• by Kate Kaye , April 20, 2004

Want to sell her a car? Forget the gobbledygook about gas mileage and horsepower, and instead tell her about how safe her kids will be in it. That's what Volvo Cars of North America (VCNA) is doing through its exclusive content sponsor relationship with women's Web media outfit iVillage Inc.

"The stereotype is that women influence car purchases when it comes to color," comments Peter Naylor, senior vice president of sales at iVillage. "But they're not only involved, they're primarily responsible," he contends. "They have such a big say in it."

Studies conducted by Microsoft Corp.'s MSN CarPoint and others show that women influence 80 percent of all vehicle purchases, and auto research firm CNW Research reports that women make around half of new and used car purchases.

IVillage's new Safety Central section, which houses the majority of the Volvo-sponsored safety content, is light on automotive information and heavy on practical tips and checklists focused on food, kitchen, and nursery safety in addition to auto safety.

Similar to iVillage's series of sponsored community challenge content areas, such as the currently running third annual walk-it-off community challenge sponsored by Reebok, the Volvo-branded Safety Central section places less emphasis on the product and more on what the product brings to the consumer. "This is less about the car and more about the benefit of the car," explains Naylor. "It's not just baby seats; it's a 360 view."

Part of a year-long sponsorship deal, the Volvo brand maintains a dominant presence in the Safety Central area through large banners, skyscraper-style units, and full-screen arrival ads that are served once per user per day. The program also features a sweepstakes to win a two-year lease on a Volvo XC90. According to Naylor, sweepstakes are typical components of iVillage advertiser campaigns, used as a means of building databases for re-marketing purposes.

"I think that's interesting that they've paired the editorial sponsorship with the sweepstakes," observes Christina Goodman, marketing manager at Dynamic Logic, a research firm that measures the brand impact of online sponsorships as well as other online and offline efforts. "In this case, the sponsorship of the editorial content seems like a really good fit for the advertiser message and the publisher's content," she adds, emphasizing that "the key is the positioning of the advertising."

Aligning the Volvo brand with iVillage's safety content, suggests Phil Bienert, manager of CRM and eBusiness at VCNA, "is in some respects going to where the people of the Volvo mindset are." The company also piqued the ladies' interest with its recent introduction of the Your Concept Car, designed by a female-led team with women's needs in mind.

Sponsorship is nothing new to Volvo. The automaker currently brands the Volvo Digital Garage on MSN Autos, and is American Online's official online safety partner. "This fits in very well with the AOL sponsorship," says Bienert. "Much like AOL, iVillage has a strong, dedicated audience that trusts content from them." The auto brand has made safety a particular focus for a long time.

"Frequently, when we see the opportunity to bring something safety-related to the public, we gravitate towards those kind of things," notes Bienert, who says those efforts often require a sponsorship approach.

According to internal iVillage automobile research, safety and durability are the two most sought-after benefits of a car for women. The company's recent auto research also found that purchase or lease of new autos by women jumped 35 percent in 2003 as compared to its 2002 research.

"The advertiser should complement why the audience is there in the first place," asserts iVillage's Naylor. "That's always the biggest challenge because people want to make their product the star of the show."