General Motors Case Study: GM Test Drives Yahoo!'s Brand-New Login Page Takeover Ad Published: September 2010 | By Yahoo!
If
you want to stand out in a cluttered auto market, you need more than
just quality cars—you have to showcase them in bold new ways. So GM
collaborated with Yahoo!’s Digital AdVentures program to pilot a
next-generation ad format: a new, beautiful digital canvas that took
over the entire Yahoo! Login Page and over a three day period, made GM’s
brand the sole focus of 26 million American visitors each day.
The Challenge
GM’s
brand heritage spans over a hundred years and offers cars that suit
every budget and lifestyle. But in today’s crowded automobile market,
the American car maker needed a fresh, memorable way to engage a broader
audience of car buyers. The Chevrolet brand specifically wanted to
drive awareness and purchase intent of the Malibu, Traverse and Equinox
models as well as strengthen consumers’ association of its vehicles with
fuel economy, style and quality.
GM needed a unique,
attention-grabbing canvas to show—not just tell—consumers the story of
its cars. With standard methods of online marketing, it was competing
for space and mindshare on a crowded page so it wanted to create
something innovative and exclusive.
The Solution
Digital AdVentures
GM
was the first advertiser to collaborate with Yahoo!’s Digital
AdVentures program to push the creative boundaries of display
advertising. Yahoo! Digital AdVentures invites strategic partners to
collaborate with Yahoo! to develop, pilot and measure innovative
advertising solutions that solve key marketing challenges. To create a
bold brand experience, GM chose a Yahoo! Digital AdVentures pilot that
put the creative front and center.
Spotlighting Bold Creative
Yahoo!
was able to deliver the car maker an exclusive, blank canvas on a page
visited by 26 million Americans each day. The Yahoo! Login Page is a
user’s gateway to content such as Yahoo! Mail and My Yahoo!. Featuring
only the login form, the page is uncluttered by competing content or
brand messages. GM partnered with Yahoo! to feature the Malibu, Traverse
and Equinox in a first-ever takeover of the Login Page.
The ad
unit nearly fills up the entire web browser. With the online space to
truly spotlight its top models, the car maker captured the user’s
attention with beautifully detailed creative of each model’s interior
and exterior features.
Yahoo!’s Digital AdVentures expert
resources reviewed all of GM’s creative—large, bold photographs of the
Malibu, Traverse and Equinox—prior to the launch to maximize impact. The
Yahoo! Login Page was redefined as a branding tool that is art first,
ad second.
Fueling Interactive Engagement
Yahoo!’s
new ad experience was not only stunning, it was also interactive. The
Login Page takeover included a button that could send a user to a
landing page or flash experience with a video or a navigable 360-degree
demo—without ever leaving the page.
Delivering Broad Exposure
The
Login Page afforded GM 100% share of voice and unique-to-Yahoo! reach.
As the exclusive Login Page sponsor, GM was able to focus users on its
brand without being interrupted by any other advertising messages. With
about 26 million Americans visiting the page daily, the campaign
presented the brand with the opportunity to reach all of its key
demographics.
The Results
Reach and Awareness
Yahoo!’s
first Digital AdVentures campaign targeted an engaged audience at
tremendous scale, reaching over 41 million unique individuals over the
three-day campaign. That means nearly 1 in 7 people in the US saw the GM
ads.
The campaign generated significant incremental brand
awareness with 11.4% more people recalling the Chevrolet Equinox brand
after they were exposed to the Equinox ad on the Login Page. The same
was true for the Traverse with an incremental increase of 8.9% and the
Malibu with 5.9%. Consumers also thought more positively about
Chevrolet. Those exposed to the ad execution were 60% more likely to
associate Chevrolet with its three core brand values: fuel economy,
style, and quality.
Engagement and Leads
The Login
Page takeover not only increased awareness, but it also drove
engagement. The campaign drove 100,000 incremental visits to the
Chevrolet site.
That engagement carried over to Yahoo! Search,
where search activity for relevant brand terms soared immediately after
the ads premiered. During the campaign, 4.3 times more users searched on
relevant terms. Searches for the Malibu on Yahoo! reached the highest
volume of the year, and for the first time exceeded that of competitor
Ford Fusion. Searches for both Traverse and Equinox reached their
highest level since Chevrolet launched specific TV and print campaigns
for each model.
The campaign also delivered purchase intent and leads, with requests for price quotes on Yahoo! Autos increasing by 22%.
About General Motors: General
Motors is one of the world’s largest automakers. Its portfolio of
brands include: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, FAW, GMC, Daewoo, Holden,
Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling.
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