Cars24 goes for 3x increase in content marketing budget amid pandemic

Brands across categories are being conscientious of their marketing spends even amid the Covid-19 pandemic. As content consumption increased multi-fold, many increased content marketing budgets. And among them is Cars24.

Nida Naushad, Head, Brand, Strategy and Campaign at Cars24 told BuzzInContent.com how Cars24, which for five years had been a TV-first brand, increased its digital spends by 20% amid the pandemic. Allocating 50% budget both for digital and offline channels, it also increased its content marketing budget by 3x.

“Our content marketing budget increased by 3x in the pandemic. Initially, we used to create ads for TV and put it online with some content around it. Now, we have moved from there to launch our content on social media separately. We do not just support the ad but also re-create the content for all different channels,” she said.

Explaining how content marketing is of immense importance, she said, “People are way too engaged nowadays, especially on digital and they don’t want to hear the products but stories. Brands need to sell stories today. That is where content marketing comes into place.”

She suggested brands should tell consumers how they are adding value to their lives via content. Also, one has to be conscious of the channel for the distribution of content.

“Till five years ago, one used to create and run the same content piece on multiple channels. Content marketing comes from different channels. There are so many channels through which one can talk to consumers today and therefore you have to have content accordingly. You can’t come up with standard content everywhere. First think of the platform that works best for the brand and then create the content for it,” she added.

The brand in the past had collaborated with Ishq FM for ‘Full Throttle’, the branded content show. 

Naushad said the brand still creates content for radio significantly.

For engagement, it does a lot of Instagram in terms of short videos and stories. And Twitter has always been microblogging site for it.

“We have seen highest engagement on Twitter,” she said.

With millions consuming content at multiple touchpoints, she said brands have to be more frequent with content marketing efforts.

“People see millions of data point daily and it is important that they notice what a particular brand is doing. There is so much happening that moment marketing has become a thing. If you have to be on top of consumers’ mind, you have to be relevant and fast,” she added. 

The brand extensively works with influencers as well. Being one of the most effective strategies for the brand, it plans to increase its budgets in influencer marketing.

Naushad said a well-planned influencer campaign can work wonders.

“If you use influencers the right way, then they can be your brand ambassadors. And the moment they act as the ambassador, people will start taking them seriously. Influencers don’t just have to share the ad but have to be engaged in every process,” she added.