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People on the Move in the Social Media Industry: June 10th, 2008 »
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Ongoing List of Social Media Examples in the Auto and Car Industry

Categories: Industry Index, Social MediaPosted on June 9th, 2008

Social Media Marketing adoption has spurred forward with the technology industry, as well as with consumer and lifestyle products, when people are passionate about a topic, the want to talk about it. The auto industry in the United States crosses so many of those themes, it’s ripe for social media marketing (providing your technographics indicates your customers are going to engage).

Here’s an ongoing list of Social Media examples, and resources:

Chevy Tahoe “Create you ad” - 2006
Perhaps one of the earliest examples (and boldest) was the advertisement where anyone could create their own Chevy ads. Many anti-SUV/Auto ads appeared, and some suggest it was a failed campaign. I believe it was a success for the very reasons it was criticized, at least GM took a bold move to embrace what everyone was talking about, aside from the residual buzz from the campaign itself.

Jeep’s Have Fun Out There
To me, this is really a great way of reaching with these tools, rather than create all the content themselves, Jeep has aggregated content from the community. I’m sure it’s been filtered, so nothing inappropriate is added, but it’s a good way of letting the community ‘drive’ their own agenda. Essentially they are “fishing where the fish are” by linking and aggregating communities where they already exist on flickr, youtube, and facebook.

Honda/Acura
Has launched several campaigns such as this ‘create your own profile‘ for your social network, featuring Honda Pilot. Other examples inlcude Acura TSX Facebook page, and a Honda YouTube channel that features a variety of innovation lead videos.

GM launches a Community program -2008
From Neville and Shel of the For Immediate Release program (podcast) “GMnext is more or less a year-long online initiative around the 100th anniversary of the company. Here’s a bit of an overview in the event it’s close to what you’re looking for. Shel did a few podcasts when they launched.” Aside from this community initiative, GM continues to push the envelope and has created a ‘social media newsroom‘.

Chrysler Listens with Insight Community -08
Forming an online community is one thing, but using it to listen to customers, then making changes is another. Chrysler has launched a Customer Advisory Board that allows customers to be involved in a two way dialog to make suggestions. This one was powered by Passenger, see list of other insight vendors.

Mini’s Owners’ Lounge
By creating an extranet for customers, Mini has let their owners self organize, self-express, and communicate.

GM’s many blogs
This Chrysler auto focused blog is rich with media, appears to be frequently updated, by void of many comments. Of course many of you know the GM Fast Lane blog, which has been around since 2005, authored by employees such as Bob Lutz, and the GMNext blogs.

Jeep’s Patriot Adventure: Choose your own Adventure -2008
Really an example of interactive marketing, not social media (aside for videos going on Youtube) Jeep launches an interactive campaign where members can direct which choices video actors make. If you don’t know the difference, you can read the many forms of web marketing.

Ford’s Social Media Press Release
I’ve never really understood the value of the social media press release, as I’d rather see corporations/employees joining the conversation, as the level of trust will be higher. In any case, Ford has developed a social media press release for it’s cars, the layout and visualization of the cars looks fantastic.

Toyota: Master of Africa -2008
I applaud this community site that talks about 4X4 best practices and sharing, as it discusses not only the sponsored brands’ discussion of their products, but other companies. Great way to really join the authentic conversations that the market will already have, and attempt to build trust.

Scion Speak let’s owners self-express
By encouraging owners to create their own personalized emblem, they strengthen member affinity. This is really an example of interactive marketing, not social media. Now, if members were able to take that emblem to their social networking site, then it could spread. Also, there should be a way to print out that emblem and adhere to car.

BMW 1 Series Graffiti Facebook campaign -2008
This is perhaps one of the best case studies of brands getting social media right, like the Dell Regeneration campaign (both by Federated Media) BMW reaches to existing Grafiti users to draw what they think the BMW 1 means to them “What drives you?”. The result is astounding, thousands of beautiful pieces of art created, and spread across Facebook.

Saturn gets Community -2008
I’ve always been impressed with the friendly Saturn brand, from user group sponsorships to the no pressure selling, they offer more of an easy going lifestyle brand. Now, their online community reflects their ethos, with groups, member profiles, and other social networking features

Nissan Finland launches Social Map Mashup
This interactive map let’s members upload their destinations and images and let’s them share with others. It’s themed around the various offroad vehicles, trucks, and SUVs by Nissan. It looks like it’s a flash app, but I question if that’s very useful for mobile users.

United Auto Workers Community
The UAW, according to Chuck Gose, “allows workers to submit their stories to about what it means to be a part of the UAW and then other readers can comment or rate the story. They can also submit video.”

