SEAT Brand Breaks the Mold — in its Chinese Social Strategy

Bespoke strategy to penetrate the NZ Chinese market

SEAT is a global automobile manufacturer, originating in Spain. Imported by Giltrap Group, this European auto brand is looking for market entry strategies in New Zealand. Touchpoint CC is appointed as the creative agency to take care of its inbound Chinese marketing needs.

Challenges:

New Zealand’s local Chinese market is still rather young and developing. The challenge we saw was SEAT’s popularity was contained in the continent of Europe. It has limited brand recognition in both New Zealand and China. We will need to double the work to penetrate the NZ Chinese market.

Process & Details:

We assisted SEAT in opening a WeChat Official Account in 2018, introducing its hero car models, e.g. Ateca and other services.

However, the WeChat landscape was rather competitive and new brands’ voice were very easy to lose and get overwhelmed by the sheer size of it all. So we’ve set out to make SEAT’s job easier by designing a media placement strategy that will support its brand’s account growth.

From newspaper ads to digital banners and advertorials, SEAT’s coverage appeared on the majority of the local Chinese media sites including Chinese Herald, Skykiwi, Go Kiwi and HouGarden.

The collaboration with Hougarden Cars was a highlight—the test drive video was a hit on the web and generated more than 30 solid leads, and 150 test drive inquiries.

SEAT’s own WeChat account was also used to cater test drives and services bookings. The brand account’s engagement rate was surging with increasing followers. The flagship store was also seeing more and more Chinese customers – by 2020,  SEAT welcomes around 30% Chinese visitors.