Luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz is sponsoring automotive marketplace AutoTrader.com?s new mobile Web site to influence affluent consumers' purchase decisions.

AutoTrader.com?s mobile automotive marketplace features a mobile shopping experience that delivers to car shoppers the functions and services surveyed consumers said that they want when shopping for a car via a mobile device. The company tapped Tigerspike for the creation of the mobile platform.

?The mobile site offers the car shoppers visiting our site more information and we believe that makes for a more satisfying shopping experience where at the end of the day, the shopper knows they bought the right car,? said Mark Scott, spokesman for AutoTrader.com, Atlanta. ?For our advertisers, it creates one more opportunity for them to influence the car shopper to visit their dealership or look at their cars.

?Mercedes-Benz is our initial sponsor of this,? he said. ?Mercedes-Benz is using a branding message with links to Mercedes-Benz content.

?Our strategy with mobile was to create an experience that complements our main site by giving shoppers the functionality our research and site traffic showed us they want in a mobile experience.?

Mercedes-Benz?s targeted mobile ads
Mercedes-Benz chose AutoTrader.com?s mobile platform because visitors to its mobile site are likely to be actively shopping for a new or used car, possibly even out on a competitor?s lot.

While there is no specific target demographic for the Mercedes-Benz mobile ad campaign, the automaker is obviously trying to reach affluent consumers in the market for a luxury vehicle.

?Because just about everyone will buy a car at some point, we believe the demographics of our main site are pretty broad and we believe our mobile site traffic demographics will mirror that,? Mr. Scott said.

A large banner ad with a Mercedes-Benz logo and a picture of a sedan appears at the top of the mobile site, just under the AutoTrader.com logo.

The call-to-action on the clickable banner unit carries the teaser ?Sneak Peek.?

The bottom of each page of the AutoTrader.com mobile site features the Mercedes-Benz logo and the message ?Sponsored by Mercedes-Benz.?

On the main AutoTrader.com site, dealers and individuals posting vehicles for sale have the ability to pay for higher placement.

The search results pages on the mobile experience will reflect those that appear on the main site. There is no paid search placement that's exclusive to the mobile experience.

On AutoTrader.com?s mobile site, premium search listings from Mercedes-Benz for cars such as a certified 2009 C300 appear above featured listings for new and used 2009 Mercedes-Benz C300s.

Mercedes-Benz is no stranger to mobile advertising.

In February, Mercedes-Benz ran ads within the Motor Trend application for the iPhone and iPod touch to promote the launch of its new 2010 E-Class models (see story).

During the best time of year for college basketball fans?March Madness?Mercedes Benz sponsored the CBS Sports BlackBerry application (see story).

AutoTrader.com, a majority-owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, claims to be the Internet's leading auto classifieds marketplace and consumer information Web site.

?Through our research and our own site traffic, we don't believe people want a full-site experience in mobile,? Mr. Scott said.

?We believe consumers build their car shopping consideration set from their office or home computer and during this process they read our car reviews, access our research and compare articles, review our auto-show coverage and the many other things our full site offers, in addition to looking at cars and building that consideration set," he said.