Jaguar Global Social Media Strategy

 

Jaguar: Global social media strategy Jordan Stone and Steve Cobelli Warc Prize for Social Strategy Entrant, 2014

 

 

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Jaguar: Global social media strategy Jordan Stone and Steve Cobelli Warc Prize for Social Strategy Entrant, 2014

 

Jaguar: Global social media strategy Jordan Stone and Steve Cobelli Campaign details Brand owner: Jaguar Land Rover Agency: We Are Social Brand: Jaguar Executive summary This case study describes how the performance car manufacturer, Jaguar activated its social media strategy at a global level as well as in-market, in order to improve the familiarity and appeal of the brand and resonate with their primary audience: the 'Enlightened Entrepreneurs'. It examines in detail how the announcement of Jaguar's newest models was coordinated globally, as well as how two socially-led campaigns were executed: one by the global Jaguar team with local market execution in 19 markets; and the second at the UK market level. As a result, the familiarity and appeal of the Jaguar brand in the US, Germany and Italy rose to the highest level seen since the current measurement being used began in 2010, and in Russia and the UK, Jaguar's appeal also reached the highest level seen since 2010. This case study will offer an understanding of Jaguar's global social media strategy through: l

Jaguar's global social audience

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The 'Jaguar Global Social Purpose', and how this informed the brand's approach to social content and socially led campaigns

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The global and local application of the approach

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Business and social results.

Market background and business objectives Brand challenge Jaguar is one of the UK's biggest and historically most innovative performance car brands. In 2008, Tata Motors Ltd purchased the Jaguar and Land Rover brands from Ford in a £1.3bn deal. Since then, the brand has been focused on regaining market share from its more established rivals, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Audi and Porsche, who are the big five volume brands in the global luxury automotive space. Downloaded from warc.com

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Since 2008, Jaguar has revisited its design ethos and innovative heritage, inspiring a revitalised product line-up to tackle its mainly German rivals head-on in the large volume sectors of the global marketplace. But to capture market share, Jaguar first needed to recapture the imagination of consumers. In order to ensure this brand-image offensive was effective, social media was prioritised in order to play a large part in driving the awareness, familiarity and appeal of the brand, and to help drive further sales targets. Insight and strategic thinking Jaguar's core challenge as a brand lay in the perceptions of it by luxury automotive customers. Jaguar's ambition in social media is to be the most engaging and desirable automotive brand in social media for modern-day luxury car buyers. The emphasis on being the most engaged and desirable brand is quite deliberate. Global marketing spend is low, relative to Jaguar's core competitors, and this is especially true in social media. So the brand has marshalled its resources in order to deliver quality content, optimised by core social channels that will increase the appeal of the brand and drive consideration from potential customers. To guide this approach, Jaguar has defined the 'Jaguar Global Social Purpose'. This is what lies at the core of the brand's social thinking. It is the value proposition for the brand in social media, designed to define the types of experiences that Jaguar bring to their audience. It is used globally to ensure their social activations bring to life the ALIVE brand proposition, and resonate with their primary audience: the 'Enlightened Entrepreneurs'. Who are the 'Enlightened Entrepreneurs'? Jaguar's target customer set is described as 'Enlightened Entrepreneurs'. These consumers are identified by their attitudes and values relevant to the Jaguar ALIVE brand proposition, and are the most likely to switch from the mainstream. These people are talented, confident, well-read and intelligent individuals, who create the business, technologies and lifestyles that have an impact on our culture. They are contemporary, sophisticated and open-minded. They think and act differently, are well informed, and constantly on the move; seeking out what will next inspire them (Source: Mindshare Mindreader Global 2012).

Figure 1: Enlightened Entrepreneur audience size

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The 'Jaguar Global Social Purpose' This was articulated by looking to the Jaguar brand model, which contains the brand promise and product support. It was then overlaid with a psychographic understanding of the Enlightened Entrepreneurs' motivations, as derived from: primary research conducted by Jaguar global media partner Mindshare, 2012; research from Millward Brown and BrandZ; and their social media usage behaviours and preferences from Global Web Index.

