When Volkswagen launched the Golf 6 to the South African market in June 2009, the company chose to promote the new car through an integrated campaign in RamsayMedia Automotive’s CAR and WIEL magazines. The results were better than anyone could have anticipated.

The success of the launch – which was implemented across all of CAR’s print, TV, digital, and mobile platforms – shows how advertisers in the motoring and male interest sectors can benefit from the multi-media marketing offering that RamsayMedia’s largest selling title has been fine-tuning for more than 18 months.

To support magazine sales, the June issues of CAR and WIEL magazines featured the iconic Golf 6 on the cover and contents page, while an upfront traditional brand ad and an eight-page pull-out poster with links to content available on a number of social media sites added to the print campaign. CAR also produced a VW-sponsored six-page special report on the new Golf within the pages of the magazine, reprints of which were distributed at the Golf 6 national launch.

CAR’s in-house boutique video production team was commissioned to produce high-definition video content for all CAR’s digital and mobile channels. Along with the videos, other rich media content of the new Golf, including exhaust tones, photo albums and wallpapers, was disseminated on CAR’s website, CARtoday.com, and mobi-site, mobile.cartoday.com.

This content was also made available on CAR’s channels on MXit, Facebook, YouTube and the South African video sharing site, MyVideo. Further elements of the campaign included a road test and editorial references on CARtoday.com’s blog, a Golf 6 feature in CARtoday’s weekly e-newsletter and Golf 6 tweets by Deputy Editor Hannes Oosthuizen on CAR’s Twitter feed.

“CAR's focus on cross-media communication allowed the new Golf to be communicated through every channel imaginable,” said Golf 6 Marketing Manager, Carrin Merkel. “The rich-media content made the Golf 6 experience highly accessible. The magazine element was particularly powerful. As the most popular motoring magazine in South Africa, CAR was the ideal platform to provide enthusiasts with all the information they needed in different and interesting ways.”

CAR’s Marketing Manager, Dean Dicks, said that, bearing in mind the expected audience cross-over at the various touch points, the use of CAR and WIEL’s multiple channels made the effectiveness of the campaign, significantly boosted the imagery from the static of print to moving footage showcasing the product features.

“We estimate that through the use of our multiple marketing platforms, based on audience sizes and recorded downloads, the Golf 6 launch reached 300 % more people than it would have done using only traditional advertising in CAR and WIEL.

“In terms of the numbers, sales figures for the June issue of CAR were 92 356 and for WIEL, 15 678. Ignition TV on DStv, which featured our video footage, has an audience of 130 000 viewers per show; CARtoday.com, South Africa’s leading independent motoring site, had 52 673 unique users at that time, WIEL.co.za 12 568 unique users and the CARtoday webletter reached 16 385 subscribers a week. CAR’s Facebook profile had 2 208 friends and there were more than 500 followers of Hannes Oosthuizen’s Twitter feed,” said Dicks.

“There were 2 890 views of the branded Golf 6 video on CAR’s YouTube channel, which includes a link to the CARtoday site, and 1 289 views of the clip on MyVideo. In the mobile space, 98 765 subscribers to the CAR channel on MXit had access to the Golf 6 videos, exhaust tones and wallpapers, as did 15 560 unique users on mobile.cartoday.com, while content was also available on CAR’s channels on MTN Loaded, Samsung Fanclub, and Nokia WAP portals.”

According to Merkel, the campaign helped drive sales of the new Golf and the retail figures surpassed expectations. Asked whether Volkswagen would consider using an integrated CAR/WIEL marketing solution for future campaigns, Merkel is emphatic.

“Absolutely! RamsayMedia Automotive’s focus on a multi-media experience is exactly what we look for in a media strategy for a product launch.”

CAR and WIEL publisher, Neil Piper, pointed out that while marketing opportunities are endless in the new media space, clients, advertising agencies and the media need to be educated on how audiences consume content today and what appropriate new media platforms are suitable for their brands.

“We partner with our clients to help them understand the dialogue that consumers want to engage in around both their product and our Automotive brands,” he said. “We can help them to make their content accessible on platforms that are relevant to our audiences and work out whether there is a good brand fit. This enables our clients to tap into and connect with CAR’s audience in a measurable way.”

CAR will launch the equivalent of its MTN channel on Vodacom Live at the beginning of December. CAR is the only motoring partner of Vodacom Live, and provides an additional advertising platform for CAR clients wanting to reach the Vodacom subscriber audience of over 2.8 million.

“In September we also launched a CAR Mobile Club offering to our readers – a weekly subscription offer that includes three items of content, namely one video, one exhaust tone and one wallpaper a week,” said Dicks. “Our success with MXit has helped us to understand the mobile audience from a content, brand-reference and price-point perspective and we have applied those findings in developing our strategy for Vodacom Live.”

Other content innovations which have recently been introduced by CAR include the CAR TV news read – a monthly filmed motoring news bulletin on CARtoday.com – and the availability of CAR video content on Infinit.mobi, a mobile video site started by South African video platform MyVideo that was launched at the end of August. These provide further advertising opportunities for clients.

“Our objective in exploring these new channels is to have conversations with more people, to make our content accessible and portable, and to direct them to our core products, the CAR print publication and website,” said Dicks. “However, we’ve recognised how our advertisers can benefit from the various new media platforms that CAR and WIEL have established and we’re pleased to be able to offer our clients the opportunity to reach CAR’s audience of about 1.6 million through all of our touch points.”

Now 53 years old, CAR, South Africa’s longest-running, biggest, and most authoritative motoring publication shows no signs of being in a mid-life crisis. In fact, according to the Sunday Times Generation Next 2009 brand survey, it is the ‘coolest’ magazine of all. Remaining youthful and embracing change are important elements of the magazine’s recipe for success.

To find out more about CAR’s web-based platforms, visit Hannes Oosthuizen’s Twitter feed at twitter.com/hannesO_CARmag; CAR’s Facebook profile at facebook.com/car.mag1; or watch CAR videos on YouTube at youtube.com/user/cartoday or on MyVideo at myvideo.co.za/channels/CARtoday.

Also check out the CAR mobi-sites at mobile.cartoday.com; infinit.mobi; mxit.com/wap; MTN Loaded; and soon on Vodacom Live, Nokia and Samsung Club.