Blogging is a fine hobby that keeps you occupied and also intellectually active. People from different walks of life such as students, homemakers, professionals, the young and the old maintain blogs. However, it would be nice if you could turn your blogging into a profession and rake in some moolah too. And blogging for automobile giants will not only give you the recognition and a fine salary package but also a chance to drive one of those beauties on wheels.
It was this blogging hobby that turned Adnan Ebrahim into a professional blogger. A university student it was his passion to blog about cars and then he was approached by Volvo(175) cars for a test drive. This instance with Adnan Ebrahim points to paradigm shift in the world of advertising and social media. With the advent of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter people intend to spend more time on their laptops than read a newspaper or watch the TV. It is through blogs, videos on Youtube or advertisements on social networking websites that they are informed of current events such as developments around the world or the launch of a new product or even an automobile.
The increasing popularity of blogs and these websites have made some of these automobile giants realize that web is perhaps the best way to connect with their prospective customers. Hence, many of these automobile companies such as BMW and Mercedes Benz them are courting bloggers such as Adnan Ebrahim to attract as many people through tweets, blogs and also video views. They are in the process targeting an audience that otherwise cannot be influenced through TV or ads in the newspapers or other forms of print media.
Let’s have a look at how BMW is courting bloggers.
BMW and Blogging
It is said that BMW now insists on blog comments and Tweets to gain as much information about their latest launches. In the process of this campaign launched on the Web they have made a revenue gain of $110 million which is about €88 million. Ebrahim who now runs Carthrottle.com is of the opinion that the traditional form of media is going through a massive change and if a blogger can get an automobile giant at least a thousand views for their video they will be more than happy to lend them a car.
This is also an attempt by BMW to surpass their competitors like Lamborghini and Mercedes. This web campaign has also proved to be quite a success for BMW after their 1 Series coupe recorded a 68% increase in their production, which was 4200 vehicles from 2500. The videos of the car were posted on Youtube way ahead of its launch in May 2011 and as many as five million people viewed the videos and around 20,000 viewers left their contact details. BMW had posted around five videos and they too garnered enough attention for the car.
BMW intends to increases their stake in advertising on the web and have already invested over € 1.3 million at least in their home market in Germany,however they are still behind giants such as Mercedes and Audi who have already invested about €3.7 million and €3.3 million respectively. Spending on TV still tops the chart. These figures have been provided by Nielson Holdings, New York based research organisation who conducted a research. Online spendings on advertisements has also seen a surge in the United States.
These newly launched web campaigns have not only brought about a change in the world of advertising but also the courting of bloggers by automobile giants has altered  their life entirely. Ebrahim for instance globe trots testing cars in countries such as Spain,Austria and Germany for testing car models. His website has many visitors and he also made a pretty luxurious trip to Portugal which included a private jet ride to test the new Skoda Citigo.
