IQ

Insight

Quarterly

Q3/2024

Data is the new oil, but you need to know how to use it compliantly and, more importantly, the value you bring to the user.

'Data is the new oil' is a quote that's been with us for some time now, and you'd be hard-pressed to disagree with it, given how the world works in 2024. But compliance and value are intrinsically linked.

Whether you work for a major OEM or are an independent dealer trying to keep the market moving, you'll need data to gain any traction in customer retention and attracting wider audiences to new products or services.

Although having data - or at least having access to it - is the obvious essential, how you use it is even more important.

In challenging trading landscapes, marketing budgets are often amongst the first to be squeezed, meaning that maximising revenue from every ounce of data you have is extremely important.

Covid-19 was the instigator of the most recent challenging trading period, with most firms simply switching off marketing spend overnight.

Trading conditions were then made all the more difficult by the chip shortage that followed and the government's indecisiveness about how hard they wanted to push the adoption of electric vehicles.

All in all, this led to a noticeable shift in how and where OEMs and automotive-related businesses are spending their marketing budgets. At the same time, there has been an added emphasis on proving return on investment with tangible metrics that demonstrate success.

Despite the challenges we were all facing in automotive - and you could argue we were the industry hit hardest - the economic wheel still needed turning. We needed people to buy cars, even if they were scarcely available.

Many ideas and innovations were thought up during lockdown to support our industry. So, too was how TV advertising could be positively changed for the automotive industry in a way where automotive businesses of all sizes could properly utilise data to meet their objectives.

In Q3 2023, we launched a partnership with Sky Media, Sky's advertising arm, resulting from one of those lockdown ideas. The new advertising product has changed how our partners can reach potential audiences with key messages related to buying, selling, after-sales, or simply lifestyle.

That's because we have first-party data relating to users' vehicles, including the likes of make and model, age, fuel type and length of ownership, as well as information related to after sales such as service, tax, MOT and insurance expiry.

We then match that data to Sky's household data, allowing automotive partners to better target potential customers with everything from new and used cars to a range of aftersales essentials, including finance, insurance, accessories, and anything else related to car ownership.

This opens up an exciting range of targeting capabilities when combined with Sky's existing detailed geographic and lifestyle data. For example, a car brand looking for potential electric/hybrid or cleaner petrol/diesel customers could specifically target drivers of non-compliant cars in London's ULEZ zone or other Clean Air Zones across the UK.

The strategic use of data in automotive marketing is more important than it's ever been, and I'd encourage everyone from small independents to huge OEMs to review exactly how they're using theirs across TV, eCRM and display to make sure only the right products and services are being pushed to the right people.

Failure to do so will result in costly campaigns or, even worse, a loss of data as tired users unsubscribe or subconsciously disassociate themselves from your brand's messaging.