General Motors (GM) Middle East saw an "impressive" response to a recent mobile advertising campaign, but says there are several barriers to greater adoption of mobile marketing. The car maker launched a mobile ad campaign for its Chevrolet Cruze model this year, which was promoted by adverts on the mobile website nokia.mobi. A link led users to a Chevrolet mobile site that featured details of models and featured a "call a dealer" button through which consumers could make direct contact.
"We used the right media … we saw good penetration among our target group, namely the youth audience," said Sayed Abu Diwan, the digital manager at GM Middle East. "The results were quite impressive," added Mr Diwan. He claimed the campaign attracted 29,250 unique visitors, 4,466 of which clicked on the "locate a dealer" button online. The button made it easy for consumers to arrange a test drive, he added. "We thought it would really increase conversion," Mr Diwan said.
GM is looking at further mobile advertising campaigns but Mr Diwan said there were several hurdles to this. These include the lack of real-time monitoring of campaigns, the expense of developing mobile applications and the complex mechanics needed.
