Nissan uses Innovative Marketing to Gather Web Analytics

Nissan Motor Company uses a wide variety of online marketing mediums and Web analytics to assess customers and potential customers. Nissan has not been afraid to “think outside the box” in regard to reaching their market or measuring Web analytics. Nissan has been able to garner success by using innovative approaches, as well as partnering with many different agencies and software providers to reach their advertising goals. Nissan is dedicated to reaching their consumers in non-traditional marketing ways which requires vigilant Web analytics monitoring to prove their success. Nissan’s ability to find exciting ways to engage with customers has led them down exciting advertising paths full of data ready to synthesize for their next marketing venture. Here are a few of Nissan’s advertising adventures and how they use Web analytics to create success.


In 2006, Nissan extended its online advertising deal with Microsoft through the Digital Advertising Solutions program to give “Nissan a broader presence in Microsoft portals and platforms” (Leggatt, 2006, para. 1). Jan Thompson, Vice President of Marketing, Nissan North America says, “Through our partnership with MSN and Microsoft, we’ll be able to understand what our customers want, how they want it, and in what ways they interact with our brands and nameplates” (Leggatt, 2006, para. 4). By partnering with a company like Microsoft, Nissan gains access to millions of potential customers; their Web browsing habits, their Web analytics data and this gives them an advantage in the online marketplace.

One of the most recent creative ways Nissan is working in the digital marketing space with Microsoft is through the Skype platform. The Nissan ads featured in Skype focus on the Altima model, and also ran in the mobile Skype platform. The campaign was measured using comScore, a solution that provides a wide array of Web analytics information. The comScore data proved Nissan’s goals of increased "reach and inspired action, the Homepage Ads drove awareness and recall. And through the Conversation Ad exposure, viewers were primed for action by the buzz around the brand in an environment they trust and amongst people whose opinions they value. This in turn, lifted brand recommendation metrics and purchase intent" (Microsoft Advertising, 2013), creating a huge success for the Nissan Altima nameplate and the Skype Case Study. Nissan’s success on Skype, and the Web analytics data they collected from the ads showed that Skype could be a successful environment to deliver auto lifestyle messaging (Microsoft Advertising, 2013).

In the social media landscape, Nissan has partnered with Synthesio, provider of global social media monitoring, to help take some of the guess work out of social media. Nissan used Synthesio to monitor real-time analytics to find out what people were saying about its new electric Leaf model. Nissan used the “social data to inform other parts of its marketing channels – for example, knowing that BBC TV show Top Gear was about to show an episode in which the car battery runs out, leaving presenter Jeremy Clarkson stranded” enabled Nissan to “inform their press team of how to structure targeted press release” (NMA Staff, 2012). This is a great example of how Web analytics, in specific social media analytics, can strengthen your entire marketing platform. Had Nissan not been monitoring their social media analytics they would not have had an opportunity to quickly defend the Leaf in upcoming marketing and do damage control.

Nissan leans heavily on social media, in particular, Facebook to launch five new models for the 2013 model year. The first of which is the 2013 Nissan Altima. Erich Marx, Nissan’s director-interactive and social media marketing said, “social media has to be a responsible part of any media package now. . . It’s not about ROI, it’s about COI—cost of ignoring. It’s too big to ignore” (Thomaselli, 2012, para. 3). Customers have the expectation of being able to interact with the brand in the social space and Nissan is definitely engaging its consumers. According to Zuum, a company that tracks Facebook engagement “Nissan had the highest consumer engagement percentage on its brand page of any automaker” (Thomaselli, 2012, para. 5). I would say it is due to the nature of Nissan’s interaction with consumers and tracking the effectiveness through Web and social analytics. Nissan has launched many interactive features on their Facebook page, including contests, and the Altima “Innovation Garage” where consumers can offer up their own car ideas (Thomaselli, 2012, para. 10).

Another innovative Nissan marketing approach is a partnership with Gameloft for the development of a mobile game to launch the new Juke Nismo. Nissan partnered with the mobile driving game “Asphalt 7: Heat” to create a virtual test drive experience for users (Moth, 2013). The development of this game allowed Nissan to focus in on the “tech-seekers” demographic and “build relationships outside of the automotive industry” (Moth, 2013, para. 8). Nissan has been collecting Web analytics data from all their advertising ventures and it allows them to build on previous digital achievements in the past. Nissan has measured the success of this campaign based on the 2 million downloads of the game, and the exposure the car has received before the first one has arrived in showrooms. The game also integrates with Facebook, which allows for further engagement, tracking, and brand awareness for Nissan. This would be something I would like to be able to find on the main vehicle page for the Juke Nismo, but it is nowhere to be found. If I could keep my vehicle top-of-mind and continue collecting data and having opportunities to provide information, that would be worth integrating into my main Web site.

