Auto Trader launches £2.5m ad campaign

Auto Trader has launched a £2.5m television and online ad campaign to promote its new-look website that facilitates the sale of new cars.

The TV ads break today (4 July) and will run for six weeks across ITV, Channel 4, UKTV, Channel Five and Sky, to promote Autotrader.co.uk, which launched earlier this year.

The campaign has been created by HMDG and focuses on the concept of the website being the best new online car showroom, by pushing the range of cars available and its user-friendly research and comparison features.

In addition to the TV slots, the campaign will also run online via VoD sites, as online display on sites including TopGear.co.uk and Facebook, and at this week’s Goodwood Moving Motor Show, which Auto Trader sponsors.

Matt Thompson, marketing director at Auto Trader, said: “Our New Cars site has already become one of the leading destinations for new-car buyers in the UK and this campaign aims to make it number one.

“Its scope and reach make it an ideal platform to reach a targeted audience with a clear interest in making a purchase, allowing advertisers to reach local buyers in the way and at the time that will get the best possible response.”

In September, Auto Trader launched a £2m campaign, created by Hurrell Moseley Dawson & Grimmer, to promote its new mobile platform.

Auto Trader is wholly owned by Trader Media Group, which is itself owned by a joint partnership between Guardian Media Group and private equity firm Apex.

View the full article at Campaign Live

Auto Trader launches £2.5m New Cars ad campaign

“Greatest new car showroom in the www to reach over 20 million consumers from July 4th”

Auto Trader, the official presenting partner of the Goodwood Moving Motor Show, will be launching a new £2.5 million TV and media campaign to promote its New Cars website (www.autotrader.co.uk/new-cars) on Monday 4th July. The campaign launches with a new TV advert in July appearing on all major commercial channels with the aim of driving consumers across the UK on to the New Cars site.

Advertising agency HMDG created the new campaign around the concept of the ‘Greatest new car showroom in the www’ – a theme that encompasses both the range of cars available on the site and also its user-friendly research and car comparison experience, which has been designed as a result of extensive consumer research and beta testing to help consumers identify and purchase the right new car for them.

Media channels to be used in the campaign include TV, Video on Demand, online display, social, eCRM, SEO, PPC and public relations. The campaign also involves Auto Trader’s sponsorship of the Goodwood Moving Motor Show, which takes place on Thursday 30th June.

Since its launch earlier this year the New Cars site has secured over 2.5 million page impressions 1 to date, with over 600,000 unique users in its first month, demonstrating the power of the Auto Trader brand name and the customer reach it provides advertisers both on a national and regional level. Research conducted on Auto Trader’s New Cars site shows that 84 per cent of users are actively looking to buy a brand new car2, a clear demonstration of the value of the site and its ability to provide quality leads. 61 per cent of visitors further stated their intention to buy a new car in the next 3 months4.

Matt Thompson, Marketing Director at Auto Trader, comments: “Our New Cars site has already become one of the leading destinations for new car buyers in the UK and this campaign aims to make it number one. Its scope and reach make it an ideal platform to reach a targeted audience with a clear interest in making a purchase, allowing advertisers to reach local buyers in the way and at the time that will get the best possible response.”

Nick Hurrell, Managing Partner at HMDG, adds: “The New Cars launch is a major strategic step for Auto Trader. The advertising campaign is also moving up a gear, as we launch the greatest new car showroom in the www.”

Keep taking the tablets

In the guise of a ‘proper journalist’, Greg Grimmer, partner, Hurrell Moseley Dawson & Grimmer, talks tablets with GQ’s Dylan Jones, The Guardian’s Chris Pelekanou and Wired’s David Rowan…

As the latest Apple fanfare surrounding the iPad2 hits full volume I thought it was an apposite time to look at the effect that the rise of the tablet is having on the much maligned print sector.

‘Digital media is killing newspapers and magazines’ has been a drum beaten loud and hard (ironically the loudest by print journalists) – so is the tablet the saviour of every press baron or are they fooling themselves by investing into a technology and ecosystem that they don’t control or understand?

I was a sceptic of the iPad when it launched. I saw it as superfluous digital device that would have to be viewed as an addition to my current gadget portfolio, not a replacement for my iPhone, MacBook , or iPod… (I am ‘Apple Maxed’ according to the Urban Dictionary).

However, one year on I am a convert – the iPad has found a place in my screen-based time schedule and not really at the expense of any paper-based products.

I use it primarily (as do other family members) in a multi-screen environment, when the crucial power struggle of the television remote has been lost. I find myself either using Wiki or IMDb to add bon mots to my family’s proletarian viewing habits (for example, did you know Chloe Madley was an underwear model?). Or more likely I can be found gently stroking my way through beautifully designed pages of a magazine app.

