By Victoria “NIKE” De Dios
As the landscape of the market will inevitably change due to pandemic, and consumers would opt to utilize the online platforms available for their purchases, Carmudi Philippines has taken leverage on its digital platform to serve the growing market.
With a big challenge on how to market their products, an inevitable shift to go digital advertising and marketing the products will now become the game-changer.
Given the increasing number of companies beefing up their online spending to reach wider audiences, Carbay Philippines, Inc. CEO Cholo Syquia shares his insights on how this trend has affected the automotive advertising market in the country, coming from the company’s recent acquisition by leading Indian auto tech group, CarDekho.
CarDekho currently has two strong and distinct websites in the country – Carmudi.com.ph and Zigwheels.ph, both offering new and used cars. Zigwheels Philippines is skewing towards new cars, while Carmudi Philippines towards used vehicles.
Going Digital
While the brick-and-mortar showrooms and shops aren’t going away anytime soon, Syquia shares that people are increasingly using online platforms not just to gather information but to make purchases as well.
According to Syquia, this is something not lost on automotive brands, and it shows in how OEM (original equipment manufacturer) ad spending has long started to shift from traditional media to online.
“Less than a decade ago, automotive brands allocated less than 5% of their marketing budgets to the digital domain. Today, that figure is 30%, with some brands even going higher. All signs point to this development maintaining an upward trajectory for the foreseeable future,” he said.
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OEMS Revenue Driver
Carmudi Philippines realized that most revenue comes from brand-new cars or OEMs, easily contributing between 60% to 80% of their business.
In addition, Syquia said that they are aware of the tremendous opportunity presented by motorcycle sales – a particularly promising revenue stream in light of its growing popularity as a mode of transportation in the Philippines.
“Carbay Philippines Inc., which operates both Carmudi Philippines and Zigwheels Philippines, is in a good position to capture advertising monies from car and motorcycle manufacturers, as we have the biggest digital audience in this space with over 10.7 million users and 17.6 million sessions as of 2019.” Syquia said.