Automobile brand event marketing strategy!

On the evening of April 15, the first online concert of "Godfather of Rock Music" Cui Jian, "Keep Going Wild", was broadcast on Video Account, igniting the enthusiasm of countless rock fans and sparking huge discussions on social media. It is understood that the total number of viewers of the concert reached 46 million, and the number of likes exceeded 120 million. On Weibo, the number of readings of related topics has also accumulated to 123 million.

Discussion on topics related to Cui Jian's online concert

At the same time, as the exclusive sponsor of this concert, the automobile brand Arcfox also gained huge exposure. In the WeChat ecosystem, Arcfox's search index simultaneously reached a historical high, with the peak value increasing 54 times compared to before the event, achieving a counter-trend increase in brand voice in the increasingly declining automobile market environment affected by the epidemic.

It can be seen that this concert is not only a carnival for all rock fans, but also an event marketing carried out by Arcfox Auto based on the video account by leveraging the music topic.

In the automotive industry, it is not uncommon to use specific events to attract media and consumer attention and thereby increase corporate visibility. Let’s review the following creative marketing cases of automotive brands.

01. Volvo: Car + Topic Figure

Perfectly present product selling points

When talking about Volvo, we have to mention the brand's long-standing selling point marketing.

This selling point marketing is extraordinary. If other brands are still at the stage of using creativity to explain product performance, then Volvo is going into battle with real guns and ammunition, using real visual scenes to capture the minds of consumers.

In 2021, Volvo stood out with three extremely shocking physical selling point marketing campaigns, firmly labeling the brand as "safe and stable".

First of all, in April last year, Volvo launched a car "stacking" game, stacking 7 Volvo XC60s vertically together, demonstrating the super solid body safety structure. What is even more unexpected is that Volvo CEO Yuan Xiaolin personally took part in the competition, sitting in the bottom compartment with a calm and composed attitude. With a heavy load on his head, the body of the car was deformed by less than 1 mm. Volvo won the first round with its high confidence in its products.

Volvo Jenga

If the CEO's appearance on the stage is still suspected of self-promotion, then the troublesome presence of the child further enhances the persuasiveness of the product.

Last year on Children's Day, Volvo directly found a 5-year-old cute kid to use a remote control to control a real car on the road. With the child's unsystematic "driving" skills, the Volvo experienced bumpy dirt roads, steep slopes, and the test of sudden heavy pressure, and remained intact, demonstrating the superb safety performance of Volvo cars in the unscrupulous rampage.

The little devil is the "driver"

In the third round, Volvo submerged the XC40 pure electric version into the water. After the car was soaked for 12 hours, the car body was intact and could be driven out normally. The battery and motor performance were also in normal working condition, and it could even be driven out for a spin. Netizens exclaimed that this can be said to be "amphibious".

Immerse the XC40 electric version for 12 hours

In addition, Volvo has also teamed up with Zhihu to create a series of "Car Disassembly Laboratory" special videos, inviting outstanding answerers in the automotive field to deconstruct the principles of the above events for everyone, allowing users to truly go deep into the interior of the car and understand the professional performance of the product.

Volvo×Zhihu Car Disassembly Lab

From external display to internal explanation, Volvo abandoned flashy creativity and used real and shocking power to convey its belief in safe and reliable products to consumers, thus winning public recognition.

In fact, Volvo's series of car body tests were interpreted in the diverse and creative form of "Live Test" as early as 2012, and achieved extraordinary results.

For example:

Female athlete walks a tightrope between a straight Volvo truck

Volvo's president stands on a truck that is lifted only by a hook:

Volvo Trucks leaps over the top of its engineering director’s head:

Invite action star Jean-Claude Van Damme to step on the front mirrors of two trucks, and as the distance between the trucks increases, he slowly performs a split:

This marketing event also had a very wide impact at the time, directly increasing Volvo Trucks' brand consumption by more than 300%.

Compared with other brands, Volvo's event marketing basically revolves around the product itself. It creates gimmicks for brand promotion through creative and thrilling events and topical figures, and then naturally directs the public's attention from the event itself to the car, ultimately achieving an increase in brand reputation and sales.

02. Tesla: Founder Marketing

Leverage the media to create buzz

For Tesla, founder Elon Musk himself is a form of event marketing.

As we all know, Tesla's advertising investment cost is almost zero, which is obviously a move that makes it difficult for the brand to make any progress in the automobile market where traffic is king. So how did Tesla make its brand almost known to everyone at home and abroad? Most of this is inseparable from Musk’s personal IP marketing.

People who are familiar with Musk know that he is not only an accomplished founder of a car brand, but also a social enthusiast who loves Twitter. He expressed his unique technologically forward-looking views and conveyed his dreams and values ​​through social platforms. These remarks had great exposure and influence, not only gaining him the attention of 82 million followers, but also winning him many loyal fans.

In addition, his guest appearances in many film and television series such as "The Big Bang Theory" and "Iron Man" have made his image as a founder more diverse and three-dimensional, enhancing user recognition with his strong personal charm.

While building his personal IP, Musk has firmly tied himself to the Tesla brand, continuously empowering the brand on a spiritual level, and extending users' identification and admiration for the founder to brands related to him. Therefore, as Tesla's "spokesperson", Musk's every word and action is the most influential marketing for the brand.

Especially in 2018, SpaceX, a company founded by Tesla in the space field, successfully launched its first Falcon Heavy rocket and carried a Tesla Roadster sports car into space. This event quickly became explosive news in the automotive industry and triggered tens of millions of clicks and views on video websites.