Condé Nast were early pioneers of the magazine brand online and therefore it was no surprise to see them also pioneering in the iPad stakes . The group’s New Yorker edition is a thing of beauty and one of the highest rated apps.

Condé Nast’s British-based colleagues were not far behind and Vogue, GQ and Wired have all produced stunning versions over the past year. Even as I write this another iconic print brand Wallpaper has announced it is joining the fray.

Taking a step back from my normal stream of consciousness, I thought I would pretend to be a proper journalist and go and ask some experts from the print field why they are producing tablet editions and what they make of them…

Dylan Jones at GQ, one of the most respected print editors in the UK, takes a very enthusiastic view of app design strategy: “The whole process of putting together our iPad edition has totally re-energised the team, and we have all been invigorated by it. Not only has it caused us to look at the whole process of magazine production in intense detail, it has also made us look differently at the entire way we commission and fill the magazine. In all, it’s been thoroughly instructive, and our print title will be all the better for it.”

So, it is not only viewed as an additional channel for content but influencing the content itself. A view which is supported by the leading newspaper on iTunes and articulated by the commercial director of The Guardian Chris Pelekanou: “The browser is an incredibly powerful tool in informing the world 24/7, therefore a far more effective platform to break news on.

“Due to their ‘lean back’ nature, the iPad and other tablet devices, enable content providers to publish news in an edited finite package, that can reflect and analyse what’s going on in the world.

“This gives strong brands, through design, functionality and compelling content, an opportunity to demonstrate their uniqueness once again and ultimately this scarcity enables you to charge for that content.”

This latter point is a crucial one in the way that the smart print owners are approaching the tablet arena. It is especially interesting from the organisation who’s editor has openly championed the free internet in response to News Corporation’s paywall strategy. Is it not news that people will pay for in future but editing and design?

This is a topic picked up on by David Rowan, editor of the unrivalled influencer of the future Wired. “If a magazine company is to add any value to consumers, and have a reason to exist, it has to do what the internet doesn’t do well,” he said.

“Where we can beat the open internet is in curating carefully the stories, people and ideas that we are genuinely excited by each month – and in creating a design and interaction experience that it pretty tough to replicate on a computer browser.”

You would expect Wired to be active in this arena but what struck me with David’s response (as with Chris and Dylan) was the unbridled zeal for this development – a far cry from the doomsayers of the past decade, where press owners tip-toed with intrepidation around the monetisation of their web-based products.

David returned to this theme: “Suddenly the iPad gives us the chance to achieve both in creative and experimental new ways. We curate a monthly package of stories and multimedia in a coherent whole; and we do so using video, design, panoramic photography and interactive design tools that re-imagine the user experience. We’re still learning, but we’re pretty excited by the creative possibilities of re-imagining what Wired magazine can be in this multimedia, real-time digital format.”

With iPad2 sales already forecast to be five times those of the launch version and other tablet manufacturers trumpeting better experiences, the opportunity for magazine brands will continue apace.

However, I am struck that of course in amongst the 800,000 apps on iTunes, Android and Ovi, the reader themselves remain a powerful editor and it is the iconic consumer brands fuelled by both print history and modern day innovation that are most likely to succeed.

Ancestry targets Royal Wedding fans with TV push

Ancestry.co.uk is capitalising on the upcoming Royal Wedding by launching a TV campaign targeting viewers with questions about weddings in their own family history.

Ancestry, one of the world’s largest online collections of historical records, encourages viewers to visit the website to find out more information about their own family.

The ad, which launched on Friday, questions where viewers’ parents met and asking where their grandparents tied the knot.

Created by HMDG, the 30-second ad shows a montage of vintage photographs and film, accompanied by light-hearted captions and statements such as, “we married in secret”.

John Messum directed the ad, while Big Buoy produced the spot. Peter Crothers was the writer on the ad, and Trupesh Gajjar was the art director.

Initiative handled the campaign’s offline activity, while Essence handled online activity.

Over the pond TV - the unstoppable rise of Sky

Greg Grimmer says HBO has built a paid-for subscription business in the US by producing high-quality drama – a feat not managed by Sky or indeed anyone else in the UK. Sky’s belated response to this has not been to try and re-create the formula with UK talent tub, but to import in its entirety – I give you Sky Atlantic. So well done to Sky for the next phase of its world domination and farewell to free-to-view high-quality US dramas on the BBC, ITV & C4…

The proliferation of television channels since the advent of satellite and cable in the late 80’s has given broadcasters (not normally) known for their love of marketing some testing problems. Suddenly it wasn’t just about the content, the old adage that ‘people watch programmes not channels’ just wasn’t true in the arena of a 400 channel EPG.

