Tag: Auto

Jaguar Devises Winning VR Experience At Wimbledon

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
British automaker Jaguar won over 97 million impressions with its first VR campaign at the Wimbledon tournament. Designed to allow viewers to experience the moment Jaguar ambassador Andy Murray delivers a winning shot, the branded VR experience #FeelWimbledon aims to strike an emotional chord with viewers and inspire them to check out the Jaguar models strategically placed in the experience. Jaguar rolled out the VR initiative in a number of ways, including setting up an on-site activation at London’s Waterloo station, handing out 20,000 Google Cardboard headsets to Wimbledon attendees, and delivering VR headsets to its 104 U.K. showrooms during the tournament.

What Brands Need To Do
Jaguar is commendable for devising a campaign that leverages both the emphatic power of VR experience and the event tie-in to elicit positive emotional responses from its viewers and lift its brand affirmation. As consumers get increasingly familiar with VR and 360-degree video content and mainstream social media platforms start supporting the immersive formats, it is time for brands to start working with content creators to develop interesting branded VR content that appeals to target audiences.

The Lab currently has four VR headsets — an Oculus Rift, an HTC Vive, and two Samsung Gear VRs — ready for demos. Virtual reality is something that has to be experienced to be understood, so come by the Lab and ask for a VR demo to get a hands-on experience and figure out how your brand can use it to excite and engage with consumers.

 

Source: Digiday

Header image courtesy of Jaguar’s YouTube Video

Why New Auto Site DriveTribe Divides Its Readers Into “Tribes”

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Three former hosts of popular auto reality show “Top Gear” are teaming up with tech entrepreneur Ernesto Schmitt to prepare for the launch of DriveTribe, a digital media platform for car enthusiasts. The new site will host a variety of original content that blends editorial, social, and commerce. More interestingly, the site will be structured into different “tribes” for fans of different motoring interests, and each vertical will be hosted by different personalities and content creators to curate specific content targeting their audiences.

What Brands Need To Do
While it is too early to tell whether this new site will take off, the way the creators segment the site into different “tribes” to reflect the varying interests within the car enthusiast community provides an interesting example of how media owners are tailoring their digital content to meet the increasing consumer demand for personalization. As for marketers, especially for auto and lifestyle brands, this sort of tribal divide provides some natural audience segmentation that brands can target against. As the site promises to incorporate commerce elements, there should be some marketing opportunities for brands to reach the site’s audience, which auto brands should be on the lookout for.

 

Source: Variety

Cadillac Partners With Emerging Fashion Designers To Elevate Its Brand

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Cadillac is teaming up with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) on a Retail Lab initiative that aims to foster young fashion talent. The Retail Lab will have a custom retail shop on the ground floor of the Cadillac building, where up-and-coming designers can showcase their latest work and receive mentorship in marketing and business development. As part of its rebranding efforts following decades of declining sales, Cadillac relocated its headquarters from Detroit to New York City in early 2015.

What Brands Need To Do
By working closely with the CFDA, Cadillac is integrating its brand into the glamorous fashion scene and trying to develop a halo effect that can help the luxury automaker elevate its brand. At a time when consumers are growing tired of being bombarded with ads and starting to actively avoid ads with the help of ad-blockers and ad-free subscription services, it is important for brands to try out new ways to reach their target audiences. Cadillac’s new initiative provides a good example of how a brand can enhance its brand equity and unlock a new audience by associating itself with a compatible cause, in this case prompting consumers to make the connection between stylish designer clothes and stylish luxury cars.

 

Source: Digiday

Tesla Unveils Model 3 With Autopilot Feature

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Leading electric car maker Tesla unveiled a new Model 3 on Thursday night. With a starting price of $35,000 (before federal tax credits), it is the most affordable car Tesla has made to date. Among its many high-tech features, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced all Model 3 cars will come with the Autopilot feature it first debuted in October, which allows Tesla cars steer themselves, change lanes, and even park themselves. Pre-orders are now available worldwide, with first deliveries expected towards the end of 2017.

Market Impact
With the affordable price tag and mass market appeal, the Tesla Model 3 might just be the car to usher driverless vehicles into the mainstream car market. The Autopilot feature may not be perfect right now, but Tesla presumably will have significantly improved it by the time this model ships.

The development in driverless cars is an important market trend that The Lab cares about (and included in the 2020 section of our Outlook 2016) because of the incredible amount of new media time it can potentially free up. The average daily commute time in the States is currently about 50 minutes. If and when driverless cars are adopted by mainstream car-owners, it would make it possible for media owners and advertisers to visually connect with consumers on the go through in-car media such as digital video and video gaming.

 

Source: The Verge

Header image courtesy of Tesla.com

 

Auto Brands Getting On The Live-Streaming Craze

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Digiday

Last week at the International Auto Show in New York City, car manufacturers including Jaguar, Toyota, Mercedes, and Nissan unveiled new models of their cars on two of the hottest platforms at the moment – the live-streaming apps Meerkat and Periscope. Lending from the now-or-never urgency of live broadcasting, the auto brands leveraged the intense buzz surrounding the two apps into a timely showcase opportunity to connect with their audience.

Realizing The Connected Car

Posted on by Lab Team

The auto category is expect to shine at CES. Ford has set the pace for the new connected car and we should see competitors jostling to keep up. There’s been talk of 4G-equipped cars, tons of in-vehicle apps, and even some APIs that lay the groundwork for a truly open source vehicle. From a marketing perspective, there are very tangible possibilities for how brands can interact with drivers as cars become another hub for media.  Right now it’s still a realm dominated by radio ads and road-side billboards, but that should all change in the near future.