The Jaguar Global Social Purpose is to: 'Create Cultural Currency that feels Alive': l

Cultural: Of or relating to artistic or social pursuits or events considered to be valuable or enlightened (Collins English Dictionary)

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Currency: A medium of verbal or intellectual expression, something that is in circulation as a medium of exchange (Merriam Webster)

This meant bringing the brand to life through activations that hit the passion-points of the Enlightened Entrepreneurs, and would trigger participation with the campaign. Pillars such as music, design, film, sports and innovation were identified through primary audience research as areas in which Jaguar could create a bridge to the Enlightened Entrepreneurs (Source: Mindshare Mindreader Global 2012). Historically, Jaguar's social activity globally was disparate. At times it was not joined up, or guided by clear platform strategies or tone of voice. In 2013, all of the global social campaigns and bespoke content were designed to fulfill this purpose. With that in place, a strategic framework was built and adopted across local markets:

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Jaguar set itself, and its local markets, four simplified core objectives in social media for 2013, against which markets should measure their year-long social marketing efforts and campaigns:

The result was a complete shift in direction over how Jaguar approached their social thinking in terms of the audience, content, campaigns, platforms and operations of the social marketing programme:

Implementation, including creative and media development

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There are global brand accounts for Jaguar across key social platforms, which are supported by an in-house digital team and agency partner. This cross-functional group acts as a centre of excellence for local markets.

In the 'hub and spoke' formation, strategic decisions are made at the global level in the hub, but local markets in the spokes have a large degree of autonomy in executing integrated campaigns and developing 'always-on' social content. To demonstrate how the Jaguar social strategy was brought to life, we need to look at two socially-led campaigns: one executed by the global team with local market execution in 19 markets; and a second executed at the UK market level. These fulfilled the Jaguar Global Social Purpose and demonstrated Jaguar's approach of creating content that would resonate with its core audience, and were executed across a mix of platforms relevant to the markets in question.

'#YourTurnBritain': celebrating the launch of the F-TYPE, a modern British icon (July-Aug 2013) Context: In 2013, there was a great deal of anticipation ahead of the launch of the F-TYPE Convertible, Jaguar's first twoseater sports car in 50 years. A global ATL campaign was developed called 'Your Turn', which acted as an invitation to consumers to reconnect with the brand and experience the new model. The UK market executed a social campaign to complement and build on above-the-line activity, called '#YourTurnBritain'. Creative approach: 'Your Turn' was a celebration of the best of modern Britain, designed to mark the arrival of the F-TYPE and place this new modern British icon at the heart of British culture. This inherently social campaign fulfilled the 'Your Turn' ATL invitation. During this summer-long campaign, Jaguar collaborated with modern British icons from the worlds of sport, music, design and film, and most importantly with the British public, by asking them: 'What defines the best of modern Britain for you?' Insight: The campaign was designed to tap the residual pride felt by Britons following the London 2012 Olympics, and key Downloaded from warc.com

