Ford bags internet ad space for cars

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Ford bags internet ad space for cars
By Julian Lee Marketing Reporter
March 2, 2006


Ford Australia is buying up space on the internet to muscle the competition out of the burgeoning medium, becoming the first major car manufacturer in the country to commit its internet budget a year in advance.

The company has booked out space for the next year on three leading automotive classified websites - Carsales and Carpoint, both part or wholly owned by PBL, and Fairfax's Drive - as part of a concerted strategy by Ford to "own" the internet.

The company's online ad budget has doubled and driven up demand for "new car eyeballs", the term marketers use to describe new car buyers searching for models online.

The success of a trial last year to generate leads via the internet for its four-wheel drive model Escape has convinced Ford to ramp up its spending.

A study by Time Inc last year found that when people set out to find a new car they turned to the internet for research and narrowed the field of choice from 6 to 3.5 models over a 12 month period.

Rebecca Martin, Ford Australia general marketing manager, said: "We used that [Escape initiative] as a pilot ? it exceeded our objectives and got people on that one-to-one communication." She added: "We just consider it as another medium to communicate that message." She would not divulge budgets.

Because demand for web pages that people browse when searching for new cars is outstripping supply, car marketers are now turning their attention to used car buyers and offering stronger deals to tempt buyers into trading up to new models.

Daimler Chrysler's Jeep and BMW are switching their focus to used car buyers, who buy more than two-thirds of the three million cars, both old and new, that change hands each year. They are also increasingly putting their ads directly around competitors' products online, a technique known as "conquesting".

Monique Talbot, chief executive of the largest independent online media sales company, Tempest Media, said it was the first time in a decade that demand had outstripped supply on the internet, forcing publishers to create new inventory.

She also said Ford's move was significant.

"That shows they want to get their brand and message across at any given time that a new car buyer might be looking to buy ? this is not campaign by campaign activity. They, along with other car brands, are using the internet more intelligently," Ms Talbot said.

Fairfax's Drive is reporting increased activity by Land Rover and Jaguar, both owned by Ford. They are both buying up search requests for particular models and names that are entered by buyers on that site.

Although marketers are rapidly embracing the net, the proportion of the total marketing dollars put into the medium lags the popularity of the internet as a research tool. Last week, a US report from research company eMarketer found that in January to November 2005, just 2.5 per cent of the total US car companies' expenditure on advertising alone went online. That is expected to rise to $US2.7 billion ($3.6 billion), or 15 per cent of the total, in the next two years, eMarketer said.