Microsoft Advertising has conducted a study with Mazda to demonstrate the effectiveness of online advertising as a complement to other types of advertising. The study interviewed nearly 4,000 people with a control group, who were not exposed to advertising for the launch of the Mazda2, a car especially aimed at young people who spend most of their time on the Internet.
The surveys were carried out between May and bc data europe June 2008 and asked users about their brand recall prior to the launch of the campaign. Once it was launched in the press, radio, television and online, they were also asked where they had seen it. The campaign on Microsoft Advertising consisted of banners and page-robins on both the MSN.es portal and Windows Live Messenger, reaching an audience of nearly 17 million users across both services.
The purpose of the interviews was to measure brand recall, message association, brand and product image, as well as purchase intention. In all cases, the metrics improved when the Internet was included in the media mix, especially as a complement to magazines. Measuring coverage, when the Internet was introduced, 2 points more reach was achieved compared to those who had only seen the campaign on television, while among those who had seen the advertising in magazines and the Internet, awareness improved by 5 points compared to those who had only seen the print ads.
In terms of awareness, Mazda achieves an additional point of top-of-mind recall when television and the Internet are combined. This campaign resulted in an increase in website traffic, where test drive requests increased by 193% and virtual catalogue downloads by 124%. The action meant that 50% of visits to its website were to find out details about the Mazda2, 30% more than usual.