Castrol runs a social networking site for car enthusiasts
This ‘gear head’ community gives an outlet for those passionnate about auto mobiles, see the in depth profiles, featured cars, and discussions at motoraddicts

Daimler launches German blog
This German blog by Daimler appears to slowly get traction, a smattering of comments, and posts since Oct 2007, this could be a great way to reach a unique audience. Thanks to Stefan for the submit.

Various Brands: Social Networking Campaigns
Many of these are too minor to point out individually, but there are dozens of brands that have created social network marketing groups or campaigns, and thousands of groups created by owners themselves, a few examples:
BMW, Facebook

Staffing and Resources

Ford has hired Scott Monty to lead the Social Media Practice -June 2008

Additional Resources


AARF: Headlight
Avenue A Razorfish, an intractive firm that is now focusing on Social Media under the direction of Shiv Singh has a blog focused directly on the innovation of the auto industry, when it comes to marketing.
iMedia has an article on what Social Media Marketing means to auto brands, worth a read.

Minor Social Networking Campaigns
Of course, it’s important to note there are hundreds, if not thousands of online communities created from avid owners, such as this, and dozens other that create groups within social networks. Quite frankly, many brands are missing the opportunities on social networks, when the apply the traditional marketing efforts to a social environment. Go to Facebook, MySpace and do searches in groups and on the search bar to find more.

Owner created Communities
Of course, it’s important to note there are hundreds, if not thousands of online communities created from avid owners, such as this Mini, and Acurazine, both thriving passion communities. There are marketing opportunities, but most brands monitor, but don’t participate. Apparently, an owner created community called VW Vortex has been supported by VW themselves. (if you’ve details, please leave a comment)

Ratings and Reviews Sites
This list can be long, so I’ll just give a few examples such as Edmunds Forums, Yahoo Autos, and I’m sure there are hundreds more.

If you’ve other examples of Auto companies using social media to connect with customers, please leave a comment.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 6:51 am and is filed under Industry Index, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

49 Responses to “Ongoing List of Social Media Examples in the Auto and Car Industry”

  1. Also check out the UAW’s effort: http://www.iamtheuaw.org



    2. Posted by Chuck Gose on June 9th, 2008 at 7:36 am

  2. We’ve been running a site for Mini-Cooper for many years at: http://www.miniusa.com/#/ownersLounge-m You need to be a Mini Cooper owner and have a VIN number to get an account. The site has a lot of strong social networking features to connect the owners virtually and in the physical world.



    3. Posted by Jay Bryant on June 9th, 2008 at 7:38 am

  3. Jeremiah,

    The Ford Autoshows site at http://autoshows.ford.com is an effort to harness the enthusiasm for upcoming concept and production automobiles. In addition, the original video and photo content is syndicated to YouTube and Flickr to expand the community around the site.

    The site is built on top of Wordpress and makes significant use of social media tools- it has been a lot of fun to work on it (full disclosure: I work on Ford for AA|RF).

    -Ben Bloom



    4. Posted by Ben Bloom on June 9th, 2008 at 7:39 am

  4. Chuck

    I’m not familiar with the UAW, how does it relate to autos? Also, I don’t see any examples of social media

    Ben

    I saw that too, I don’t see much proof of owners shaping the conversation.



    5. Posted by jeremiah_owyang on June 9th, 2008 at 7:43 am

  5. Mini also has an official owners lounge. I don’t own a Mini so I’m not sure what it is exactly. But maybe it could fit on this list?



    6. Posted by Jason Peck on June 9th, 2008 at 8:02 am

  6. Acura has that too Jason, not sure if it applies, without seeing it.



    7. Posted by jeremiah_owyang on June 9th, 2008 at 8:19 am

  7. GM has also produced ‘I Got Shotgun!’ an entertainment & auto themed video channel. (Full disclosure: I am one of the digital leads and video producers of IGS).

    Our model is akin to ‘branded entertainment.’ We often tap online influencers (e.g., top subscribed YouTube users, popular bloggers, etc.) to host and cover GM-sponsored entertainment events and races.

    The most successful strategies we’ve utilized have been when we engage the medium & viewers honestly, without pretension, within formal expectations and providing legitimate ’social currency.’ It’s been a great learning process!



    8. Posted by Tom Shea on June 9th, 2008 at 8:33 am

  8. Thanks for the mention Jeremiah!

    Some companies like VW, are far more supportive of community sites. While Honda of America has never offered to support, or advertise on AcuraZine, VW has been a big supporter of the http://www.vwvortex.com message boards and online community. Both by purchasing advertising, in adition to providing test vehicles to be reviewed by the site.

