Dodge Ram Case Study: Promoting the New Dodge Ram with Branded Video MicrositePublished: February 2010 | By Yahoo!
When
Chrysler wanted to promote the complete redesign of the Dodge Ram
truck, it looked to Yahoo! to provide the scale and scope to achieve
results that were as big and burly as the truck itself.
The Challenge
For
a vehicle to operate at maximum efficiency, all of its many parts have
to work in unison. Transmission, engine, electrical system, tires, and
brakes: when all the pieces are in tip-top shape, the result is pure
bliss on the open road.
Similarly, when Chrysler wanted to
promote its 2009 Dodge Ram truck, the company looked for a marketing
solution that offered many parts, all working in harmony to drive
prospective customers to the “Dodge Ram Challenge” website.
The
“Dodge Ram Challenge” was an overarching campaign in which the Ram
tested against competing vehicles to prove its toughness and quality.
The 2009 edition of the truck represented a complete redesign, and the
fourth generation of the model since 1981. This latest version of the
Ram featured a number of major innovations and improvements, including a
new hemi engine option, new suspension, a new four-door cab style
offering, and the Rambox, a storage system that allows for secure
storage inside the bed walls of the truck.
The Solution
Dodge
realized that digital and online media would play an important role in
building awareness of the new Ram. The company wanted a marketing
partner that could deliver a tremendous amount of traffic to the Ram
Challenge website, offer powerful targeting and social media
capabilities, and the ability to stream videos at different touchpoints.
Given these needs, Dodge turned its wheels towards Yahoo!.
<“Dodge
allocated a significant percentage of its online budget to Yahoo! and
the goal of using Yahoo!’s vast online capabilities to complement
Dodge’s offline efforts,” says Steve Larson, Yahoo! account executive
for Dodge Ram. “We helped Dodge create a branded microsite,
RamChallenge.com, that lived on Yahoo!. Webisodes of the Ram Challenge
premiered here, and could be viewed 24 hours a day.”
Yahoo!
utilized numerous properties to drive traffic to the microsite and to
Dodge’s own website, including the Yahoo.com home page on Election Day
(one of the highest trafficked days ever on Yahoo!), Yahoo! Sports,
Yahoo! TV, Yahoo! Answers, Flickr, Yahoo! Groups and Yahoo! Autos. In
the same way that a large advertiser would use the top four television
networks to reach different demographics and audiences, Yahoo! was, in
the words of the client, utilized as a “fifth network.”
Dodge Ram Case Study: Promoting the New Dodge Ram with Branded Video Microsite
The Results
Despite
introducing the truck in a challenging economic environment with
skyrocketing gas prices, Yahoo! exceeded Dodge’s expectations. The
campaign received 1.2 billion total impressions, with 471 million of
those impressions from shoppers who were in the market for a car. This
drove 770,000 clicks to the RamChallenge. com site and 831,000 clicks to
Dodge.com. The term “Dodge Ram Challenge” experienced a 133% increase
in Yahoo! searches, while the term “Dodge Ram” experienced a 74%
increase.
There was also a strong correlation between home page
impressions and click and search behavior. Users who saw the Ram home
page ads were 200% more likely to search on Dodge Ram terms, 213% more
likely to click on a Dodge sponsored search ad, and 341% more likely to
click on Dodge’s organic search listings.
“Dodge took the best of
what Yahoo! has to offer to create an ecosystem that would drive people
down the sales funnel,” says Larson. “Traditional television networks
only provide the top part of that funnel; but with Groups, Flickr,
Answers and all the rest, we created a total Yahoo! ecosystem to drive
awareness of the Ram. That’s what Dodge liked most about our solution.”
About Chrysler: Chrysler
is an American automobile manufacturer. In addition to its line of
Chrysler and Dodge cars, its brand portfolio also includes Jeep.
Download this case study.
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