Charge up the EV with BYD! Case Study 

VAG is Caribbean's largest automotive dealership operating in six (6) countries across the regions. The countries include Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada & St. Lucia. The VAG was formed in 1997 and established operations in Jamaica that very same year. Jamaica is the oldest and longest serving island in the region with over 26 years, which has set the standard for automobile sales and service across the region. The VAG encompasses several distinct divisions, exclusively distributing the world's finest automobile brands - TaTa, Kia, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Honda, BMW, Jaguar & Mercedes Benz. The VAG is also the regional master dealer for all the above mentioned brands mentioned overseeing the sales, aftersales, marketing and training. In 2023, the VAG added another brand of automotives to its regional arsenal in the form of BYD (Build Your Dreams) electric vehicles. According to James Adlam Brown VAG's CEO "we want to give to our customers the best experience, value for money and automobiles with features built for quality. BYD in the EV space is the undoubted leader". As several brands within the VAG Automotive Group's portfolio have been aggressively pursuing electrification, Adlam Brown felt the BYD brand would be a perfect addition with its all EV models. There is a growing demand and push to accept hybrid and electric vehicles. This evidenced by the set up across the country and the region of charging stations which is in anticipation for the increase in the number of these vehicles on the nation's roadways. Pre launch there has been a lukewarm interest in the BYD models so far. Seven models have been preordered so far and has begun to generate some interest in the electric powered vehicles. The models are the Dolphin, Han, Seal, Song Plus, Tang, Yuan, and E6 and range from sedans, sports utility vehicles (SUV) and mid to family sized SUVs, each catering to a specific market segment. The first of 10 showrooms is scheduled to be opened in October at the Zenith Luxe Hotel Kingston. The local showroom will be termed an experience centre. The remaining showrooms are to be built across the Caribbean in the following 18 to 24 months. According to James Adlam Brown "we're in the business of making sure that when customers want us, they can find us, visit us, and allow us to serve them by providing solutions to find there way home to their mobility solutions." However, since the start of the year and at least a week before the BYD launch in Jamaica a local popular newspaper reported on the concerns over the safety of EVs after two separate incidents. On January 03, 2023 a TaTa EV model caught fire while traversing the North Coast highway and another BMW Mini Cooper model sparked a blaze while charging in an upper Kingston & St. Andrew neighborhood. Both incidents have caught the attention of the Jamaican public island wide. The incidents are novel to the region, but internationally, there have been several cases of electric vehicle fires starting when cars are parked or charging. BMW Mini within the last 5 years has had to recall nearly 100,000 cars globally due to the potential electrical fire risk. This not the only challenge affecting the EV industry. Other challenges include purchase cost, range anxiety (i.e. how long an EV can go without charging), limited selection when compared to gasoline-powered cars, difficult with qualified technicians to offer after sales support as well as the easy availability of charging stations, the infrastructure to build them and ultimately the pricing structure for charging stations once used. While, there has been no official report released yet to determine whether the source of the fire was the electric hybrid car, its charging port, or another source. Other concerns relating to EVs are whether houses islandwide and in the region meet the standard requirements to charge electric vehicles, including the sort of assessment and permits that dictate the installation of charging ports. The public commentary on social media platforms echoed the concerns of the citizens. - "Jamaica nuh ready fi them plug-in cars deh," @jayskullaz - "Stick to gasoline vehicles." @frasshytes_musiq - "Unfortunate event, and it's good to hear nobody got injured, but car fires are way more prevalent with internal combustion engine vehicles," said @teslafans_876. When asked about the incident at the launch, James Adlam Brown said "We are aware of the unfortunate incident that took place on the night of Friday, June 23 regarding a customer and their BMW MINI Countryman plug-in hybrid unit. Our primary concern remains the safety and well-being of our valued customer and we are happy to report that they are unharmed. We aim to provide superior automobile services and high-quality products to our clientele always. 

 

Creating a comprehensive report and presentation on the brand, and how using digital display advertising can assist the brand to achieve a strategic objective.

 

 My questions are ;

1. CONTENT

 content must be visually appealing, engaging, and must demonstrate the appropriate use of concepts learnt. Consider the type of graphics being used, photography, colour scheme, copy etc. Preparing a creative brief for the above case study, which should be given to your ad agency to facilitate the creation of your advertisements. Creating at least three (3) digital display advertising collateral pieces that would be used in the achieving the goals, objectives, strategy and tactics outlined above.

 

2. CAMPAIGN MEASUREMENT & METRICS

 Recommend two (2) ways of measuring the success of your plan, justifying the relevance of these methods.

- How will we be able to measure the effectiveness of the campaign?

 -What tools would we plan to utilize?

 - How will we optimize our campaign, and what should we consider when deciding to optimize?