Étude de Cas Facebook

Advertising Case Study

Kim Crawford, Marketing Communications Manager, Mazda Motors UK

Mazda Motors UKCompany Background

Mazda is a leading international automotive

manufacturer. Headquartered in Japan, the brand prides

itself on being forward-thinking, ingenious and daring.

Objective

Mazda had several objectives when it created its

Facebook Check-in Deals strategy in February 2011.

Deals allow businesses to incentivize people to

“check in” to the businesses’ Place on Facebook

on their mobile devices by rewarding them with

individual discounts, shared savings with friends,

repeat visits, or donations for good causes. The

company was not yet active on Facebook, so Check-

in Deals provided a unique opportunity to launch

the brand on the platform. It also allowed it to

gain fans for the Experience Mazda Facebook Page,

the Page for the brand’s U.K. division. By offering

a Facebook Check-in Deal, Mazda also hoped to

generate positive buzz and public relations and

to reinforce its position as an innovative brand.

But the campaign was not just about branding–

Mazda also wanted to sell cars. A critical objective

of the Check-in Deal was to promote and sell the

Mazda MX-5 Miyako roadster and to drive footfall

to Mazda dealerships. On a strategic level, the

company was also looking at this first Facebook

Facebook Executive SummaryClient:

Objective: Generate positive buzz and

PR around the Mazda brand, promote

the Mazda MX-5 Miyako, and drive

footfall to local dealerships and sales of

Mazda MX-5 Miyako cars

Approach: Launch a Facebook Check-

in Deal offering 20 percent off a

limited number of Mazda MX-5s and a

competition to win this car

Key Lessons:

• Check-inDealsofferingdiscounts

can lead to significant sales of

high-value products like cars

• Check-in Deals can also drive

notable foot traffic to retail

locations, even if customers do

not take advantage of the specific

deal at that time

“We got fantastic return on investment out of the PR and positive buzz for our brand around

doing something innovative and different.”

Étude de Cas Facebook

Advertising Case Study

Results

• The Facebook Check-in Deal enabled Mazda to

significantly exceed its sales target for the

Mazda MX-5 for the month. The Check-in Deal

incremented the sales of Mazda MX-5s

by 34 percent in February. In turn, its total

segment share was incremented by 4.6

percent and its retail segment share by 7.6

percent. “Hitting our volume targets for Mazda

MX-5s for that month is brilliant,” says Kim,

“and the campaign definitely contributed to that.”

• Mazdasoldall100specialmodelMazda

MX-5 Miyako cars in just two weeks

following the launch of the Check-in Deal.

The automaker says this is remarkably

successful in terms of both time and

volume, especially for a convertible

car in the winter months. In comparison,

a summer 2009 experiential campaign

sold only 60 cars over three months.

• 742peoplecheckedinatMazdadealerships

across the U.K.; 162 people entered into the

competition at the five participating dealerships.

• The Check-in Deal generated fantastic press

for Mazda throughout Europe and beyond.

The company’s Check-in Deal received

coverage in dozens of web and print

publications, including BBC News, The

Telegraph, The Daily Mirror, Which? and MSN

Tech. “It was more than we expected,” explains

Kim. “We got fantastic return on investment

out of the PR and positive buzz for our brand

around doing something innovative and different.”

campaign as a trial. “It was a new technology and

this was a new opportunity to try to leverage

financial benefit out of social media,” says Kim

Crawford, Marketing Communications Manager

at Mazda Motors UK. “We wanted to see how

we could give some of our dealers tangible

financial benefit and sell some cars through a

Check-in Deal. That was a key objective for us.”

Approach

Mazda worked with its agency Mindshare London

to run the Check-in Deal, which ran between

January 31 and March 7 in the U.K. As part of the

promotion, people could check in through Facebook

at their local Mazda dealership using their mobile

phones. Once checked in, they would see that a

Deal was available: Mazda was offering 20 percent

off a Mazda MX-5 Miyako car. Users only had to

click to “claim” the Deal and then show the screen

to the salesperson at the dealership to receive

20 percent off their purchase of a Mazda MX-5.

To publicise the deal, the local dealerships that

participated ran Facebook Ads to promote their

involvement and to encourage people to visit the

dealership. The Marketplace Ads invited people

to go their local Mazda dealerships for a chance

to get the 20 percent off a Mazda MX-5. Initially,

the company allocated 100 cars to the promotion,

which was first available in just five dealerships.

But after seeing its popularity—people were ringing

the company’s call center to ask about it—Mazda

opened it up to all 150 dealerships across the U.K.

Mazda also decided to add a competition to the

Check-in Deal to generate further public relations

and appeal to people who were not currently in

the market to buy a new car. People on Facebook

could check in at one of the five participating

dealerships to enter to win the chance to drive and

enjoy a Mazda MX-5 for five months. Mazda also ran

Facebook Ads to raise awareness of the competition.

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Advertising Case Study

The Future

Mazda wants to be an innovator in the auto

industry in its use of social media for customer

communications, sales and marketing. The company

asserts Facebook is re-shaping how Mazda

communicates with and markets to its consumers,

saying it is a great way for the company to reinforce

to Mazda drivers that they are with the right brand.

It also sees further opportunity for Facebook Deals.

“We definitely want to use it again,” says Kim.

The company is also exploring how its individual

dealerships across the UK can take advantage of

Facebook Check-in Deals on a tactical, local level.

The challenge for the company is often in how

to measure the return on investment of its social

media marketing efforts. However, as Kim explains,

“Once you start using products like Check-in Deals,

you can start pushing a deal to a person and

monetise it. That is really exciting.”