The British Motor Show
Increased ticket sales through Display and Brand Awareness Campaigns.
Project Summary
The British Motor Show provides a weekend of entertainment for all. From seeing shiny new cars in the metal, to racing cars and timeless classics, there’s something for all the family to enjoy. The objective of the campaign was to ensure this messaging was included throughout to push towards the overarching growth goal.
How we did it
The British Motor Show | Paid Search
Using PPC for continued emphasis on brand awareness, helping to achieve a 20% growth target.
BACKGROUND
The British Motor Show is an iconic event for the UK’s automotive industry, drawing a crowd of over 60,000 enthusiasts and families alike. Now, in its 120th year (and its 3rd year with today’s owners), the event offers a weekend of entertainment, driving experiences, meet & greets and more, offering something for all the family.
The project’s ambition was clear-cut: achieve a 20% growth in ticket sales from the previous 2022 event by employing a more focused and strategic PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaign to both boost brand awareness and increase ticket sales.
THE CHALLENGE
Historically, The British Motor Show had not been utilising PPC to its fullest potential and had been focusing mostly on brand search terms, which meant primarily targeting those already familiar with the event rather than expanding the reach of the brand.
The Client wanted to better apply their advertising budget to ensure they were not paying for what would have already been organic visitors, as The British Motor Show were already using a mix of out of home marketing, radio PR and digital marketing.
At the start of our work together, The British Motor Show had also changed ticketing partners which had been causing issues related to order tagging and tracking.
HOW DID HEWITT MATTHEWS APPROACH?
The original brief was around Display Ads and not to include Search but after the initial three weeks of the campaign, the data showed that it would be useful to include Search in the mix as well.
Firstly, we worked closely with the client and the new ticketing partner to resolve the tracking issues which, in turn, helped to improve overall campaign performance by giving us more accurate data to work from.
Then, as early adopters of Performance Max (PMax), we were able to implement this feature immediately and add Brand Exclusions to ensure little to no ‘would-be-organic’ visitors were targeted.
As the campaign matured, we introduced the retargeting of site visitors through Search campaigns. For this transition, we used Google Analytics 4 to build custom audiences, providing Google with the signals needed for optimal performance.
We guided The British Motor Show on their creative and used many family-focused images as our data suggested this was performing best. For the Display campaigns, we also used rich media & videos that showed the USPs of the event, indoor and outdoor areas, and that it is suitable for all weathers.
RESULTS
Hewitt Matthews aided the 20% growth target of the show through our digital marketing campaigns.
Our digital marketing campaigns led to a total of 2,400 completed checkouts over a 2.5-month period, with the majority coming from Performance Max campaigns that strategically excluded brand terms.
Additionally, our initial Display and Brand awareness campaigns generated nearly 23 million impressions and achieved a Click-Through Rate (CTR) of 14% on Performance Max.
By delivering a multi-channelled digital strategy, we helped The British Motor Show both enhance their brand awareness and substantially boost ticket sales, meeting and even surpassing the client’s expectations.
