• by Laurie Petersen , February 8, 2007

In the latest evolution of its ongoing social commerce strategy, Pontiac opened a community hub on Yahoo this week designed to tap into the "street-level" energy of fans from all its active and retired brands by uniting and introducing the hundreds of offline and online groups already in existence.

Called Pontiac Underground (www.pontiacunderground.com), "Where Passion for Pontiac Is Driven By You," the site is also a promotion of the portal's social-media capabilities.

Mark-Hans Richer, Pontiac's marketing director, said no overt marketing will be put against Underground. Instead, the idea is for it to be found and spread organically.

Underground allows users to share photos and videos of cars using Flickr and Yahoo Video. A Yahoo Answers zone enables knowledge sharing. Meanwhile, an aggregated list of Pontiac clubs in the physical world and on Yahoo Groups allows users to connect offline and online. An opinion poll, Pontiac-hosted blog "Inside Track" and the "Pontiac Informer," an aggregation tool for blogs and news, round out the offering.

According to Richer, it is the first time that lovers of GTO, G6, Solstice, Firebird, Chief and Vibe--representing a huge demographic span--have been given a chance to meet and share with each other.

"All our community-based marketing efforts are about trying to add value to the community," Richer said. "With this, we are helping them create more value for their communities through sharing."

Within the first hours, he said, clubs and users were already posting photos and videos of their modified cars and competing to get their posts voted to the top. In addition, citations to Pontiac Underground had already started appearing on blogs. (To participate in any sharing component, visitors must be a Yahoo member and log in or register.)

According to a recent Yahoo Autos study conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, 94% of car buyers who use the Web believe that consumer-generated content is an important part of the decision-making process.

"Pontiac is a very loyal brand--loyal to Pontiac owners and enthusiasts," said Mark Beeching, global executive creative director for Digitas, which developed the site with Pontiac and Yahoo. "So the natural thing ... to do was to aggregate and curate enthusiasts' own content about the brand and the cars--to join the club and share their passions."

Pontiac has already launched campaigns on MySpace and in Second Life, and these online groups will be introduced to Underground as well, Richer said.

Depending on how it evolves, he said, at some point an official e-commerce component could be added for parts or vehicles.

Richer declined to disclose the financial arrangements, but said that General Motors' total involvement with Yahoo was one factor giving Pontiac the leverage to execute a richer experience more engaging than just a straight ad banner buy. "As GM gets deeper in the digital space, you'll see more of this," he said.

Jennifer Dulski, vice president and general manager, Yahoo Autos, said the site is configured in a way that will make it rank quite high through natural search, as well as through the sheer volume of activity that is expected to occur on it and the amount of cross-linking through blog posts.

Pontiac put the site through a "torture test" and fine-tuned it with some key user communities before launch, Richer said.