Two magazines that were covering cars when Cadillacs sported prodigious tail fins are teaming with a newcomer in the realm of automotive media for a digital content and advertising partnership.
The magazines are Car and Driver and Road & Track, which have been part of the Hearst Magazines division of the Hearst Corporation since 2011. Their partnership is with /Drive, an automotive channel on YouTube that has grown to more than 12 million monthly viewers since its introduction in 2012 as part of a major video expansion by the YouTube parent, Google.
Under the terms of the partnership, /Drive is creating video content for the websites of Car and Driver as well as Road & Track. Some clips will accompany features on those websites like the annual Lightning Lap on caranddriver.com. Other videos will be produced for advertisers, among them the initial fruit of the partnership: “Take Off: The Ultimate Enthusiast Road Trip,” a series sponsored by Mercedes-Benz USA that chronicles a road trip by two drivers in a 2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA crossover.
Revenue will be divided between /Drive and Hearst Magazines based on the specifics of each project. Rates begin at $250,000 to $300,000 and go up from there, with the size of an average deal in the range of $750,000 to $1 million. (Automotive marketers can extend the reach of the videos by adding the websites of other Hearst magazines like Elle and Esquire.)
The partnership is seeking to capitalize on a couple of trends. One is the growing appetite among marketers for online video as consumers furiously increase their viewership of clips on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. The other trend is a flood of marketing by automakers and dealers to catch the attention of Americans who are buying cars and trucks at a ferocious pace; according to Kantar Media, ad spending in the auto category last year reached $15.2 billion, up 3.8 percent from $14.7 billion in 2012.
“The automotive landscape is crowded,” said Eddie Alterman, editor in chief of Car and Driver as well as editorial director of Road & Track, based in Ann Arbor, Mich. He added: “That’s one of the reasons the need for storytelling is so great. Video is a great way to tell our stories and a great way for advertisers to tell their stories.”
In developing a Car and Driver channel for YouTube, “one thing we found was how hard this was to do when you’re doing a magazine,” Mr. Alterman said, laughing. “/Drive is best in breed; nothing comes off as corny and the production values are great.”
Felix DiFilippo, publisher and chief revenue officer of Car and Driver and Road & Track, based in New York, said the “explosion of new models and new segments in the auto industry,” along with significant changes in “how cars are being built and the technology they offer,” are “placing increased importance on the role of the enthusiast,” using the industry term for a buff who reads publications like Road & Track or Car and Driver and can influence what friends and family think about car and truck brands.
“Our research shows that an influencer influences up to seven or eight purchasing decisions a year,” Mr. DiFilippo said. “A partnership with /Drive gives us the ability to create content in a natural way that speaks to the enthusiasts and their passions.”
Helping the partnership’s formation, those involved say, was a friendship of almost a decade between Mr. Alterman and J.F. Musial, executive producer of /Drive and president and chief executive of TangentVector, a company in New York that specializes in the creation, production and distribution of short-form video. “I even called J.F. and asked, ‘Hey, man, can I borrow some of your camera guys?’ ” Mr. Alterman recalled.
Mr. Musial said: “I grew up reading Car and Driver. It’s a no-brainer to get into business with these guys. I respect the editorial product, and Hearst as a corporation knows what it’s doing.”
The stars of the online video series for the Mercedes-Benz GLA, who drove it from San Francisco to Las Vegas, are well-known in the enthusiast community. TJ Fry is a professional driver, and Alex Roy is a rally race driver who has been part of /Drive since its introduction.
“This is a great way for us to reach the audience considering the GLA,” said Eric Jillard, general manager for marketing services at Mercedes-Benz USA in Montvale, N.J. “All the metaphorical tire-kicking,” he said, “has migrated online.”
“The idea of driving up and down ‘automotive row,’ picking up brochures, taking a couple of test drives, isn’t happening anymore,” he added, and as a result “we’ve had to look for ways to break through with the audience that’s consuming a tremendous amount of video.”
Although “television still plays a huge role in driving awareness for new products and driving people to the web,” said Mr. Jillard, who disclosed last week that Mercedes-Benz USA would buy ad time during the NBC broadcast of Super Bowl XLIX in February, “video is so important in the customer’s evaluation and consideration that’s done online.”
“That’s where storytelling” in video comes in, he added. “Two guys on a road trip, you come along for the experience.
