Cross-media combination has most lasting effect

More and more motorists are interested in saving energy while driving. For them, the Auto Gewerbe Verband Schweiz (AGVS) has developed the AutoEnergieCheck (AEC) in close cooperation with EnergieSchweiz, the federal government's energy-saving program. To make this service even better known, the Viva agency and the marketing company Admeira carried out an elaborate, multimedia campaign in German- and French-speaking Switzerland in the fall of 2016. It was supported ideally and financially by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE).

The impact of the campaign was subsequently studied by the GfK opinion research institute on behalf of Admeira. The results of the survey clearly show how strongly the AEC campaign worked - and continues to work - on the channels marketed by Admeira: Thanks to it, the number of AECs carried out in 2016 rose to 12,000, 73 percent more than in the previous year. Traffic to the AEC website grew twentyfold during the campaign - and remained threefold above the previous year's average even after the campaign; so the cross-media campaign not only had an immediate and strong impact, but also a lasting one.

Print still strongly activates

The 19 million ads delivered reached more than a quarter of Internet users in Switzerland. Various, mostly large-format online advertising formats were used on Admeira's network, as well as InRead videos and sponsored content on Blick.ch and Beobachter.ch. In addition to the digital campaign, the central element was a 16-page supplement in Blick and L'Illustré. This not only successfully advertised the AEC, but also succeeded in positioning the AGVS garage owner as a future-oriented, sustainable mobility service provider. This, too, is clearly demonstrated by the study.

A remarkable and not insignificant result of the survey: Contrary to all current surveys, print continues to activate very strongly: even a single print contact achieved a very good response. In combination with online, the campaign exploited its full potential: According to the research, the AEC achieved an aided awareness of 51 percent among people with cross-media contact. "The decision to rely on a balanced mix of Admeira channels made a significant contribution to this success," explains Markus Peter, AEC project manager at AGVS.

Contributed to decision making

The advertising materials and the landing page of the campaign, for which Viva was responsible, also scored very well in the survey. The AEC advertising motifs were very well remembered by the respondents - and this despite the fact that it was the AEC's only major publicity campaign to date and there was no recognition effect. The advertising media stood out in particular in important categories such as "clear message," "credibility" and "distinctiveness."

The campaign landing page also received very high scores in the survey: correct selection of content (agreed by 91 percent of respondents), visually appealing (86 percent), relevance of content (86 percent), it contributed to decision-making (87 percent), and basically encouraged people to have the AEC done (74 percent).

AEC already in fourth place

The representative survey was conducted directly after the national AEC campaign in fall 2016 among 1707 people in German- and French-speaking Switzerland on behalf of Admeira by the opinion research institute GfK. The survey shows how strongly the AutoEnergieCheck is already anchored in the consciousness of Swiss motorists: just under one in five motorists is now aware of this sustainable service provided by AGVS garage owners, making the AEC the fourth best-known energy label in Switzerland just five years after its launch.

Thanks to the survey, it also became clear how great the need is for information on the subject of "saving while driving": more than half of the population (57 percent) is specifically interested in this. And the AEC is a helpful answer to this: the check on the vehicle, which takes around 30 minutes, can save up to 360 francs a year in fuel costs. Since the introduction of the AEC, customers of AGVS garages have been able to save over 36,000 tons of CO2. This corresponds to 7200 circumnavigations of the earth with an average car. The Viva agency is also responsible for the communication around the AEC.