Nationwide Insurance is running a multichannel advertising campaign to promote its second application for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Cartopia.

Cartopia is a free car-buying application that helps users access a wide range of information as they shop for new or used cars, trucks and SUVs. The campaign to get the word out about the application spans the PC Web, the mobile Web, in-application ads and television spots.

?Cartopia is our second iPhone app, and the strategy was to create a useful free tool for people shopping for a new or used car?it doesn?t matter if they?re a Nationwide Insurance customer or not,? said Sue McManus, vice president of direct and customer solutions marketing at Nationwide, Columbus, OH. ?People spend a lot of time researching their car.

?I?ve observed people coming in to a dealership with a stack of papers printed from the Internet,? she said. ?We thought why not send that information to the iPhone and give them the ability to get unbiased information right there on the dealer?s lot in real time, so they know if a used car has been in an accident or if it?s been regularly serviced at the dealership.

?We have two main objectives, one is to build our brand with younger, more tech-savvy consumers, and two, use the app as an acquisition tool for auto loans and auto insurance?within the app users can easily see Nationwide Bank?s auto loan rates, and when dealer offers a loan, users can immediately compare it to our rate.?

Nationwide is an insurance company and financial-services organization.

Nationwide?s advertising agency of record is McKinney.

Getting the word out
The company is leveraging various channels to get the word out about the new Cartopia iPhone application.

Apple has promoted Nationwide?s Cartopia as a featured application in iTunes.

Nationwide launched a television ad promoting Cartopia that started running earlier this month.

The insurance company also ran mobile ads across AdMob?s network targeting iPhones users.

?Those worked really well for us in terms of getting people to click through and driving a lot of downloads,? Ms. McManus said.

In addition, the company is taking advantage of house inventory within the original Nationwide Mobile application for iPhone to drive downloads of its sister application.

Other areas Nationwide is promoting the Cartopia application include Facebook and banner ads within car-buying Web sites such as Edmunds and Kelly Blue Book.

Nationwide Insurance has also brought back the "World?s Greatest Spokesperson in the World" to promote the application:

/>

?We promoted the Nationwide Mobile app last year as part of our ?I am Nationwide? campaign, and starting in February we brought back the World?s Greatest Spokesperson in the World for a TV campaign, and one of the ads is promoting Cartopia,? Ms. McManus said.

Cartopia app
Ms. McManus said that Nationwide launched the Cartopia application because buying a new or used car can be overwhelming.

Everyone who shops for a car has specific things that are important to him or her in making a purchase decision.

Cartopia lets users review information about multiple cars on the car lot such as whether or not a used car has been in an accident or damaged in a flood.

Ms. McManus said that the first Nationwide application has provided an opportunity to engage smartphone users, and the popularity of that application led the company to create Cartopia.

Cartopia capabilities include:
? Free vehicle history scores for up to six used vehicles each month
? Unbiased third-party pricing information to help consumers get a fair deal such as the invoice price, trade-in value and retail cost
? Safety information from Insurance Institute of Highway Safety
? Vehicle specifications including length, weight and seating
? Ability to rank and compare vehicles based on the details most important to each consumer
? Tools to estimate monthly payments and the total cost of ownership?the cost to purchase and operate a vehicle over five years, including depreciation, financing, insurance, fuel, maintenance, hybrid tax credit and gas guzzler credit
? Ability to take pictures or use existing photos of cars consumers are considering and organize them in thumbnails
? Nationwide Insurance agent locator lets consumers search by current location, ZIP code or name
? One-touch dialing to Nationwide Bank for a car loan
? Consumers can request that a Nationwide Insurance agent call them.

Cartopia follows the launch of the Nationwide Mobile application for iPhone introduced in spring 2009.

Nationwide Mobile provides a tool kit for use following a car accident and helps customers begin the auto insurance claims process on their iPhone or iPod touch.

To date, Nationwide Mobile for iPhone has been downloaded more than 85,000 times and 250 auto insurance claims have been initiated through the application.

?Clearly we?re targeting people who research cars before they buy and value advice from unbiased third parties,? Ms. McManus said. ?We?re going after iPhone users, who tend to skew younger than the typical Nationwide target demographic.?