AUTO TRADER SPONSOR MEN AND MOTORS’ USED CAR ROADSHOW
May 24th, 2006Auto Trader, the UK’s no 1 motoring website and magazine, is sponsoring the second series of Men and Motors popular motoring programme, the ‘Used Car Roadshow’. The series will air on Mondays at 8pm from 29th May with 20 episodes, and follows on from the highly successful first series, which saw over a million viewers tune into watch the programme last year.
The hour long programme exclusively features used cars with a strong emphasis on money-saving motoring, including tips from TV motoring experts Jason Dawe and Penny Mallory. The Used Car Roadshow has quickly established itself as the most popular motoring show on Satellite TV (source: BARB) and remains the only television show dedicated to the subject of buying and selling used cars.
Each episode of The Used Car Roadshow is divided into four sections with three commercial breaks. Auto Trader branding will appear on a 15 second intro bumper at the start of the show; a 10 second bumper into and out of each centre commercial break; and a 5 second closing bumper at the end of the show. This provides 4 bumpers per programme, transmitted 6 times per week, totalling 24 bumpers per week in all.
Auto Trader is investing in a £250,000 marketing campaign over the next 12 months to support the show with advertising and editorial on the website, www.autotrader.co.uk and in the brand’s 13 regional magazines. Advertising will also appear in Auto Trader’s sister title, Top Marques.
Auto Trader is inviting its readers and website users to take part in the show by attending the roadshows around the UK by running ‘call to action’ advertising and editorial across the regional magazines and website.
Filmed at major motoring events around the country from the Goodwood Festival of Speed to the Santa Pod Raceway, The Used Car Roadshow will include several regular features, including Buyer of the Week. The show will also be visiting auction houses again, with Jason Dawe fulfilling a lifelong ambition to become an auctioneer for the day.
Penny Mallory, the first woman in the world to qualify to drive a World Rally car, is also thrown in the deep end when she tries her hand at selling cars at used car supermarket, highlighting to audiences that the used car market needn’t be daunting once you know how to handle it.
Jonathan Williams, Head of Marketing at Trader Media Group comments: “We are delighted to be supporting ITV’s Men and Motors’ second series of The Used Car Roadshow. We have joined forces with the channel in a bid to help people buy a used car with confidence and pull apart the jargon to prove that buying or selling a used car can be an easy and enjoyable experience.”
Joe Talbot from ITV Men and Motors comments: “We are looking forward to welcoming Auto Trader as a media partner and building a mutually beneficial relationship that will see both brands benefit as a result of the collaboration. Auto Trader reaches a massive audience of UK motorists and is the no 1 trusted brand in buying and selling used cars, so their support will bring great value to the show and will hopefully boost our already healthy audience figures.”
Auto Trader, the UK’s no 1 destination for new and used cars, has achieved all time record audience growth, reaching a combined audience of over 8 million motorists* in March 2006. Auto Trader is the undisputed market leader with the largest motoring magazine and website in the UK. (*Source: Auto Trader Internal Audit, March 2006).
In March 2006, Auto Trader’s website, www.autotrader.co.uk enjoyed 6.5 million unique users**, who carried out over 67 million searches on new and used vehicles. (**Source: Auto Trader Audit, March 2006). Today, Auto Trader ranks as the UK’s fifth largest ABCe audited website*** (***Source: ABCe 2005).
The record online audience figures, when combined with the readership of Auto Trader’s 13 regional editions which is 1.7 million**** (**** Source: NRS October 2004– December 2005) gives the brand a total audience reach of 8 million. It now reaches significantly more UK motorists than any of its closest competitors.
Auto Trader has positioned itself as the channel of choice for buying and selling a new and used vehicle, built on the combination of local targeting and comprehensive national coverage and can be accessed via its magazine, website, Digital TV and WAP components.
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