How to do automobile marketing in the new era?

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A few days ago, I was on a business trip and took a plane. During the flight, I watched a movie on the screen in front of my seat. As usual, there was a long advertisement before the movie, and the advertised brands were basically all car brands. I have taken countless flights over the years, and the impression I get is that the ads on planes are mostly car ads. It’s not hard to understand why:

When cars had "logos" a hundred years ago, they were deeply imprinted with brand marks. Nowadays, automobile products are becoming homogenized, fuel vehicles have entered the inventory era, and brand has become the first decision point for consumers when purchasing cars. The automobile market, which was severely affected by the epidemic in the first half of this year, has shown signs of recovery. According to the latest sales data statistics from the China Passenger Car Association, the domestic passenger car market sales reached 1.703 million units in August, a year-on-year increase of 8.9% and a month-on-month increase of 6.5%. Car brands are very hungry for their target audience, and aviation customers are high-net-worth individuals, so they are naturally valued by car companies.

But at the same time, many people may have discovered a problem: over the years, the video advertisements for car brands seen on airplanes are all the same, cool, high-end, and profound... To be honest, you will get aesthetically fatigued when watching them, and you won’t want to watch them a second time. The scary thing is, even though only a few days had passed, I couldn’t remember a single advertisement or brand positioning. Of course, even if I can remember it, it won’t mean much, because I am an experienced driver and have no need to change my car in the short term. This means that if brands place car advertisements based on the logic that "people who fly have more budget and are more likely to buy cars", the impact will be inaccurate and the waste may be more than 50%.

Automotive marketing , it’s time to change

Today, the automotive industry is facing major changes unseen in a century. The dual waves of new energy and smart cars have made competition in the automotive market more intense. New brands are springing up like mushrooms after a rain and are coming in with great momentum, and traditional brands are eager to transform. In such an environment, automotive brands will be eliminated by the waves, and soon a new wave of world-class brands will rise. At the same time, there will definitely be a wave of classic brands that will decline or even be eliminated. Because of this, automotive marketing practitioners must rethink how automotive marketing should be done in the new era. The following dimensions are key:

1. Rethink what a car is. All cars are becoming intelligent, and their technological intelligence attributes are becoming stronger and stronger. In fact, they have become part of the IoT (Internet of Things) and can be called "mobile smart devices."

2. Rethink who the user is. The automotive industry used to give priority to the so-called high net worth individuals, but today it is divided into two. Under the wave of consumption upgrading, the new middle class and Generation Z have become the most mainstream consumer groups. The 2019 New Middle Class White Paper estimates that there are currently 250 million to 280 million new middle-class people in China. They have sufficient budgets and support half of the consumption upgrade. Although the wallets of Generation Z, or those born after 1995, are a little thinner, their consumption concepts have become very different. Kantar data shows that the monthly disposable income of Generation Z was as high as 3,501 yuan in 2018, far higher than the national average disposable income of 2,352 yuan. Relying on their parents' financial resources or a mature credit system, more and more young people are buying cars, and all car brands are targeting young people.

3. Rethink the marketing environment. All industries are facing a new marketing environment, where users, channels, media and products have all changed. From new media to social media to self-media to short videos and then to live broadcasts... the media environment has become increasingly fragmented, and the way brands communicate with the public has undergone tremendous changes. Digitalization, intelligence, and full-link, various new marketing technologies are emerging. If traditional brands are obsessed with old-fashioned forms of communication, it will be difficult for them to convey their brand spirit to their target audience, let alone establish influence and change perceptions. Amid the dramatic changes in the marketing environment, many “new brand forces” have emerged strongly, even surpassing century-old brands in their corresponding fields.

Automotive marketing has entered a critical moment of dramatic change. Change means progress, while no change means regression. This is by no means an exaggeration.