Then clever marketers s got involved and spawned the likes of Dave, Blighty and Yesterday, leaving the family numbered channels looking slightly tawdry and dull.

It used to be a ‘build it and they will come’ strategy for programme makers, this then turned into a ‘buy it and they will come’ for the lazier programme directors as they imported (normally but not exclusively from the US) tried and tested dramas from other markets – including ITV, the BBC and most notably Channel 4.

Now Sky – or should I say BSkyB (at least while there are still other shareholders) – had circumvented this problem in a number of interesting an successful ways. Firstly, and of course most controlling, is the control of the hardware – that little set top box (does anyone still put it on top of their new plasma set?) gave them the ability to ensure branding of the television service and not just the broadcast stream.

This has been augmented by Sky+ and more recently HD and 3D. It also gave them further control through the design, numbering and interactivity of the EPG. But we all know what Sky is really known for and what accounts for its fantastic growth story of the past two decades – sport and within that football and within that the Premier league.

Various competitors have come and gone over the 20 years and most have left with their tales between their legs and their wallets emptied – ITV digital and Setanta both failed to break the stranglehold on football and paid for it with their businesses.

However, while sport is obviously content (and arguably the best content we export?), Sky has tried and failed over the last twenty years to break out from sport as its raison d‘être. Sky Movies/Box Office have some fans but have always been overshadowed byDVDs (or videos before them). Meanwhile, Sky One is still a vehicle for the Fox-produced Simpsons and not much else.

Elizabeth Murdoch (before her success with Shine) was one of many content directors who failed to grab hold of the Sky branded channels to create anything approaching the distinctive look and feel of the BBC, Channel 4 or even ITV – whose domination of the ‘Big and Live’ Saturday night is often over-looked by naysayers of that particular broadcast brand. Various British-produced comedies, dramas and entertainment shows have fallen unloved from the Sky schedules. I personally wept at the demise of Harry Enfield on his short run on Sky before gloriously re-claiming him as he returned to theBBC in his Harry and Paul guise.

So what of now. I will return to The Simpsons as my inspiration (and perhaps the inspiration of a Sky scheduler). A running gag throughout the jaundiced family story is every time anyone checks into a hotel, talks about cable TV or acknowledges TV, they will make a gag about HBO and how it always costs more/ isn’t included/ isn’t available.

So why is this relevant… well my dear reader, HBO have built a paid-for subscription business in the US built not on sport or even movies but by producing high quality drama, with Hollywood A-list casts and behind-the-camera support. A feat not managed by Sky or indeed anyone else in the UK.

Sky’s belated response to this has been not to try and re-create the formula with UK talent tub, but to import in its entirety with a rebrand of its EPG – the best channel rebrand since Dave.

I give you Sky Atlantic.

After its launch on 1 February, one of my HMDG colleagues announced: “I’ve series linked the whole channel… It’s that good.”

And sure the content is superlative. From the new Boardwalk Empire and Blue Bloods, through to classic dramas like The Sopranos and Entourage, to the genius that is Curb Your Enthusiasm… and that is before the new series of Mad Men even starts.

But for me the real genius of Sky Atlantic is the branding – the fact that most of the content will have been conceived, written, shot and financed on the Pacific coast is irrelevant.

Sky Atlantic at a stroke makes us Brits think of the closeness of the one-sided special relationship, of NY-Lon, of US citizens finding our accent and manners sexy and suave. Had this channel been called Sky Hollywood, Sky USA, SKY America or even HBO UK, the love and affection I have heard from all corners for this new addition to the EPGwould be lessened.

So well done to Sky for the next phase of its world domination and farewell to free-to-view high quality US dramas on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

2011 - not as bad as 2010

Greg Grimmer, partner, Hurrell Moseley Dawson & Grimmer, begs, borrows and steals predictions for the year ahead – Sorrell is going to get richer; 2011 will be the year of mobile or location-based ads or digital outdoor (maybe); MySpace will shut; and Mail Online will become bigger than bbc.co.uk/news to name just a few…

The now defunct magazine Punch used to have a long-standing joke fuelled by its readers letters about ‘not being as funny as it used to be’.

This sprang to mind as I approached my first column of 2011 and counseled opinions from inside and outside the agency on predictions for the year ahead – and found the majority ‘praying for not as bad as it has been’.

