The automotive sector has been one of the big early supporters of mobile advertising, with many interesting campaigns. The question people always ask though, is what has been the impact of the campaigns.

Nissan ran a campaign recently to promote the innovative features of their Murano line. At the same time they ran a detailed research project among consumers to gauge the effect of the campaign. What they found was a big jump in product awareness – over 30% – as well as a significant improvement in the overall image of Nissan.

It is still relatively rare for major brands to release the results of mobile ad studies. The full report – available for download below – goes into detail on the demographics and usage patterns of users on the mobile portals, as well as the effects of the ad campaign.

The Campaign

The campaign consisted of a microsite and a series of mobile banners which appeared on the RTL and n-TV mobile portals in Germany from October to December 2008. These portals are quite popular in Germany, generating over 3 million page impressions per month, and growing at about 30% per month.

The Mobile Website

The mobile website provided a full experience for consumers. The main sections included:

• The new Nissan Murano
  Discover the Murano
• Technology
  Consumption and Equipment
• Highlights
  The Murano at its best
• Test Drive
  Sign up for a free test drive
• Download
  Nissan-Wallpaper download for free
• Video
  See Murano in action

To see a video demonstrating the Murano mobile site, click here.

(note: first you will see the RTL portal with a Murano banner ad. Then you see the home page of the Murano mobile site, and then it goes through each section so that you can see the images and videos they provide.)
The Research Study

The research study was run by IP Germany, and was done in two phases, pre and post-campaign. It utilized a poll completed on mobile channel, with approximately 700 people taking part from both RTL and n-tv.

The full study report gives a complete look at the demographics and usage patterns for the users on each portal. For example, the n-tv portal audience is 91% male with an average age of almost 40, whereas the RTL portal audience is 73% male with an average age of 34. Here is some other interesting information about the frequency of visit to the portal and their view of mobile internet.

Marketing Effectiveness

Both the recognition for the Murano product as well as the overall perception of the Nissan brand were greatly improved by this ad campaign. For example, with the n-tv portal users, recognition of Murano went up by 39%. And you can see from the graph below that the overall image of Nissan was greatly improved after the campaign.

Finally, the study looked at the user reaction to the overall idea of advertising on a mobile portal. As you can see from the graph below, these audiences not only accepted mobile advertising, but also viewed it as useful.