Toyota, Subaru and Hyundai stand out as effective users of mobile, with Subaru in particular thinking outside the banner ad and valuing rich creative mobile experiences, according to a report from AdTheorent.

The three Asian automakers focus on creating units and landing pages within which the user can spend time customizing vehicles and learning about enhancements in new models. The brands? programs suggest that a huge shift from the days of just repurposing TV commercials or digital banners has occurred as brands move beyond the click-through rate model in search of deeper engagements with targets.  

?Mobile provides an excellent opportunity for marketers to deliver very tailored, location-based information to the user and target them on a one-to-one basis to serve relevant information,? said Daniela Lupton, director of strategy at AdTheorent, New York. ?If marketers take advantage of this, along with mobile?s ability to deliver dynamic content, they will see engagement and return on ad spend.?  

Brands that are effective in mobile also are tapping the power of social.

?Word of mouth generated by social engagements has proven to be very persuasive to in-market auto shoppers,? Ms. Lupton said. ?Social shares, retweets, or video views are always important key performance indicators for fully-flushed brand platforms with mobile in the center as the streamlined way to achieve social virility.?

AdTheorent analyzed nearly 120 million auto campaign impressions across its mobile ad network July 1-Sept. 30. The data set was pulled from ad campaigns of 13 of the largest auto brands in the United States.

One finding with relevance for an ongoing debate over the merits of mobile applications versus the mobile Web was that mobile applications outperformed the mobile Web in terms of engagement by 57 percent.

In other results, rich media advertising drove high secondary engagement for brands. Top secondary actions were visiting the brand?s landing page, viewing product features and comparisons and watching video.

The findings reflected how mobile?s ability to deliver very tailored, location-based information to the user, coupled with engaging creative is a natural fit for the auto vertical. 

When advertisers provide something very relevant, valuable and actionable to the consumer, they are able to create a good brand experience and ultimately, engagement and return on investment.

In another key finding, high income levels yielded high mobile advertising engagement for auto brands. When household income was between $120, 000 and $130,000, engagement was 514 percent higher than the industry average.

By comparison, household incomes of $70,000 to $80,000 produced engagement that was 455 percent above the industry average and household incomes of $60,000 to $70,000 produced engagement that was 386 percent higher than the industry average.

Data also showed that engagement is inversely correlated to weather conditions. When temperatures were 33 to 50 degrees, engagement rates were 395 percent higher than the industry category average.

Temperature ranges between 51 and 69 degrees delivered the second highest engagement rate.

In terms of top performers, females outperformed males, delivering an 8 percent higher engagement rate. Users on a cellular network delivered a 6 percent greater engagement rate compared with users on Wi-Fi.

Tablet users delivered 7 percent higher engagement than smartphone users.

The top five engagement states were Delaware, Pennsylvania, Oregon, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

?The fact that we saw such high secondary engagement within rich media for AdTheorent?s third-quarter auto campaigns points to the importance of proper targeting, coupled with a dynamic experience and illustrates the opportunity for marketers,? Ms. Lupton said.