Car brands, find their "exclusive anchor"

Most of the century-old automobile brands have labels that are deeply rooted in people's minds, such as the exquisiteness of German cars and the fuel-efficiency of Japanese cars. If we further break them down into brand names, there are labels such as BMW's control, Audi's technology, and Mercedes-Benz's luxury. However, it is not difficult to find that there are only a handful of brands with such "labels", and most car brands lack labels, especially the sub-brands under the main brand. For car brands, labeling is one of the most important things nowadays.

The latest "2020 Consumer Brand Growth Insight Report" released by Wu Xiaobo Channel Xiao Report found that after studying more than 100 brands, the best-performing brands on the market are not only new forces that are "newly born calves", but also "old and strong" brands such as 54-year-old Feihe Milk Powder and "more courageous with more setbacks" brands such as Zhuyeqing. Among these three types of brands, Wu Xiaobo Channel has discovered three common "success genes":

1. It has captured the growing customer base, which is a customer base with considerable number, strong purchasing power and open consumption concept, among which the new middle class and Generation Z are representatives;

2. Found the "exclusive anchor", that is, differentiated positioning;

3. Make good use of "concentrated detonation" media to quickly occupy consumers' minds through high-density saturation attacks.

For automobile brands, the key to capturing growing customer groups is also to find an "exclusive anchor" and then firmly embed it into the crowd to achieve positioning. To achieve this, it is difficult to achieve the effect through traditional "cold" and high-end one-way output. In recent years, the car brands that have successfully been labeled have all achieved it through "friendly marketing" through interactive dialogue with users, and without exception, they all choose the Internet platform as their first choice to achieve a closed loop from brand exposure to fan interaction to sales leads and then to sales conversion.

The epidemic accelerated the "going online" of automobile brands, and offline 4S stores were shut down. More than 10,000 automobile 4S stores from more than 40 automobile brands conducted more than 15,000 live broadcasts on Taobao Live, and "cloud car selling" became a phenomenon.

It took Tesla less than 20 years to become the "No. 1 auto company", with a market value more than twice that of the second place. In terms of marketing, Tesla sticks closely to the "technology" label, while paying great attention to reaching a wider new generation of people and interacting with consumers in the most trendy and intelligent way.

The domestic brands that have impressed people in recent years are Wuling Shenche and the national Haval. They have put their own labels on themselves and become "Internet celebrities" like Lao Gan Ma, Coco Tree Coconut Juice and other brands. They all attach importance to the Internet platform without exception. Wuling occupies the main public opinion platform on the Internet and has gained favor among young people. Its slogan "Wuling makes what the people need" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

It is not difficult to find that in recent years, the brands that have mastered the marketing discourse, whether they are old brands or new forces, whether they are new energy or fuel vehicles, are all "approachable" and "human-speaking" brands, and they are all brands that integrate with users on the Internet. Cold and forceful automobile marketing is becoming history.

In fact, the Internet has become the main battlefield for automobile marketing. If there is a consensus on this, the next thing to do is to choose the right Internet marketing platform or combination. In response to the pain points of automobile brands wanting to get close to consumers and carry out friendly marketing, Internet platforms have taken action. Leading Internet platforms such as super content engine Baidu, super content platform ByteDance, super consumer media Alibaba, super smart IoT platform Xiaomi, and super social network Tencent have all launched marketing solutions for automobile brands. Among many leading Internet platforms, the marketing value of Xiaomi, which has a huge number of users and devices, has always been underestimated. For automobile brands, it is a marketing platform worthy of high attention.

Xiaomi, the value depression of automobile marketing

First, large traffic, large exposure, and higher cost performance.

Television has the attributes of being mandatory, large-screen and family-friendly, making it very suitable for displaying automotive marketing content. Television stations used to be the first choice for automotive marketing, but today it is an indisputable fact that smart TVs dominate living rooms. Xiaomi TV sales and shipments are both ranked first in the industry, with cumulative activations exceeding 45 million, 32 million monthly active users, an average daily usage time of 6.9 hours, and an average daily total playback volume of 170 million, making it China's number one smart large-screen TV. Its traffic is close to that of the five major satellite TV stations. It can be seen that Xiaomi OTT has the basic foundation of a leading platform for automotive marketing.

