by Chris Thorneycroft Smith, associate director, Eclipse Marketing

My experience in the UK automotive industry taught me many things. One of the most important is that, when it comes to marketing, if you don’t constantly innovate you’ll be left a distant speck in your competitors’ rearview mirrors.

It used to be that the UK automotive sector was in the vanguard of marketing, setting the trends and leading the field. I’m not sure this is true any more. In recent years the world of marketing has changed almost beyond recognition. Unfortunately, automobile industry marketing – particularly to its retail customers – hasn’t kept pace. 

At Eclipse we’ve been banging the drum for word of mouth with some vigour for quite a while. Now, it seems a new survey backs up our belief in brand advocacy.

The European Advocacy Study shows that brand advocacy – or word of mouth – is five times more effective at driving sales than advertising in the UK. Auto and PC brands were the most likely to be bought as a result of word of mouth marketing across Europe.

And what appealed most to customers? A brand’s ability to ‘surprise and delight’. So plenty of scope there for some really creative marketing.