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GM chooses big digital marketing budget for Cruze
The launch campaign aims to generate buzz and test drive requests through the digital medium
General Motors (GM) India plans to put in a big amount of money on digital media to promote its newly launched sedan, Cruze, priced at Rs 10.99 lakh for the starting model.
Speaking to afaqs!, Gaurav Gupta, director, marketing, General Motors (GM) India agrees that the digital media budget for the Cruze launch campaign will be the biggest among the launch campaigns carried out by the company so far.
Although Gupta refused to divulge the advertising budget allocated to digital media, according to an industry estimate, the company will spend more than Rs 1 crore on digital marketing in a span of just four-five weeks.
The digital campaign will be conceptualised by Quasar Media. The agency handles both creative and media duties for digital media.
"The goal of the digital marketing campaign will be to generate buzz and test drive requests and create a community around the Cruze," says Gupta. The campaign will target high net worth consumers aged above 25 years.
In the online space, the car launch campaign will be carried out in three sequences.
The first sequence, represented by a teaser campaign, is already over. It was started on October 5, a week before the launch of the car. It consisted mainly of online banner ads and pre-roll video teaser ads, which ran across various websites such as IBNLive.com, Yahoo.co.in, Rediff.com and Indiatimes.com.
"The next sequence is an online ad roadblock in which Cruze ads will be displayed on more than 16 major portals," Pradeep Lamba, senior account director, Quasar Media, tells afaqs!.
The roadblock is happening today. Cruze ads are live as a full page ad on MSN.co.in and as a floating ad on the Yahoo! homepage. It is also active as a page tear on Sify.com's homepage and as banner ads on the homepages of Moneycontrol.com and Reuters, and the sub-homepages of Rediff.com.
Cruze banner ads are also live on portals such as 123greetings.com, Indiatimes.com, Economictimes.com, Timesofindia.com, IBNLive.com, Zigwheels.com, Gaadi.com and Carwale.com.
Lamba believes that the automobile brand will reach about 70 per cent of the overall online population through the online ad roadblock.
The third sequence of the launch campaign will consist of more tactical and targeted banner advertising and content sponsorship across various websites. For instance, there are plans to carry out targeted banner ad campaigns on websites such as Linked.com, Moneycontrol.com and Livemint.com.
Linkedin.com members of designations such as senior manager, director and regional heads will be targeted with Cruze banner ads. Similarly, on Moneycontrol.com, the company will put up banner ads in the portfolio section of those users who own portfolios worth Rs 10 lakh or more. The automobile company will sponsor content on websites such as NDTV.com, Livemint.com and Moneycontrol.com.
Apart from targeted banner ads, an aggressive search marketing campaign consisting of more the 2,500 keywords will also be rolled out. A sponsored link of Cruze will be pushed to users when they search for premium products or automobile related products.
Video banners, pre-roll video ads, e-mail and social media marketing will also be employed during the Cruze launch campaign.