Gumtree targets used car market with push into premium brands
Trading site Gumtree is taking direct aim at the premium car market and dedicated websites such as Cars Guide, Drive, Auto Trader and Carpoint with a new campaign highlighting the premium brands on the site.
The push to attract buyers of premium brands has also tapped into the advertising campaigns of companies such as Toyota and Jeep for inspiration.
Gumtree senior marketing manager, James Walmsley, told Mumbrella the company was aiming to highlight that it advertised more used cars than any other site in Australia, a point he claims is often missed by potential car buyers.
“We have always had an autos vertical on our site and we have over 180,000 cars to choose from,” Walmsley said.
“We saw this end of financial year as a great opportunity for us to showcase what cars and what quality brands we have actually got available on Gumtree.
He defended the use of appropriating the well-known taglines of car brands to support the campaign.
“We are being tongue-in-cheek with the creative, trying to leverage those associations that people already have with brands such as Jeep, BMW and Volkswagen, and it is really just trying to create and drive that awareness that people may not have known that you can get those quality cars and those brands available on Gumtree.”
Walmsley said that with 7.4m unique visitors to the site each month, and up to 3m each day, Gumtree was a viable competitor to the dedicated car websites.
“Obviously, it’s a very competitive marketplace with some strong competitors so we’re really trying to have a campaign that will drive that impact to consumers and really get us noticed.
“Specifically when we look at this campaign itself the suite of media we are using – we have a lot of out of home advertising and are using digital out of home and partnering with Nova, so we will be on the radio as well – so we are really looking at targeting users when they are in the car trying to drive that impact.”
He said the strength of the platform was that people were drawn by a variety of offers but could then be drawn into the cars section.
“What we are trying to do is look at and target both active and passive buyers – showcasing what we have available on site for people that might not be specifically looking for a car,” he said.
“What we are aiming to do now is drive the awareness of the quality cars that are available.”
Walmsley said that previous campaigns highlighting cars on Gumtree had not elicited a reaction from the dedicated car sites, but admitted that by highlighting the availability of premium brands the site may now attract attention.
The campaign features ads such as “I bought a sweet Jeep on Gumtree” and “Oh, what an even better feeling”.
It is further supported by the line “Test drive Gumtree”.
Gumtree’s agency, Naked, was behind the new campaign with media handled by PHD.
But there’s sooooo much garbage to sift through….
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I wonder if they got permission from manufacturers to rip off all their tag lines? I doubt it.
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