9:30 am, December 21, 2021
Dealers traded at 84 per cent of their usual level during the third lockdown, Auto Trader revealed today (Dec 21).
The online marketplace said retailers’ home delivery and click-and-collect options helped them ride the Covid storm throughout all the lockdowns, with business at 73 per cent of its normal level in the second lockdown and 51 per cent during the first one.
Auto Trader said Covid was posing more uncertainty to dealers and as such it wanted to support them by highlighting those options.
From tomorrow, it will also be featuring its buying online hub prominently across its platforms as part of the next phase in its Britain’s Biggest Matchmaker marketing campaign, which launches on Christmas Day.
The buy online campaign will also focus on home delivery, and will be across various paid and organic channels, including TV and broadcast video on demand, plus YouTube, Connected TV, Facebook and Snapchat.
Auto Trader estimates it will reach more than four-fifths of the UK audience via hundreds of millions of impressions from Christmas Day to April 2022.
Catherine Faiers, Auto Trader’s chief operating officer, said: ‘Throughout the pandemic we’ve seen a significant increase in consumers looking to complete more of the buying journey online, which is only set to accelerate in the weeks and months to come.
‘We’ve seen many of our retailer partners embrace – and make a huge success of – buy online features, and so in this time of Covid uncertainty, we wanted to once again promote the convenience and availability of home delivery services to millions of potential car buyers.’
She added: ‘I hope this campaign, and our wider investment in marketing this year, will make a real difference for our retailer partners.
‘Given the current retail environment, and to make the most of this opportunity, it is vital retailers feature their buy online services prominently on their adverts, in their marketing and across their digital forecourts.’
As with Auto Trader’s previous TV adverts, the new one, which can be seen below, is voiced by Jennifer Saunders.