Falcon Heavy rocket carries Tesla sports car into space

At the same time, driven by the "sports car flying into the sky" incident and Musk's own remarks, the topic was pushed to the peak, and Tesla gained worldwide exposure. This event marketing has obviously far surpassed the brand benefits brought by huge advertising.

3. Audi: Visual Marketing

The cliff projection creates a three-dimensional shock

In 2018, Audi launched a major production when the Q5L was launched - a 10,000-meter naked-eye 3D projection. First of all, judging from the area, this is already a huge challenge. What is even more surprising is that the projection carrier is not an ordinary large screen, but an outdoor rocky cliff, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of the challenge and adds a gimmick.

In the final one-minute 3D projection show, the new Audi car rose and fell with the moving building, broke through gravity and passed through a flowing waterfall, and showed a new look to the public in the broken mountain, providing the audience with an excellent visual experience.

Not only that, there are many easter eggs hidden in the projection show: the building that can do splits in "Doctor Strange", the car that goes vertically upward in "Inception"... Audi's technological charm is also released here.

Audi's event marketing not only paved the way for the launch of new products with stunning visual effects, attracting everyone's attention, but also opened up creative ideas for automobile brand marketing from outdoor scenes, providing a wonderful example for future brand large-screen marketing.

04. Cadillac: Real-life marketing

Outdoor real scene clarifies negative public opinion

Nowadays, with the upgrading of public consumption concepts, the factors people consider when buying a car are no longer limited to car quality and price. Interior, appearance, space, etc. have become important considerations for consumers when comparing prices. Therefore, competition among car brands is particularly fierce.

In 2017, Cadillac was caught in a public opinion crisis due to odor coming from its car interior and suspected formaldehyde exceeding the standard. Therefore, in order to prove its innocence, Cadillac customized a giant fish tank filled with water and fish, and immersed the newly produced Cadillac CT6 directly in the fish tank. A week later, the fish in the fish tank were still alive and well, which indirectly shows that the formaldehyde content of the product meets the standards and will not affect human health.

Cadillac fish tank submerged car

There are many brands that try to prove their innocence, but such a novel approach is rare. Cadillac's move cleverly clarified the rumors about excessive formaldehyde content and naturally transformed it into an event marketing. It can be said to be killing two birds with one stone through crisis public relations.

05. BMW: Suspense Marketing

Create a mysterious atmosphere to stimulate user interest

Barnum, the father of modern public relations, once said: "To attract attention, you have to come up with some ridiculous ideas and actually implement them. " BMW's "Desert Circle" marketing in 2011 is "one of the most ridiculous" in automobile brand event marketing.

On August 17, 2011, a Weibo post by photographer @摄影ER said, "A giant strange circle was discovered in the Gobi Desert about 3 hours' drive from Xining." Due to the accompanying pictures and text, the post quickly went viral.

Photographer @摄影ER posted a pre-launch Weibo

Subsequently, with the exaggeration of many media outlets such as Phoenix Video, the incident was pushed to a climax. In just two weeks, the relevant Weibo posts were forwarded nearly 300,000 times, the video was played more than one million times, and the number of Weibo topics related to #DesertCircle# reached 360,000.

Although the marketing rhythm was disrupted due to the identity of the reporter being exposed, the brand adjusted its direction in time to avoid the public opinion storm, and released a video to recreate the desert circle incident with a BMW car, transferring the heat of the incident to the upcoming BMW 1 Series, successfully warming up for the launch of the new product.

Reporter clarifies

Coincidentally, a suspense marketing campaign launched by BMW in 2010 also sparked a wave of discussion among users.

When BMW launched the M3 model, it released a mysterious surveillance video. In the short video of just a few dozen seconds, only a container was exposed, and the accompanying collision and terrifying sounds gripped the audience's heartstrings.

In the second video released later, the container was airdropped somewhere in Beijing, and the skeleton of the beast was revealed through X-ray scanning, further arousing the audience's curiosity.

A week later, the container entity appeared in Wangfujing, Beijing, attracting the attention of passers-by. At this point, BMW successfully opened up online and offline channels to warm up the new product.

On the day of the new product launch, the BMW M3 Tiger Edition series officially debuted with the roar of a beast, and the audience's appetite, which had been whetted before, was finally satisfied at this moment.

From the early hype and official release to the subsequent dissemination, these two marketing events have something in common. They are closely linked at an appropriate rhythm, mobilizing the activity of social media to the greatest extent, taking advantage of the public's curiosity and exploration of mysterious events, triggering viral dissemination, and also catering to the product audience's pursuit of individuality and demand for new things, ultimately turning suspense into a hot topic.

Finally, towing an airplane is a typical marketing event in the automotive field. In order to directly demonstrate the strength of the car itself, starting from 2006 when the Volkswagen Touareg towed a Boeing 747 weighing 155 tons, many brands followed suit and joined this ranks.

Volkswagen Touareg towing a 155-ton Boeing 747

Aircraft towing event marketing by various car brands

However, if we talk about any positive impact on the brand, TOP can only say that first come, first served. After all, the value of replicable creativity will be gradually eroded in constant imitation.

Car brand event marketing happens all the time, but some people can’t help but ask, what tangible benefits can they bring to the brand?

In fact, the essence of event marketing is not to directly promote sales, but to promote brand exposure by creating and igniting hot topics, thereby increasing brand awareness and influence. This will not only expand the scope of potential consumers, but also help to make the brand popular through high-profile events.

In addition, if a brand can develop a single event marketing into a long-term marketing IP like Volvo, and strengthen product attributes with core creativity, it will also help the brand establish potential competitive barriers and gain widespread attention at a lower creative cost, which will be of great benefit to the improvement of the brand image in the long run.