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royal events such as the Royal Wedding in 2011. 'Your Turn' had as its foundation an existing conversation of, on average, 1.64 million people in the UK tweeting about design, film, music and sport every month. (Source: Sysomos MAP.) This period also saw a sharp rise in the penetration of Tumblr and Instagram. (Source: The Next Web, Instagram.) '#YourTurnBritain' was a cross-platform social campaign run across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, as well as a newly launched UK Tumblr channel. The Tumblr has been set up to support the campaign and remained a permanent fixture after the campaign had finished. To set the tone for the campaign, Jaguar and We Are Social worked with BAFTA award-winning director, Anthony Wonke to produce four short films, released in phases on the Jaguar UK YouTube channel throughout the campaign. Subjects included an exploration of British fashion with designer Alice Temperley, film with British actor Jamie Campbell-Bower, sport with England cricketer Graeme Swann, and music with BBC Radio 1 DJ, MistaJam. The result was a collection of brand films featuring key opinion leaders, who reflected the campaign concept and would spur the British public into action. An introductory film was also created and released at the start of the campaign, to inspire and give clarity to the creative and entry mechanic. In addition, '#YourTurnBritain' was incorporated into Jaguar's above-the-line activity. This featured user-generated entry content, and was supported by over 50 high-reach bloggers and Instagrammers from a variety of sectors, each bringing their own take on modern Britain to the campaign via their respective social media channels. User-generated content and participation formed a significant part of the campaign. Jaguar asked people to upload a picture reflecting their interpretation of what the best of modern Britain is for them, via either Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr, with the '#YourTurnBritain' hashtag. Results were entered into a photo competition, with four winners receiving an unforgettable long-weekend of indulgence with the F-TYPE. The momentum was kept during the six-week campaign with weekly giveaways. The end result was a campaign that caught the nation's attention, and helped position Jaguar as a proud modern British brand with an iconic new model. '#FromTheShadows': The unveiling of the F-TYPE Coupé (Nov-Dec 2013) Context: On 19 November 2013, Jaguar introduced the all-new F-TYPE Coupé to the world's automotive press and brand  VIPs, at a star-studded event that coincided with the LA Auto Show; one of the key dates in the automotive industry calendar. Challenge: The launch event's primary audience was the assembled press and VIPs. To build interest in the event on social media for a wider, non-automotive global audience (the Enlightened Entrepreneurs), Jaguar needed to provide a reason for this industry event to be interesting to consumers, and a way for audiences who weren't in attendance to get involved. Creative approach: A content-led launch campaign featuring the F-TYPE Coupé and aligned to the Global Social Purpose  was developed to run across Jaguar's global and local social channels, to generate reach, awareness and create conversation about the new model. The campaign introduced an engaging narrative entitled '#FromTheShadows', which followed the F-TYPE Coupé as it was  unveiled live at the launch event in LA, only to then disappear into darkness once more, and this kicked off the first-ever Downloaded from warc.com

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automotive Instagram video series. The mini-series delved deeper into the F-TYPE Coupé's motives following its dramatic  disappearance, and played out across nine episodes throughout December 2013. '#FromTheShadows' began in the days leading up to the launch, which saw all of Jaguar's social platforms 'go dark' globally to fall in line with the dramatic theme, as images and a short form video were released to provide a first glimpse of the model. An additional exclusive image of the car was also hidden on Jaguar's official website, and the code 'FromTheShadows' was leaked to selected influencers, whereupon visitors to the site could unlock the image and hear the roar of the engine for the first time.

After the reveal, the introduction of a strong story threaded all content and activations together, to ensure that Jaguar conveyed the key brand messages and wider proposition for the car within all our social communications, including design, speed, handling and sound. The story played out across the breadth of Jaguar's social channels, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, before, during and after the dynamic launch event, to drive intrigue and interest in the F-TYPE Coupé with communities on  social media. All owned global and local social platforms worked together to build an integrated campaign narrative for the FTYPE Coupé.

The global Jaguar Tumblr profile was launched for this campaign, allowing the brand to reach a new social audience made up of mainly creative, tech-savvy individuals with a passion for design. This platform acted as the hub for the entire campaign, Downloaded from warc.com