Now regular Newsline readers with a long term memory may remember it is compulsory for columnists under the 1855 Publishing Act to write with their best soothsaying trends at this time of the year.

As I approach the end of my third year at HMDG and not coincidentally my third year as a MediaTel columnist, I thought I wouldn’t repeat my mistakes of previous years and try to predict wider media trends or latest technology trends but would instead beg, borrow and steal predictions from industry friends, media acquaintances and people who work at digital companies that think they know me.

But of course any prediction column has to start with advertising’s favourite white knight, Sir Martin Sorrell. Over the years he has enraptured city analysts and media journalists alike with tales of bath tubs, double dips and, more recently, clever acronyms no doubt dreamt up by Adam Smith’s team of boffins in WPP HQ . From BRIC’s to LUVto LUVVY, how we have laughed .

Well I have a predicted acronym for Sir Martin (SMS) in 2011 – B-O-N-U-S.

With the WPP share price up from 350p to near 800p in the last two years, it acts as a great barometer for the wider marketing services business. And whilst the city is sometimes slow to recognise the value of people asset businesses, it loves the cash generated by the media machine of GroupM and the smart acquisition of data and digital businesses (the latest of which Blue State digital was credited with Obama’s successful fundraising campaign in 2008).

So SMS is going to get richer, but what of the rest of us…

Well, my friend John has just launched a mobile business and he thinks 2011 is going to be the year of mobile. My friend Dave has launched a location specific advertising business and thinks location targeting is going to be the next big thing. My mate Lisa works in digital outdoor and guarantees me that this is the year it will come of age. And my friend Damian works at Google…!

My last column talked about the hegemony of the big brands in the web space – Google, Facebook, Amazon etc. However, another prediction for 2011 from just about everyone I have spoken to is that new businesses will continue to appear apace in the web space.

Whether ANY of these will end up with sustainable business models is a more moot point. At a recent technology fair I met a dozen or so developers who had no plans for revenue but a fantastic sales pitch for VC’s and other investors. The sage who wrote The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth forgot to mention that a computer science degree from Stanford isn’t necessarily accompanied by a modicum of business (or indeed common) sense.

So, back to predictions for 2011 and my New Year chats with members of our media family:

A leading figure at News Corp: “MySpace will shut, and save us money.”
Media agency CEO: “We will not pitch this year.”
Marketing director: “I will reduce the number of agencies I use.”
Creative director: “We’ll crack digital by learning that it isn’t just uploading the TV ad to YouTube.”
Sales director: “We will seek to do a small number of big deals direct with clients.”
General optimism (even from the first contributor) was the overall feeling – and one that is mirrored in the FTSE, the ad revenue predictions from the major groupings and even some high street retailers (woes of snow notwithstanding).

However, to end with some of my own more fanciful predictions:

Mail Online will become a bigger online news provider than the BBC.
Apple will finally make peace with Adobe.
Sony Erickson will stop making phone handsets.
Simon Cowell will get a knighthood.
The UK will start to become Olympics crazy.
And the one prediction that is guaranteed to come true – this time next year everyone will be looking forward not backwards. I hope your year proves to be better than the last one!

Antler appoints HMDG to global advertising account

Premium luggage brand Antler is delighted to announce that after a
competitive pitch it has appointed the London-based advertising
agency HMDG (Hurrell, Moseley, Dawson & Grimmer) to its global
advertising business. The review follows the acquisition of the Antler
business by private equity firm LDC (Lloyds Development Capital) in
the spring of this year.

Antler, which is headquartered in the UK and has offices in North
America and China, is marketed around the world. In the UK it trades
with major retailers such as John Lewis, House of Fraser and
Selfridges plus hundreds of independent stores as well as its own
retail shops.

Next year Antler will launch a major new integrated marketing
campaign, having already become a partner of the Virgin Racing
Formula One team in 2010.

David Benjamin, Managing Director of Antler said:
The Antler brand has not invested in significant and high profile
marketing activity for some years. With a new range of exceptional
products coming to market we are ready to remind everybody of
Antlerʼs great product strengths.
This is the start of a new chapter for one of Britainʼs best loved brands

Nick Hurrell, partner at HMDG said:
Antler is a famous British brand, and with new private equity backing it
is ready dramatically to accelerate its marketing activity. We are
delighted to have been picked to go with Antler on that journey.

About Antler
Antler has been in the premium luggage business for over 80 years
and has maintained its UK leading market position by
following strict principles of design, quality and innovation whilst
always assuring maximum product functionality. Recent
changes in airline regulations have led to the development of a new
generation of super lightweight and cabin friendly
products which Antler are now introducing to markets across the
world.