Nissan has even managed to use their traditional Web site, NissanUSA.com in an innovative way by launching Google Analytics e-commerce tracking. Although Nissan does not sell its vehicles through e-commerce they have enabled the e-commerce coding whenever “a visitor submits a request for a test drive or brochure. They treat each request as if a car were sold, and record details such as the model, color, transmission type, and location of the vehicles people inquire after” (Google Analytics Case Study, 2012, para. 3). This information enables Nissan’s Global Division to analyze the data to make sure that there will be enough supply for the most in demand models based on the data they collect. It is a very ingenious way to measure the supply and demand of vehicle models. Nissan may also want to consider using a Google application like SessionCam to record actual user sessions on their Web page so that they can determine whether or not users are finding what they want in their visits.

Although Nissanusa.com has taken a very innovative approach to capturing data there are a few things they could do to improve their page according to WebStatZone, the site loads slowly at 2.292 seconds with 72% of sites loading faster. This could possibly be due to all the tracking features that Nissan is running. The site also has 115 HTML errors in the home page which may contribute to slower load speed. Nissan may want to have their site analyzed by a third party software provider such as The Alexa Site Audit to crawl their pages, check for Google Analytics code, and provide recommendations to increase performance and SEO on the Web site.

Nissan has done an amazing job at innovative marketing and partnering with other companies to provide the Web analytics data that drives interest and sales of their vehicles. They are currently using every avenue of metrics and reporting that I know of including free Google Analytics programs, comScore, Synthesio, Microsoft Advertising suite, and Adobe SiteCatalyst products. One final recommendation I would make for Nissan is to further integrate their NissanUSA.com site, in particular the vehicles pages.
We have seen that Nissan has the ability to innovate some outstanding “out of the box” marketing ideas, but we do not find any of them integrated into the vehicle pages. For example, the Altima which we have seen Nissan use some cutting edge ideas to reach consumers and measure engagement with their Facebook interactive game. When you view the vehicle page on Nissanusa.com/cars/altima you only find links to the social media pages, you do not find any of the other creative ways that Nissan has reached consumers. I find it disheartening that Nissan has not found more creative ways to incorporate some of their best ideas in their traditional Web site. Integrating the creativity they have displayed on other platforms could only increase brand engagement and provide additional Web analytics to a brand already knocking it out of the park in the digital marketing world.

References

Google Analytics Case Study. (2012, May 11). How Nissan uses e-commerce tracking without directly selling online [Web log]. Retrieved from http://analytics.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-nissan-uses-ecommerce-tracking.html  

Leggatt, H. (2006, November 21). Nissan and Microsoft Extend Online Ad Deal: Nissan broadens its online presence by extending its online ad deal with Microsoft [Web log]. BizReport Ecommerce. Retrieved from http://www.bizreport.com/2006/11/nissan_and_microsoft_extend_online_ad_deal.html#

Microsoft Advertising. (2013, February 1). Nissan Altima shifts into high gear with Skype: Case Study. Retrieved from http://advertising.microsoft.com/skype-nissan-altima-case-study

Moth, D. (2013, January 25). How Nissan used a mobile game to launch the new Juke Nismo [Web log]. Econsultancy.com. Retrieved from http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/61962-how-nissan-used-a-mobile-game-to-launch-the-new-juke-nismo

NMA Staff. (2012, August 20). Nissan: Social analytics help take guess work out of marketing. Econsultancy.com. Retrieved from http://econsultancy.com/us/nma-archive/58400-nissan-social-analytics-help-take-guess-work-out-of-marketing

WebStatZone. (2013, March 3). Nissanusa.com –Overview. Retrieved from http://www.webstatzone.com/stat/nissanusa.com.htm#suggestion

Thomaselli, R. (2012, June 25). Nissan looks to Facebook to help launch five new models [electronic]. Ad Age digital. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/digital/nissan-facebook-launch-models/235616/