country entered lockdown and dealerships were forced to close. The dealer’s role as both information provider and deal closer needed to urgently be replaced with an alternative.
Come April, automotive sales had plummeted 75%. Sales were hemorrhaging and first-mover advantage was at stake. New reasons to shop emerged. With COVID, new forces were shaping the automotive market. Leveraging a semantic research tool, a technology that determines what users mean when they type in certain keywords, they identified multiple new need states and emerging consumer trends, such as 38% of the population abandoned public transit and could be looking for alternative modes of transportation, divorce was rising +20%, which could bring a new type of consumer into the category (families who owned one high-end vehicle might consider trading it for two entry-level models) and increased price sensitivity exacerbated by market uncertainty drove 37% of consumers to consider used vehicles.n These insights became cornerstones of both audience strategy, and Virtual Showroom initiative.
The three pillars of their strategy:
(1) Adapt to cost-conscious consumers’ shopping journey. Automotive websites do not guide consumers through their decision tree as a salesperson would: “With my budget, am I better off with a basic SUV model or a premium Sedan?” Corporate websites also have a blind spot in the decision tree: used cars. “For my budget, what is the best option: a used Mercedes or a brand-new Volkswagen?” To bridge the gap between website and purchase floor, and to adapt their digital strategy to today’s consumer decision tree, they simplified the online shopping journey by bringing all elements found online and in the physical showroom into one place. This gave birth to the virtual showroom, a dynamic digital experience hosted outside of Volkswagen’s corporate website, which integrated the consumer shopping journey across both new and used cars.
(2) Finding data signals specific to new shopping behaviours. They created new strategic data pools by tapping into the emerging shopping behaviours. How did they do it? They took the keywords identified in the semantic search tool (divorces, fear of public transportation, employment uncertainty, etc.) and followed, in real time, consumers who had typed these keywords on their social media posts into their other mobile apps and browsers. They were thus able to understand the feelings states of their target group en masse, including perceptions of their competitors. It allowed them to strike at the used car category, by identifying users most likely to consider Volkswagen over a used competitor.
(3) Integration to the dealership network. 98% of purchase decisions were still made at the physical dealership, and that would not change overnight. Their solution needed to be both a short-term solution during lockdown and a long-term solution which would acknowledge the role of dealers in closing the sales loop.
The Virtual Showroom is a one-stop shopping experience, based on a “choose your own adventure” concept. Consumers who were looking for a used car were led to the Virtual Showroom which pushed for a comparable new VW model, like a salesperson would. To bring it to life, they partnered up with AutoTrader, Canada’s 3rd party leader in new and used automotive marketplaces. Autotrader possessed the data, scale, and targeting capabilities to create this shopping experience.
The showroom complemented Volkswagen’s corporate website through third-party endorsement (integration of AutoTrader’s editorial content) and providing the guidance between options (new and used) through spec comparisons and a chatbot. The virtual showroom also recognized the critical role dealerships play in closing sales:live nearby dealer listings, for all of VW’s 146 locations and real-time tactical offers linked to regional sales programs.
First, AutoTrader leveraged its organic traffic to drive visits to the showroom. Secondly, Volkswagen activated the new audiences outside and inside the walls of AutoTrader. They tested these new audiences against the pre-COVID ones. The results were gargantuan, driving 53% more efficient traffic. They personalized promotional creative specific to users’ reasons to shop in environments such as “first-ever '' bespoke Volkswagen-intender eblast using AutoTrader’s first party in-market list, organic and boosted social amplification and corporate persona on LinkedIn.
Unlike the corporate website, Volkswagen’s Virtual Showroom drove incrementality by also positioning their compelling new car offers to buyers newly considering a used vehicle due to the state of the economy.
In April, automotive sales plummeted 75%, first-mover advantage was at stake, the virtual showroom needed to come to life in record time to reverse this trend. By August, it had already contributed to an 8% overachievement of quarterly sales objectives, despite the Q2 sales plummet!
Brand Lift Study shows a +6 pt lift (3x comparative benchmarks), in purchase intent, their key marketing objective. The Showroom execution also attracted new targets to V: lift was highest from groups that had less familiarity, affinity, and favorability for Volkswagen before the Showroom. Their new COVID-adapted audiences drove 53% more efficient traffic vs pre-COVID, demonstrating the power of their identified intent signals.
The virtual showroom achieved the best-ever engagement, brand interest and the highest lift on purchase intent rates in AutoTrader’s history and real customers have reached out to provide a testimonial on how the experience changed their car buying journey: “Thought AutoTrader was a place for used cars but we found the showroom. Set up an appointment in Barrie and bought the Cross Sport.”