In Italy, automotive and transportation brands cannot do without digital to get in touch with their users, both when they are about to buy a new car and when they are looking for new solutions to get around the city or in the suburbs.

In November 2017 Nielsen presented in this regard very interesting statistics about the world of cars and transport that have shown that they are increasingly correlated to the world of technology and the internet, so that the digital marketing activity for automotive now becomes essential.

Alternative mobility: the latest generation transport opportunities

Parallel to public transport, today numerous forms of alternative mobility are developing, increasingly dependent on digital and applications in particular.

The examples are different from car sharing, that is the possibility of renting cars for very short periods of time, necessary for simple urban movements, up to car pooling, which allows trips to be made by sharing the same car, recognizing the owner of the vehicle a financial contribution for the fuel.

Nielsen points out that in September 2017 the Italians who used an application for their movements were 2.4 million, with a trend of + 20% compared to the same period of the previous year.

Traditional and web public transport

Even public transport does not miss the opportunities offered by technology: the Nielsen statistics, again referring to September 2017, speak of 1.2 million users who buy tickets online and calculate their routes by connecting to the internet.

Compared to the same period of the previous year the increase is really impressive, that is equal to + 40%.

The role of digital in choosing the car to buy

In September 2017, there were 11 million Italians who visited a specialized information website or a manufacturer’s website, with the aim of seeking help with the purchase or change of the car.

In this case the trend compared to the previous year was equal to + 1%: a less evident growth, only because these habits were already widely distributed.

The users who visited the manufacturers’ websites were 6.4 million, it is interesting to note that more than a fifth of them had a test drive booked or used the “car configurator” on the website.

More and more manufacturers offer the possibility of carrying out a test drive for the launch of a new model, in this case managing the digital strategy for automotive to promote online booking becomes an essential activity for brand marketing.

The configuration tools are among the most used web solutions, thanks to which the user is able to customize his vehicle based on his own needs, both from an aesthetic and a technical point of view, to then obtain a detailed estimate: and here the digital and web development is obviously the master.

Those who require the free trial of the car and who use the configurators are mainly men between the ages of 25 and 49, of medium-high level, above all managers and middle managers, people who live in families with high income (more of € 72 thousand per year).

According to Nielsen data, there are still few, (200,000 users in the survey month), those who have installed an app related to the management of the services of their car, such as the maintenance program and the management of technical and multimedia equipment.

Source: Nielsen Insights