    In the long run, I find this attitude to be far more pragmatic, and much more likely to instill a sense of brand loyalty amongst customers.



    9. Posted by Robb on June 9th, 2008 at 8:40 am

  9. Also -

    An open community for Saturn owners: imsaturn.com

    And what looks like a targeted community for Toyota and collaborators: heya.toyota.com. I saw something on TV about this.



    10. Posted by C. Michaels on June 9th, 2008 at 8:54 am

  10. These examples are really fascinating but what I wonder is how effective they really are - most of your examples are of American auto companies that are losing millions of dollars - have any of these programs really helped the business goals or moved the needle at all?

    I do think the BMW concept because Facebook is an appealing demographic for that brand and i think the VW support of message boards and communities is very wise as that brand lends itself very well to the sense of community.



    11. Posted by Patrick on June 9th, 2008 at 9:12 am

  11. In addition to GMnext and I Got Shotgun, we also have fan pages on Facebook for the Saturn Astra and for Saab.

    To Patrick, it takes time to turn things around, but we’re all making progress. Embracing social media tools like GM has done shows that we are looking ahead.

    Adam Denison
    GM Social Media Communications



    12. Posted by Adam Denison on June 9th, 2008 at 9:48 am

  12. I absolutely agree with your point Adam that you must embrace social media tools - I’m a digital strategist for a PR firm - but a common problem we have is the “so what” factor - as in so what if 1 million people have your application or have visited a Web site - what is the nature of that interaction and will it help a brand achieve its business goals?

    The challenge we face is making applications or micro-sites that are useful and entertaining. I am not questioning anyone’s strategy or tactics because I don’t know what anyone is measuring against or what their goals were - its just a common problem that comes up all the time.



    13. Posted by Patrick on June 9th, 2008 at 10:33 am

  13. I’m adding these examples as they come in, thanks all.



    14. Posted by jeremiah_owyang on June 9th, 2008 at 10:42 am

  14. I’m surprised that individual Auto Dealers aren’t picking up on this. Many were slow moving their inventory to the internet, but I don’t see much action in the local dealer market.

    Considering that auto dealers are the best natural marketers on the planet, you would think they caught on to the value, and the danger of the public knowing what you’re up to.



    15. Posted by Jim Durbin on June 9th, 2008 at 10:44 am

  15. You’re not familiar with the UAW? It stands for United Auto Workers. They are the main union bargaining unit that the three domestic automakers (GM, Ford, Chrysler) have labor agreements with. The UAW site allows workers to submit their stories to about what it means to be a part of the UAW and then other readers can comment or rate the story. They can also submit video.

    Sounds like social media to me.



    16. Posted by Chuck Gose on June 9th, 2008 at 10:46 am

  16. Check out Scion’s site.

    From Scion Speak, “a social networking tool that provides a platform and a new visual language that allows Scion owners to meet and communicate with each other in the online and real world,” to Scion chat on their website, it seems like they are really walking the walk in terms of social media.



    17. Posted by PepperDigital on June 9th, 2008 at 11:03 am

  17. What about the Chrysler listens community?

    https://www.chryslerllc.com/en/chrysler_listens/?hrf=www.chryslerlistens.com

    And, the Customer Advisory Board for Chrysler, powered by Passenger?



    18. Posted by Melissa on June 9th, 2008 at 11:14 am

  18. [...] Here is an excellent article by a web author to drive home the point. He pretty much lists example of car makes using this trend and reaping benefits of this new channel.. GM, Saturn, Chevy [...]



    19. Posted by   Car dealers and Social Networks by The Car Dealer Insider on June 9th, 2008 at 11:48 am

  19. Melissa

    Chrysler listens is a good start, but a far mile from what Starbucks and Dell have done, they’ve let customers not only submit for their requests, but also to vote for which ones they want implemented –all in public.

    Chrysler, with this feedback spirit, take this and really make it ’social’. Also, they should also allow for positive feedback, there’s a reason why people buy –and love–their cars.



    20. Posted by jeremiah_owyang on June 9th, 2008 at 4:10 pm

  20. Chuck thanks for the background info.



    21. Posted by jeremiah_owyang on June 9th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

  21. thanks for the input ! :D



    22. Posted by Jeev on June 9th, 2008 at 4:45 pm

  22. http://www.silveradohub.com
    http://www.cobalthub.com

    Consumer gen aggregator sites.