The "golden time" for smart TV is the moment it is turned on. Xiaomi OTT has launched the "15+5" creative startup marketing to address the pain points of automobile brand marketing. The brand's creative blockbusters are played in an immersive puzzle-like manner, presenting product information in three dimensions. It is integrated with MIUI for TV 3.0 to give users a visual impact and support users to interact and select content of interest. At the same time, Xiaomi OTT pioneered full-link marketing, connecting the system layer, platform layer, and content layer, covering startup + automobile channel customization + press conference live broadcast, 3D cloud car viewing and KOL content and other links. Many brands of cars, including Mercedes-Benz AMG GT, have become early adopters. The startup of Xiaomi’s smart large screen is a way for the car brand to occupy the “golden time” of the first visual in the home scene.

In addition, Xiaomi also has a leading advantage in mobile phones and IoT devices. Android phones cover more than 85% of Chinese mobile phone users, and Xiaomi has always been among the top camp; it has a leading advantage in IoT devices such as smart speakers and smart bracelets, and has successfully connected 271 million devices (excluding mobile phones and laptops), building the world's largest consumer-grade AIoT network.

Many people have a misunderstanding about Xiaomi, that is, Xiaomi is a brand exclusively for "young people". In fact, this is not the case. This is a static view of dynamic things. Today, Xiaomi's user structure has become very three-dimensional, which deserves the attention of car brands:

1. Xiaomi is still a young brand. "Young people's first XX" is Xiaomi's label, which is naturally attractive for brands that want to capture the new generation of users. There are indeed many Xiaomi users who don't have a car but want to buy one. If the brand wants to become "young people's first car", Xiaomi users are the key targets to be influenced.

2. In 2020, Xiaomi’s tenth anniversary, the first wave of Mi fans have grown up, started families, and become “high net worth individuals”. Xiaomi TV users are mainly high-net-worth families. 41.8% of users are business managers, and 47% are middle and upper-level members of society. The average monthly income of individuals is 10,722 yuan, and the average monthly income of families is 21,474 yuan. For brands, Xiaomi is also an indispensable platform if they want to capture the new middle class.

3. A very important point: All cars are becoming technology products, and the Internet of Vehicles is part of the IoT, which is undoubtedly in line with Xiaomi's AIoT strategy and product attributes. Both users have strong technological attributes and focus on design, texture and experience. Therefore, car brands, especially those that are determined to seize the trend of new energy and smart cars, must pay attention to the Mi fan group.

Xiaomi's OTT smart large screen and Xiaomi mobile phone x AIoT ecosystem have abundant traffic and strong exposure, and their user groups are highly consistent with the target groups of automobile brands. In addition, they have unique marketing capabilities such as creative startup and unified ID, which are indispensable for automobile brands. In addition, only a few brands are aware of the value of Xiaomi's marketing. Therefore, the advertising inventory is currently relatively sufficient and cost-effective.

Second, it has more in-depth big data than apps and more three-dimensional advertising formats than apps.

Intelligent marketing based on big data can reduce advertisers' waste and has become the mainstream of marketing. Its underlying logic is: based on data insights, brands can conduct macro and micro insights into users, and then deliver targeted marketing to maximize ROI. There are three key points to get through:

1. Sufficiently comprehensive, three-dimensional and real data;
2. Have strong insight into data and accurate segmentation capabilities;
3. The precise channel to reach users is the form of advertising.

Xiaomi has outstanding advantages in all three dimensions:

First of all, Xiaomi has full-scenario data across devices. Based on its full product category layout of OTT, mobile phones, smart speakers, and AIoT devices, Xiaomi is the only platform that can truly gain insight into users in all scenarios 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with comprehensive, three-dimensional and real data. On the premise of protecting user privacy, Xiaomi can conduct in-depth insights into users. For example, it can create user portraits based on active behavioral data such as user App usage, browsing, and searching. It can also combine LBS and other data to gain insights into user behavior habits. It is not just about creating interest portraits for users. More importantly, it can provide insights into users' current scenarios, potential needs, and true intentions, helping auto brands to truly capture potential customer groups.

