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Jeep sees 43pc spike in desktop CTR with addition of mobile

Jeep wrapped up a mobile, tablet and desktop campaign last year that resulted in more than 50 percent of impressions reaching the same consumer across multiple devices.

The car brand worked with Universal McCann and Millennial Media on the campaign that ran during the third and fourth quarters of 2013. Jeep?s campaign pushed the 2014 Patriot and Compass vehicles with messaging tailored to each platform.

?Consumers are moving between screens with increasing speed, and brands ? like automotive that look to connect at various points in the awareness and decision-making process ? must have a cross-screen strategy,? said Mollie Spilman, executive vice president of global sales and operations at Millennial Media, Baltimore.

?While a significant amount of automotive research is still conducted on the PC, mobile has proven to be instrumental in accelerating those PC views,? she said.

Drive on mobile
Jeep ran banners across mobile phones, tablets and desktops.

Creative differed based on the platform to ultimately drive consumers to Jeep.com where they could learn more about the cars.

The idea behind this approach was that consumers are in a different part of the path to purchase depending on which screen they are in front of.

For a car brand in particular this kind of approach makes sense since consumers primarily use their smartphones and tablets to research versus shop for cars.

In fact, the automobile industry was singled out in a report from DG Mediamind last year as a vertical seeing higher than average interaction rates with mobile ads. This success is primarily chalked up to the fact that automakers use mobile advertising for branding versus conversions (see story). 

Jeep's ads claimed to reach 1.4 million cross-screen consumers.

Gaining cross-screen steam
Similar to other automotive brands, Jeep has tested a number of different ad units in the past few years. 

Late last year, the automaker ran a campaign with an ad unit that expanded when consumers pulled it down from the top of the screen (see story). 

Additionally, Jeep leveraged the iPad with an ad with a 360-degree view of the interior of the Cherokee last year (see story). 

In this case, the cross-screen format is geared towards helping Jeep break down the creative aspects of the campaign to form a narrative across screens.

?Each device supports specific behaviors and is used more prominently at certain times,? Ms. Spilman said.

?PCs are most likely used during work hours, while tablets are often turned on at home,? she said. ?Smartphones are used throughout the day, with the highest usage during morning and commuting hours.?

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