Car marketing and the power of social media

Communicating to customers through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter has become de rigueur for the marketing departments of almost every type of business – the automotive industry being no exception.

Car corporations are increasingly leaking images and details of upcoming models to those who ‘like’ their Facebook pages, instead of through the traditional form of their press websites. Perhaps this is to reach their clientele more immediately and directly – before journalists have a chance to distort their words. Examples of this sort of action were seen earlier this year before the unveilings of the Chevrolet Malibu and Citroen DS5 on their manufacturer’s respective Facebook pages.

However the competitive nature of the industry has led some auto companies to not just use social networking to increase their own market share, but to undercut their rivals.  

Last month Toyota decided that they would try to complement the US launch of the all-new Camry by giving customers the opportunity to ‘Tweetchat’ with Bob Carter, Toyota Division’s group vice president and general manager. Consumers could participate in the chat via Twitter by using the hashtags #CamryLive and CamryChat.

Yet in an act of what could be described as either sheer brilliance or underhanded digital espionage, Nissan purchased a ‘Promoted Tweet’ which redirected search terms including “Camry”, “Toyota Camry” and “mid-sized car” to  Nissan news tweets for a 24-hour period around the launch. Examples of the cheeky Nissan tweets included:

•    While the '12 Altima is 1 of "the best-looking and most sporty" sedans, the Camry "isn't at the leading edge in any way."
•    Nissan Altima named a ‘top pick’ by the leading independent consumer mag for 4 yrs running – rated above Camry & Sonata.
•    Review: 2012 Nissan Altima "continues its midsize reign" over Toyota Camry. "One of the best driver-oriented sedans."
•    Unlike some car companies, Nissan is running at 100%. So, the most innovative cars are also the most available cars.

And Nissan showed no remorse.

"Toyota blew it," said an unnamed Nissan manager said to the media. “"They simply didn't protect their intellectual property." 

So is this fair play because Toyota isn’t as tech-savvy as Nissan, or is it completely unethical for rivals to snap-up the online social presences that their competitors have forgotten?

Toyota really has no excuse for not thinking to grab the ‘Camry’ Promoted Tweet just to be sure. It’s no secret that they and the rest of the auto industry are putting huge amounts of money and effort into social media. Mashable.com reports that the manufacturer has a large presence across the major social media sites such as Facebook (over 330,000 likes), Twitter (over 34,000 followers), YouTube (7.5 million views) and LinkedIn to aggregate online mentions of the company and that they have even commissioned a dedicated social media response team. Apparently they just don’t respond as quickly as Nissan’s.

And Twitter isn’t the only social media platform that the leader of the J3 has made a faux-pas on. In 2009, Toyota created a website for the 4Runner but had stolen the images from Flickr without the photographer’s permission. They were forced to remove the images and apologise.    

The damage Nissan’s online subterfuge has done to the new Camry has not yet been estimated but moving forward it’s clear that where once gaining the advantage over competitors was about spending big bucks on shiny TV advertising, goals can now be scored by outsmarting your rivals in the digital sphere. Money isn’t all that matters online, so the smaller, less-affluent manufacturers should take notice – there is market share to be gained by capitalising on 21st century communications technology.