AUTOMOTIVE DIGITAL MARKETING AND EVENT MANAGEMENT
An incredible marketing success story working for Lotus Cars Australia with one of the most famous brands of sports car in the world. I provided an entire mix of marketing services to completely overhaul the brand’s profile in Australia delivering over $3M in sales growth and market share with a budget of less than $50,000.
The strongest growth period in 4 years
Lotus sports cars had changed ownership many times in recent years and in Australian had been passed around multiple distributors. Simply Sports Cars in Sydney had become the leading Dealer in Australia and also won the rights to distribute the brand. The business didn’t have a marketing function so I was contracted as a marketing consultant to give them the expertise they needed to develop the brand from 2016 to 2018
With a limited budget my brief was to leverage any asset or relationship available to generate exposure for the brand & the lifestyle that comes with ownership. Without resorting to price discounts or typical automotive promotions I used our mix of lifestyle photography, social media, community management and SEO digital marketing expertise to bring to life the cars, events and driving experiences on offer.
THE MARKETING BRIEF
The brand was unable to make any changes or develop the global Lotus Cars website so we used the existing local dealer website as a platform to build from. My first steps were to improve the website content to bring the ownership experience to life then use new places like forums, Facebook groups, local car clubs and other locations to get exposure beyond their ‘owned’ platforms.
My contracted period covered just over two years without agency involvement, the bulk of the work done in-house to reduce costs, maximise efficiency and deliver a very high level of authenticity.
These are the key areas I worked on;
- Website search engine optimisation.
- Content creation using a mix of photography & videography.
- Social media, forum and Facebook group community management.
- Public relations management with local media & car clubs.
- Event management for vehicle displays and driving events.
- Marketing collateral creation for the showroom and events.
- Google My Business listing optimisation.
- Google Analytics & Google Search Console optimisations.
- Google Ad Words campaign management.
- Vehicle and event photography
The first year of growth in 4 years.
I delivered immediate results that were tracked and measured using Google Analytics, Google Search Console & the social media platform insights tools, not to mention comments from the Lotus Community. I created a huge uplift in website traffic, grew engagement levels across all social profiles, became the leading contributor in local forums and even secured TV coverage for the brand on four occasions.
The brand experienced their first year of sales growth in 4 years at a time when other brands were in decline. The community became fully engaged with a constant flow of content created that told stories about the cars, the people and the fellowship Lotus ownership created.
Here are some highlights from my automotive marketing consultancy services;
- New content pages & brand communications for the local website.
- A 500% increase in website traffic with over 23,000 page views generated.
- More than 50 content pieces created covering all manner of sports car ownership.
- Facebook & Instagram profiles doubling in size to over 4,000 followers.
- Content pieces created that reached over 30,000 people.
- The leading contributor to the local Lotus Forum 'Aussieelises'
- Prominent community engagement via Disqus on car websites.
- Secured National TV coverage 4 times for the brand with $0 investment.
- Secured the purchase of 3 vehicles used in promotional executions.
- Created a local journalist database & CRM system.
- Achieved review coverage for the first time in years on local websites and magazines.
- Grew event participation that led to the full time role creation for Event Management.
- Overhauled CRM system with owner vs vehicle to enable personalised emails.
- Lead and managed the annual marketing calendar.
- Engaged with local car clubs and participated in charity events like 'Soar and Roar'
- Created and managed a local intranet portal for all brand assets.
- Created direct to consumer engagement mechanisms using WhatsApp.
- Refreshed all vehicle stock and event photography for use in promotional materials.
- Created unique driving experiences like 'Challenge Bathurst' and 'Twilight Rallysprint'
Paul's understanding of marketing, both traditional and social was extremely beneficial, and when coupled with his ability to shoot emotive photographs, proved to be a winning formula for increasing brand awareness.
Paul invests himself into his work, particularly when he has a passion for what he is doing, and I would have no hesitation on recommending him to prospective employers looking for an energised individual who is passionate about what they do.
Paul leaves us to pursue other passions he has in the photography and marketing world and I wish him all the very best in his future endeavours."
During our time working together Paul demonstrated excellent in-market activation of marketing activity with fantastic results."
Sorry I never got to meet you in person (just never at Lotus at the same moment as you nor at the same track days) hope to see you at the track in the future. Best wishes for your new endeavours."
MY RECOMMENDATIONS
While it is always easy to highlight the great marketing achievements delivered we also make sure we provide recommendations for our clients to follow after our contract is completed. For Lotus Cars Australia we had suggested they focus on the following areas;
- Continue to share stories about the people & community driving the cars.
- Avoid the use of cheap gimmicks or seasonal promotional discounts to sell cars.
- Maintain a presence on the local forums and Facebook groups.
- Continue attending grass roots events to engage with car enthusiasts.
- Share content across all platforms including Google My Business.
- Avoid using brochure derived wording and phrasing.
