• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, March 15, 2012

Volvo may not boast the marketing budgets of larger auto manufacturers, but that hasn’t stopped the company from pushing into emerging ad segments including mobile.That effort dovetails with the Swedish carmaker’s more recent focus on challenge luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes with its rollout of the S60 sports sedan and XC60 crossover. Acquired by China-based automaker Geely from Ford in 2010, Volvo saw North American sales increase 24% in 2011 after a down year in 2010.

Mobile Marketing Daily recently spoke to Linda Gangeri, who heads national advertising for Volvo Cars of North America, about how mobile fits into the company's broader marketing strategy in the region.

MMD: Can you describe Volvo’s overall advertising and marketing focus in 2012?

Gangeri: We’re at an interesting point in our marketing approach. There’s been a lot of change at Volvo with detachment from Ford, and new owners and new management. And as part of that, in the fourth quarter of last year, we launched our new brand expression, which really positions us more as a luxury brand because that’s what our vehicles now reflect.

We have the S60 which came out in 2010, and XC60 -- which are our two leading products -- and using those products to really forging ahead with this new brand expression to get people’s perception about Volvo to change. I mean we are still entrenched in safety, but this is what I call “safety plus.”

MMD: How is Volvo using mobile media as part of that decision to go upmarket?

Gangeri: Because we are a small brand, we can’t look at all these channels as OEMs look at them. We don’t believe mobile requires a distinct channel strategy. It really an integral part of our overall holistic digital market efforts, and that’s the way we position it. When any new channel starts to gain momentum -- like social, like mobile, like video -- we tend to do the one-offs that really test the channel and also get you attention in the industry.

MMD: So things like Volvo’s sponsorship of free streaming on MLB.com’s At Bat app and the augmented reality ad campaign on YouTube last year?

Gangeri: Yes. And as we’ve tested those and learned how really valuable these efforts are both to our audience and to our overall marketing mix, we’ve taken a more integrated approach. And we do believe mobile is what we’re calling the new center, if you will, as a personal touch point that allows for customized experiences.

MMD: With Opening Day around the corner, is Volvo renewing the MLB.com At Bat sponsorship this year?

Gangeri: No. When you get a first-mover opportunity, and the prices are fabulous, and then you go back, and MLB realizes we delivered quadruple [the response] we said we would-- it got a little pricey. It was out of the ballpark, no pun intended. We proved out an ad opportunity that didn’t exist before. But we like to do a lot of first-movers if it makes sense.

MMD: Do you have any particular mobile initiatives in the works now?

Gangeri: We have a nine-city experiential tour [for the S60 and XC60] coming up starting in May where we’ll definitely use mobile capabilities and rich media units to not only garner registration, which we feel is a huge opportunity in mobile, but also to continue the engagement through mobile and social together.

MMD: With tablets gaining wider uptake, how do you view that device as a marketing platform compared to mobile phones?

Gangeri: When you look at smartphones, it’s more of the lean-forward experience. You’re in that lower part of the funnel, and that’s where we’re using location-based capabilities via Foursquare or QR codes that allow customers to go on a dealer’s lot and start learning more about vehicles or finding a dealer locator or click-to-call.

When you get into other devices like tablets, that’s where it tends to be that lean-back mode, where you get into more of the initial research and upper-funnel activity. I think most of the apps we have put out are lean-back type apps. So depending on the device, we’re using unique ways to gain engagement with consumers at each part of the funnel.

We’re kind of dabbling in many different areas in the tablet space right now and working closely with global counterparts to ensure the idea of consistency across the globe with the new brand expression.

MMD: How is Volvo’s mobile spending shaping up in 2012 compared to last year?

Gangeri: We’ve increased our spend and it’s really based on the fact that we have seen such great results and insights from consumers. We know that they’re there and spending time there. So we’re really excited to grow our presence in the space. We still have a lot of work to do in mobile -- we have a lot of work to do on our mobile site to make it better.

MMD: You can put that spending level in dollar terms?

Gangeri: We really don’t give dollar figures. But the two increased areas of focus in digital are mobile and video.