>>CHALLENGE
Nexteer Automotive, a leading supplier of automotive steering solutions, hired Franco for an integrated communications program designed to highlight the company’s expertise and technology to support the automotive industry as it moves toward more EVs and increasing levels of autonomy. The integrated campaign included digital advertising, media relations and blog and website development, with the goal of establishing Nexteer’s technology leadership in relation to industry megatrends.
>>APPROACH
With an integrated approach, Franco coordinated media relations to support Nexteer’s contributions to industry megatrends while highlighting the company’s steering technology and leadership. Additionally, we helped redesign Nexteer’s website for enhanced user experience and navigation. This included the launch of a blog, The Circuit, focusing on Nexteer’s steering technology, software and connections to industry megatrends. To help boost traffic, we designed and implemented a LinkedIn advertising program to target decision makers in the automotive, manufacturing and software industries.
>>RESULTS
Media Relations:
- Franco increased media mentions by 40% for Nexteer in 2020 compared to 2019, which included coverage related to industry megatrends and steering technology.
- Aggregate readership was more than 31 million, representing a 7% increase compared to 2019.
Website:
- To help support earned media, we updated Nexteer’s website for enhanced user experience and navigation – boosting traffic 44% year-over-year for a total of 394,000 visitors.
- Audience acquisitions increased year-over-year for nearly all channels. Most notable increases included direct traffic (+72%), referral traffic (+83%) and social (+106%).
- User behavior on the Nexteer website showed positive results for traffic via ads, with low bounce rates and multiple pages per session, indicating viewers found the blog content relevant and interesting.
Blog:
- In the first quarter the blog was live, posts had been viewed organically more than 12,000 times.
- The average bounce rate for blog posts during the period was only 8%, indicating audiences were staying on the site and engaging with the content.
Digital Advertising:
- In only six weeks after launching the ads, LinkedIn advertising drove 1,250 visitors to blog content on industry megatrends and Nexteer technology.
- LinkedIn ads received over 300 clicks and 70,000 impressions with an average CTR of 0.57%, within the average industry CTR of 0.40%-0.80%
- Native ads helped garner close to 250,000 impressions, with an average CTR of 0.83%. Ads were placed on major automotive, business and national media websites sites.