    23. Posted by jarred on June 9th, 2008 at 5:53 pm

  23. Cool list Jeremiah. Do you think AutoTrader.com/AutoMart.com/Cars.com/etc. have opportunities in the automotive niche?

    Cars.com particularly has several blogs on their site but don’t see many examples otherwise. How can these sites focus on social media and not be dominated by manufacturer sites?



    24. Posted by Mason on June 9th, 2008 at 5:53 pm

  24. To Patrick’s point above, the MINI Owner’s Lounge has a remarkably high rate of participation. As many as 70% of owners join, using the venue to organize weekend car rallies, talk about their cars/lifestyles, and creating car “resumes” that they can share with friends who can’t access the lounge. For MINI, this effectively supports repeat/referral sales as well as brand loyalty through a really active social dynamic…all for only a program cost of several dollars per owner. Full disclosure: Our company, LiveWorld, designed and created the community in conjunction with MINI’s digital agency Beam Interactive. We host it on our application platform, provide community management and moderate it.



    25. Posted by Jenna Woodul on June 9th, 2008 at 6:47 pm

  25. Dude:
    Check out Edmunds (unless I missed it above somewhere). They are doing great things over there.



    26. Posted by Wilder on June 9th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

  26. Great compilation.
    GM was also doing stuff with its centennial.



    27. Posted by Jeff Jarvis on June 10th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

  27. Oops. Sorry. I just saw it under another name.



    28. Posted by Jeff Jarvis on June 10th, 2008 at 1:39 pm

  28. Jeremiah,

    They have to some degree, though their site isn’t public. They hired Passenger to start their online community and facilitate an ongoing conversation with consumers. Yes, there’s pre-screening, and yes, it’s on a much smaller scale than a public interface, but I wouldn’t discredit it all together.

    Posts within the community are incredibly positive as well as critical.



    29. Posted by Melissa on June 10th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

  29. Comprehensive and helpful. Thank you!



    30. Posted by Geoff Livingston on June 10th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

  30. [...] Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, included headlightblog.com in his Ongoing List of Social Media Examples in the Auto and Car Industry post this week. Apparently, our May issue, which was devoted to Social Influence Marketing as it [...]



    31. Posted by Mary S. Butler » Blog Archive » May issue of Headlightblog.com gets a plug from the web strategist on June 10th, 2008 at 10:14 pm

  31. [...] Ongoing List of Social Media Examples in the Auto and Car Industy Jeremiah Owyang provides an excellent list of social media case studied revolving around the automobile industry. [...]



    32. Posted by Persuasive Picks for the week of 06/09/08 : PerkettPRsuasion - The PerkettPR Blog on June 13th, 2008 at 1:14 pm

  32. Here’s Nissan’s 4×4 site that aims to align the brand’s larger vehicles with the Nordic nature. The site allows users to upload their own personal photos on to the very locations where they have visited. It has been a very popular campaign even if only in the Nordics.
    http://www.where-are-you.fi/index.html?map=&lang=eng

    Disclosure: I was involved in making the site



    33. Posted by Ville Vesterinen on June 16th, 2008 at 4:51 am

  33. Disclosure: My company worked on this site.

    What about the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X site in Canada? This was the first release of the Lancer Evolution in Canada and so Mitsubishi wanted to make a splash.

    Incorporated Facebook, Flickr and YouTube into the site build.

    http://lancerevolution.ca/



    34. Posted by Emma on June 20th, 2008 at 11:49 am

  34. [...] Ongoing List of Social Media Examples in the Auto and Car Industy [...]



    35. Posted by Ben Ayers » links for 2008-06-23 on June 23rd, 2008 at 2:32 pm

  35. [...] Ongoing List of Social Media Examples in the Auto and Car Industy [Web Strategist] (tags: cars creative digital social media) Posted by ferrar Filed in Uncategorized [...]



    36. Posted by links for 2008-06-24 « Ferrar on June 24th, 2008 at 1:35 am

  36. [...] about a topic, the want to talk about it. The auto industry in the United States crosses so manyhttp://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/06/09/ongoing-list-of-social-media-examples-in-the-auto-indu…Shanfari Automotive to distribute Chrysler, Dodge in Oman Zawya23 June 2008 MUSCAT — Shanfari [...]