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and allowed Jaguar to experiment with new, shareable content formats, such as animated GIFs. The Tumblr had been set up to support the campaign, and remained a permanent fixture after the campaign finished. The campaign was coordinated centrally by the global Jaguar team, with close integration by the US and UK teams that were on the ground during the launch event. Social content production was led by We Are Social, in close association with Spark44 and Jaguar's global PR team, who provided the film assets used in the creation of the mini-series. In all, 19 markets participated in the phasing of the campaign and used the centrally created social assets, such as platform skins, editorial content, imagery and launch videos, across key social platforms. Facebook remains a key platform across local markets, and 17 markets adapted the F-Type Coupé filmic series to make use of it on that platform. Social effects The results of the global strategy and resulting campaigns have been transformative for the Jaguar brand, in helping to achieve our core social objectives. Below, we examine some top-line results from the '#YourTurnBritain' and '#FromTheShadows' campaigns. Each implementation was driven by social content, designed to build brand familiarity, and make use of innovative and perception-changing platforms. '#YourTurnBritain': Celebrating the launch of the F-TYPE, a modern British Icon

'#FromTheShadows': The Unveiling of the F-TYPE Coupé

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'#YourTurnBritain' and '#FromTheShadows' provided snapshots of the success Jaguar has enjoyed during campaign periods, as against its core objectives. The wider story, however, is the impact the strategy has had on Jaguar's global standing against its competitors, which is buoyed by the prioritisation of quality social content. On Facebook in 2013, Jaguar experienced the largest percentage increase in fan growth at 39%. This was supported by consistently high rates of fan engagement on the platform, outpacing its rivals for the year. (Source: SocialBakers 2013.)

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Business effects The year 2013 was a very good one for Jaguar, delivering the strongest full-year sales performance since 2005 of 76,668 vehicles, a growth of 42%. The sales performance has been attributed to the strong continuing demand for vehicles across the range. In China, Jaguar sales jumped by 30%. In North America sales rose by 21%, and the UK recorded a 14% increase. Sales in Europe increased by 6%, and other overseas markets, including India, increased by 23%. It is worth noting that there is parity between sales growth and the more sophisticated local-market social media programmes within Jaguar, as the above markets are considered to be Tier-1 for social media. Jaguar makes no attempt to provide a causal link between social activity and direct sales of Jaguar models. But social activity has been making a significant impact on brand perception, as social communities and the reach of innovative content and campaigns have grown in 2013. Positive sentiment for popular models (such as the F-TYPE and F-TYPE Coupé) and an increase in share-of-voice of conversations vs competitors has been observed, with the content-led approach driving significant earned media. Jaguar have, in turn, seen a measurable impact on brand health. Jaguar's brand health funnel research (the official measure for brand health) shows improvement in 2013, including a directional increase in familiarity and appeal amongst the Enlightened Entrepreneurs for vehicles across the range. These changes across key markets have been significant. The familiarity and appeal of the Jaguar brand in the US, Germany and Italy is now at the highest level seen since the current measurement began in 2010. In Russia and the UK, appeal is also at the highest level seen since 2010. Taken together, it shows a global improvement for a brand succeeding in recapturing the imagination of consumers. (Source: 2013 UK, US, Italy, Russia and Germany brand health funnel research; base: all respondents Apr-Jun 2013 = 800, Oct-Dec 2013 = 800). Lessons learned The year 2013 provided Jaguar with a number of great successes at both the global and local levels of their social marketing programme. While the automotive sector is unique in many respects, a number of general lessons could be applied elsewhere: l

An effective balance between global direction and local autonomy can be struck, provided there are clear roles, responsibilities and processes in place. Downloaded from warc.com

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This approach allows the brand to tell a unified story across markets, whilst giving the more advanced markets the latitude they need to develop domestic campaigns and programmes.

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Prioritise the 'right' audience. The challenge for a luxury automotive brand (with limited resources) is to ensure that it remains focused on growing and reaching its commercial audience. A less difficult social challenge would be to attract only automotive enthusiasts who are interested in cars, but might never come to own a Jaguar.

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Emphasis on producing quality social content, which is guided by an editorial strategy and optimised for appropriate social platforms, can drive both reach and engagement.

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Paid media support of social content should be tactically employed to widen reach and target the appropriate audiences.

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Prioritise social platforms based on the role they play in any given campaign. It is better to manage a handful of social platforms well, rather than spread resources too thinly in an attempt to keep up with the next 'big thing'.

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