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Chrysler exec claims geofencing works, geo conquesting does not

NEW YORK ? A Chrysler executive at the 2014 MMA Forum said that as the company begins to invest more in location-based mobile advertising, geofencing is paying off for the brand while geo conquesting has not been successful so far.

Executives from MasterCard and Chrysler spoke about trends that they are seeing in mobile advertising during the ?Programmatic: Can it Improve Your Effective CPM?s and Improve Your Advertising ROI?? session. Bob Arnold, digital strategy and media lead, for North America at Google, Mountain View, CA, moderated the session. 

?We are now just starting to test out location-based targeting, so on competitors? lots as well as on our own lots,? said Amy Peet, senior digital marketing manager at Chrysler, Auburn Hills, MI.

?We?re not seeing a lot of success within competitors? lots, but we are seeing success within our own lots, and we?re starting to tie some of those special private incentives to that as well,? she said.

Drive on mobile
Chrysler?s media strategy involves several tiers of marketing. Tier one includes national branding, and tier two includes nine different business centers that represent local markets for dealership groups. Dealership groups are Chrysler?s third tier of marketing.

Television still plays a big role in Chrysler?s marketing, but complementary social and mobile plans help amplify the brand?s traditional marketing spend and also includes better brand recall metrics, per Ms. Peet.

Additionally, Chrysler leverages mobile to target consumers who are at the top of the purchase funnel when a car is in market. These ads may include a rich media ad so that someone can learn more about the car.

Then at the end of the purchase funnel, Chrysler incorporates programmatic advertising that asks consumers to perform a specific action. On mobile, Chrysler looks for how consumers interact with upper-funnel activities, which includes watching a video or swiping through a photo gallery.

Programmatic advertising is a media buying tactic that allows marketers to buy and run ad campaigns in real-time. These buys are typically made to target a specific demographic or type of mobile user.

Chrysler recently convinced all nine of the company?s business centers to fund programmatic mobile incrementally as part of their strategies.

Per Ms. Peet, programmatic is also being used at the national level successfully. Forty-five percent of the brand?s traffic now comes from mobile.

However, attribution is a challenge with mobile, which is why the brand is experimenting with several different types of ads and buying tactics.

Ms. Peet also said that regardless of how engaged a prospective car buyer is, they will not use a dealership locator on mobile to test drive a vehicle.

?When we see somebody get deeply in market and deeply engaged with our product, [and] when we?ve reached them a couple of different times in various ways, we start to see them do vehicle locates,? Ms. Peet said. ?They never look for a dealership ? don?t let anybody tell you they?re looking for a dealership. They open their Google Maps and do that.?

Building up digital chops
Ben Jankowski, group head of global media at MasterCard, Purchase, NY, also spoke during the session about how the financial company uses mobile as part of a bigger 360-degree media strategy.

MasterCard?s media goals have changed from purely brand awareness six or seven years ago to now heavily playing up engagement, which mobile helps with. This engagement includes a wide umbrella of tactics, including content or getting someone to register for a program.

MasterCard is not using a lot of mobile media currently, and its use is primarily around top-of-funnel activities. 

Despite the fact that MasterCard has now distributed two billion credit cards, CRM and loyalty is a challenge since consumers primarily interact with MasterCard through the financial institutions that issue the cards.

Eventually commerce will ideally also be a goal from advertising, but safety and security are still big obstacles for MasterCard.

?For us now, we?d love for really use mobile to drive immediate commerce ? a little bit of a limitation,? Mr. Jankowski said. ?Now we?re using it to drive relevancy. I can reach travelers in airports, I can reach people at point-of-sale without making a transaction.?

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York