    37. Posted by chrysler jeep on June 24th, 2008 at 1:47 am

  37. Castrol runs a social networking site for car enthusiasts:

    http://www.motoraddicts.com

    And there’s a corporate blog by Daimler, which has really gained momentum in the German Blogosphere:

    http://blog.daimler.de/



    38. Posted by Stefan Martens on June 30th, 2008 at 1:06 pm

  38. Stefan, thanks I added.



    39. Posted by jeremiah_owyang on July 1st, 2008 at 4:53 am

  39. Another reason why I think the original Tahoe “create your ad” campaign should be viewed as a success is that, in hindsight, it illustrates how important it is to actually listen to what your customers are saying. While GM was pushing larger Tahoes, more powerful V8s, and an expansion of the Hummer line, a significant portion of the public was calling for more fuel efficient engines, smaller and lighter cars/SUVs, hybrid models, and a general trend towards environmentally friendly vehicles. Instead of dismissing the ad campaign as a failure that was ruined by a small and vocal minority, GM could have taken the opportunity to realize it was really the very early stages of a market shift….2 years later gas prices are through the roof, the rumbles are that Hummer may disappear, and today GM announced that they would have sold between 8,000 and 10,000 more vehicles in June if they had more 4-cylinder offerings (http://adage.com/article?article_id=128109). So was the failure in the campaign itself, or that GM failed to recognize that it was an early indicator of where customer wants/needs were headed?

    Also, the vwvortex.com example is a great one of a corporation supporting (and listening to) a community. In fact, I’ve read that it was the first site to have a senior executive of an auto company (Len Hunt, former EVP of VWoA) posting in the forums under his own name, back in 2005: http://www.germancarblog.com/2005/07/vw-of-america-len-hunt-joined-debate.html

    It started out as an enthusiast site (full disclosure: i’ve been posting there for 8 years, starting when I tried to find some cheap parts in college), but VW eventually started lending support without taking it over. Access to cars for the editors, access to advanced knowledge, and even changing corporate decisions after influence from members (supposedly the Golf R32 and Touareg Diesel were brought to the states after begging/petitioning/groudswelling that started on the ‘tex).



    40. Posted by Tom Cummings on July 2nd, 2008 at 8:16 am

  40. Tom, welcome to the web strategy conversation, it’s going to be good getting to know you



    41. Posted by jeremiah_owyang on July 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 am

  41. Thanks Jeremiah! I figured I’d been reading long enough, I might as well finally doing a little writing. Next time I’ll try not to do quite so much writing….I got a little verbose this morning ;) Look forward to getting to know you better as well!



    42. Posted by Tom Cummings on July 2nd, 2008 at 10:22 am

  42. Tom, get as verbose as you want.



    43. Posted by jeremiah_owyang on July 2nd, 2008 at 10:55 am

  43. [...] Ongoing List of Social Media Examples in the Auto and Car Industy (tags: cars socialmedia) [...]



    44. Posted by Made By Many » Blog Archive » links for 2008-06-15 on July 19th, 2008 at 4:18 pm

  44. [...] Media by Industry: Auto, Finance, and Insurance. Need to find examples for your boss or client? These indexes can [...]



    45. Posted by Reccomended Web Strategy Reading on October 18th, 2008 at 1:00 am

  45. [...] En dépit de leur apparente légèreté, les marques les plus fortes (Coca, Apple, Google, Microsoft, HP, SAP, Durex, et les propriétés les plus sexy de P&G) sont tenues par des équipes très professionelles, et toutes ont fait des expériences passionantes sur la question — voir ce qu’Owyang a recens sur les voitures. [...]



    46. Posted by Comment les entreprises appréhendent le Web social « Deux croissants on October 28th, 2008 at 7:14 pm

  46. [...] Web Strategy Aprendemos compartiendo en interactividad.org Si te ha gustado este artículo, te puedes suscribir [...]



    47. Posted by Guía Mundial de Países » Blog Archive » La crisis y la industria del automóvil: relacionarse (con Internet) para vender - Parte 1 on March 14th, 2009 at 3:46 pm

  47. [...] Markarina y Web Strategy. Aprendemos compartiendo en interactividad.org Si te ha gustado este artículo, te puedes [...]



    48. Posted by Guía Mundial de Países » Blog Archive » La crisis y la industria del automóvil: relacionarse (con Internet) para vender - Parte 2 on March 14th, 2009 at 3:48 pm

  48. [...] For a further list you can visit this post. [...]



    49. Posted by Social Media for Automotive « Social-icious on June 10th, 2009 at 6:57 am

  49. [...] Ongoing List of Social Media Examples in the Auto and Car Industry Posted by root 39 minutes ago (http://www.web-strategist.com) This one was powered by passenger see list of other insight vendors if you 39 ve other examples of auto companies using social media to connect with customers please leave a comment the site is built on top of wordpress and makes significant use of media Discuss  |  Bury |  News | Ongoing List of Social Media Examples in the Auto and Car Industry [...]



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