Brief:

• Cadillac for the first time revealed a new car model on Instagram, the Facebook-owned image-sharing app with more than 1 billion users worldwide, to reach young adults. The automaker unveiled the sport and luxury models of the 2020 Cadillac CT4 sedan in an interactive Instagram Story, a feature that strings together several images into a single post.
• Cadillac also plans to showcase the car on other social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Reddit, MediaPost reported. The campaign aims to appeal to mobile-savvy consumers with a focus on sensory experiences associated with the vehicle, including its connected cabin that has an 8-inch touch screen.
• The CT4 target customer is 25 to 35 years old with high engagement on social media, Jason Sledziewski, Cadillac's director of product marketing, told MediaPost.

Insight:

Cadillac has 2.3 million Instagram followers, making the social media platform an ideal venue to showcase the new CT4. The first video of the car was viewed more than 58,000 times on the first day and received around 23,000 likes. The 25- to 35-year-old target customer is a group that's typically difficult to reach through traditional media like TV and print. Pew Research Center found that Instagram is used by 67% of U.S. adults ages 18 to 29 and by 37% of people ages 30 to 49, making the image-sharing platform an important marketing channel for Cadillac's youth-focused vehicle.

The car brand earlier this year showed a tendency to favor Google's YouTube as its top channel for social media campaigns. It placed 40% of social media ads on YouTube, 34% on Facebook and 18% on Instagram, per a study by analytics firm BrandTotal. Facebook was the top social media platform for automotive advertising among all car brands, ahead of Instagram, YouTube and Twitter, the study found.

Carmakers also use social media platforms for marketing campaigns that emphasize original or user-generated content. Mercedes-Benz in May introduced an augmented reality (AR) filter on Instagram and a five-minute clip on YouTube aimed at millennials. Acura ran a March Madness campaign that urged Instagram users to share videos of their "super handling" basketball skills on the court or in everyday situations, while BMW in February collaborated on a six-episode podcast called "The Special" aimed at foodies while promoting its X7 Sports Activity Vehicle.