AUTO TRADER GROWS ITS SHARE OF WOMEN CAR BUYERS
January 28th, 2008Auto Trader, the UK’s no 1 motoring website and magazine, is now the most visited motoring website by women in the UK, with 1,634,000* female Internet users, reaching more of this audience than sites like Handbag.com, HelloMagazine.com and Confetti.co.uk. (* Source: Comscore, November 2007).
Auto Trader has been steadily growing its share of the UK’s female car buying market. Nearly 38% more female unique visitors visit Auto Trader than eBay Motors, 607% more than Yahoo! Autos and a massive 872% more than AOL Autos (168,000)*. (* Source Comscore, November 2007).
With a total female audience of over 1.9 million* across all channels including the weekly magazine, Auto Trader reaches a massive number of women car buyers who are looking to purchase new and used cars – as well as insurance, car finance and other motoring services. (* Source: Comscore, November 2007/NRS Q3 2007).
Matt Thompson, Marketing Director at Trader Media Group commented: “We have the largest online audience of female car buyers in the UK and this gives us a distinct advantage over the competition. Increasingly, we are attracting manufacturer and dealer display advertising targeted at women, as they see us an excellent and highly accountable channel to reach this market.
“With 45% of women intending to buy a car in the next 12 months*, manufacturers and dealers are recognising this valuable and growing market and we are in an excellent position to help them reach female new and used car buyers. (* Source TGI, Q3 2007).
“We do not intend to stop here. We have plans to enhance both our website and magazine – and to make our largest ever brand investment which will attract even more motorists and response for our advertisers”.
According to a survey of nearly 1,000 women by Auto Trader, today’s female motorist is very car savvy when it comes to researching and buying a car*. (* Source: Auto Trader/e-Digital Research, September 2007).
Women know what they want when it comes to buying a car, with price listed as the most important factor (100%), followed by make (72%), model (55%), reliability (43%) and colour (37%). Safety ranked just 9th in the list (21%) and residual value (4%), environmentally-friendly (5%) and in-car entertainment/technology (6%) were the least important factors, when buying a car.
Black is the preferred choice of colour for women motorists (40%), with nearly 20% opting for a silver car, 13% choosing blue as the favourite colour for a car, 10% liking red and only 6% wanting a pink car.
The research shows that three quarters of female motorists believe they are treated differently when it comes to researching/buying a car and 70% want to be treated the same as men. Seventy per cent of women disagree with the stereotype that women don’t know anything about cars and don’t want to be treated differently to a man when researching/buying a car.
Seventy per cent of the women surveyed were looking to buy a used car within the next 12 months and 10% wanted a new car within a year. However, nearly two thirds feel that they have been patronised when researching/buying a car.
Now in the top 50 most visited sites in the UK*, Auto Trader is a route to market for one quarter of the UK online adult population, with over 8 million users**, who each spends an average of 15 minutes on the site per visit. Auto Trader attracts a massive audience of car buyers looking to purchase cars across all segments and serves 525 million page impressions per month, with 77 million searches for cars. (* Source: ABCe march 2007, ** Source: Comscore November 2007).
- Ends -
Notes to Editor:
• With 13 regional Auto Trader magazines across the UK and the Republic of Ireland, the brand is building a competitive position across all effective channels including print, the web and WAP.
• Auto Trader is owned by Trader Media Group, which also publishes market leading niche titles such as Top Marques, Bike Trader, Truck & Plant Trader, Ad Trader, Motorhome and Caravan Trader, Farmers Trader, Auto Freeway, TNT magazine – all with the largest reach in their sectors, through magazine readership and web visitors.
• Trader Media Group publishes over 70 titles every week with a combined circulation of 1.5 million and has leading websites for its top titles.
• Trader Media Group, a division of Guardian Media Group, employs over 3,900 people across 40 locations in the UK, Ireland, Holland, Italy and South Africa. The Group is looking to expand on its winning formula - developing a one-stop-shop for motorists; giving trade customers the opportunity to choose all effective channels to market; building the service and relationship with dealers and manufacturers; and strengthening its portfolio of automotive and specialist classified titles.
For further information, please contact:
Karen Hughes/Caroline Burnell
The Drum Consultancy
Tel: 020 7025 8044
Fax: 020 7025 8100
Email: karenh@drumbeat.co.uk
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