Secondly, Xiaomi has deeper system-level data than apps. Apps can only provide insights into user behavior within the App. Even if a platform has multiple apps, it is still partial insight, and the understanding of users and scenarios is relatively shallow. Xiaomi combines data from the entire AIOT ecosystem, and fully connects data from hardware, systems, software, etc., to gain deeper, more detailed and more precise insights into users, and truly understands users and scenarios.

Finally, Xiaomi has built a unified Mi ID account system among different devices, which not only has the ability to deduplicate delivery, but also can achieve the connection of underlying traffic, data, systems and resources. Based on this, when it comes to Xiaomi AIoT marketing, car brands value not only traffic, but also a channel to gain a deeper understanding of users and help them make friends. Xiaomi is the only platform that can solve the problem of user overlap by connecting ID numbers.

Based on the full record of OTT viewing data + mobile phone usage data + AI behavior data + IoT device data, Xiaomi has accurate insights into users, and combines all-scenario touchpoints to accurately provide users with marketing services, providing car brands with more population packages to achieve precise targeting capabilities and reduce customer waste. Xiaomi's data is transparent and authentic, its traffic is real and effective, and it connects to multiple third-party monitoring platforms to monitor the entire advertising process.

With Xiaomi's full-ecosystem data-driven and system-level application integration and delivery capabilities, imported luxury brands Porsche, joint venture brand Guangben Lingpai, domestic independent brand Great Wall Ora and other brands have reached precise target users on Xiaomi's marketing platform. For example, Xiaomi MIUI's multiple top apps and Xiaomi Community jointly launched Great Wall's "Eula Gold Agent" campaign, and marketing targets were exceeded. The core reason is that Xiaomi's marketing, based on big data insight capabilities, accurately covers male users in second- and third-tier cities with labels such as food, digital, automobiles, entertainment, and e-commerce.

Third, AI empowers multiple large scenarios, helping automobile brands continue to penetrate the circle.

Xiaomi has a three-dimensional marketing form, covering online and offline marketing forms such as MIUI system level, top App application opening screen, in-App marketing, OTT startup, intelligent voice interaction, Xiaomi community, Mi Home offline channels, etc., covering family, personal, life and intelligent full scenes . Based on system-level big data insight capabilities, automobile brands can accurately, continuously and deeply reach target users in the Xiaomi ecosystem in a scenario-specific manner, with both saturated and concentrated exposure such as startup, as well as continuous marketing penetration that is subtle and silent.

What is commendable is that Xiaomi's diversified scenarios are not fragmented but integrated. Data is connected based on the unified Mi ID, and "scene connection" is achieved based on the AI ​​smart assistant "Xiao Ai". Xiao Ai works across mobile phones, speakers, and TVs, easily achieving cross-screen reach, path coverage, and more AI-level cool interactions and full-scene services.

In the full-scenario marketing of automobile brands, Xiao Ai also plays a hub role in "connecting all scenarios". Buick Envision S's "Live Beautifully" launched a wonderful full-scenario marketing with Xiaomi. In the creative opening screen of the boot screen, the user says to Xiao Ai: "Wan Qian lives a beautiful life" to enter the interactive session, where they can watch the Envision S launch conference. After the conference, they can watch the commercial album and the Envision S review column. Xiaomi OTT provides multiple presentation methods such as home page puzzle + focus video + car channel focus screen + TV series channel full-width + high-definition pictorials, which have a full, in-depth and saturated impact on users.

The Spring Festival-themed marketing jointly carried out by Volvo and Xiaomi fully utilized Xiao Ai's advantages in voice interaction. When users say to Xiao Ai on their mobile phones: "Volvo will keep you safe", they can participate in the activity of "Reporting safety to family members in dialect". At this time, the words of safety they want to say to their family members will appear. Users can choose to send them in dialect to enhance social connections, closely integrate with Chinese New Year blessings and Spring Festival travel culture, and form an emotional resonance with users.

During the Spring Festival, Xiaomi OTT mobilized OTT startup, focus video and other resources to give strong exposure, combined with in-depth customization of the Spring Festival Gala Tab page, skinning of the three major channels and brand areas to cover the entire user viewing path; launched TV system-level push advertising during prime time such as the Spring Festival Gala, to help Volvo's Spring Festival theme spread explosively; in the atmosphere of the Spring Festival Gala, launched the New Year's gift-giving event, Xiaomi TV Weibo, Xiaomi Box Weibo, Xiaomi TV WeChat service account and other Xiaomi new media matrix participated in the interaction to further amplify social influence and create topic events. In the end, Volvo achieved more than 1 billion exposures during Xiaomi's seven-day Spring Festival theme marketing, with all key KPIs exceeded.

Fourth, unique business ecology and in-depth cross-border collaborations.

“A x B” cross-border joint marketing is becoming increasingly popular. In essence, it is an approach in which two platforms support each other and share marketing resources to achieve 1+1>2. Unlike general brands or media platforms, Xiaomi's ecosystem has a richer business model and can provide integrated resources such as brands, products, technologies, channels and user traffic, and carry out in-depth cross-border cooperation with automobile brands, rather than just simple brand co-branding or traffic cooperation.

Xiaomi and Jeep Compass Nighthawk have jointly launched the "Nighthawk Dark Box", and launched the "0 Yuan Reservation Blind Box" online surprise unboxing event on Xiaomi Youpin. Different dark boxes contain different customized Xiaomi popular products, and Xiaomi Home has created a Nighthawk Dark Box space. The entire "Nighthawk Dark Box" event has been fully reached in Xiaomi's home scene + personal scene + e-commerce scene.

Dongfeng Nissan Sylphy focuses on "the new standard of comfort for family cars" and has launched a cross-border cooperation with Xiaomi Youpin and 8H with the theme of "Supporting Happiness". The three parties are respectively targeting the three major scenarios of mobility, home and office, forming a "24-hour comfortable life circle". The three parties jointly customized a co-branded ergonomic lumbar support, adopting the same ergonomic design concept and the same high-tech fabrics, and sold it in limited quantities at Xiaomi Youpin/Nissan e-commerce/specialty stores. With the help of technology KOLs such as Wang Ziru and Luo Yonghao, Xiaomi's marketing resource matrix including Xiaomi Youpin, MIUI, OTT, and new media has been mobilized to strengthen Sylphy's image as the first choice for comfort in family cars.

"AXB" is not a simple joint name. For Xiaomi marketing, it is a business ecosystem formed based on Xiaomi's unique triathlon model of "hardware + Internet + new retail" and the continuous and in-depth advancement of the AIoT strategy, forming brand, hardware, technology, channels, traffic and other capabilities. Based on these resources, Xiaomi Marketing has built a new integrated marketing model to provide auto brands with multiple capabilities, helping them to have in-depth brand influence on Xiaomi users, obtain sales leads, and trigger marketing topics.

In conclusion:

The automotive industry is experiencing major changes unseen in a century, and marketing is also undergoing tremendous changes. While automobile brands are thinking about how to embrace the wave of new energy and smart cars, they must also think about how to adapt to the marketing environment of the new era. Creating an "exclusive anchor" and labeling yourself is a key step. At the same time, you must change your marketing mindset. High-cold, one-way and pretentious car marketing is becoming less and less popular. Embracing the Internet, digitalization and AIoT full-scene marketing is something that needs to be done immediately. By adapting to the marketing rhythm of the new era, old brands can be renewed and new brands will rise. For car brands that cannot do so, it is only a matter of time before they are forgotten by consumers.

Author: Orange

Source: Big Orange