Earlier this year, Bauer Media expanded its Illuminate offering with Illuminate Automotive, a first-party targeting solution for the automotive sector, replacing keyword targeting on Parkers and Car with a full-funnel solution reaching users across Bauer Media’s portfolio – across influential brands including Grazia, Empire, KISS, Mother & Baby, MCN, Absolute Radio and Today’s Golfer.

In a constantly changing market, where customer loyalty is being challenged, Bauer Illuminate gives advertisers access to audiences at key stages in the car buying journey – from awareness through to purchase intent – supported by extensive research from our automotive experts which shows a 37% increase in those willing to look for cars from another manufacturer if their chosen vehicle is out of stock.

Since Illuminate’s launch, Bauer has worked closely with a range of automotive brands to create campaigns that deliver positive outcomes and demonstrate the power of using first-party data at all stages of the funnel.

Bauer Illuminate positively affects user perceptions and purchase consideration. Post-campaign research for a leading manufacturer showed a 44% increase in users who said they would be highly likely to buy from that brand, compared to non-exposed. This was alongside increased positive perception, with a 19% lift in users who said they found the brand appealing.

For a commercial vehicle brand, at the engagement stage, we targeted Illuminate’s van audience – with 2.7% of users engaging with the creative. Among campaign engagers, 68% had a session length exceeding three minutes.

With another advertiser, Bauer deployed a like-for-like test which compared Illuminate intent targeting to the former keyword targeting approach. Campaign results showed a 50% increase in click through rate, and a 68% lift in unique engagement. This highlights how Illuminate can influence consumer action among a highly engaged in-market audience.

While Google has announced a delay to the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome, Bauer is continuing to evolve Illuminate as a futureproof solution immediately available for advertisers, to target users across all browsers in real-time.

In the coming months, Illuminate is set to further expand its offering with new solutions for B2B, automotive ownership and classic vehicles.

James Villani – Investment Director at Starcom said: “The launch of Illuminate has enabled us to scale out our activity with Bauer, accessing a greater wealth of audience insight/profiling which has only complemented our activity. We tested Illuminate across Peugeot and Citroen, targeting very different audiences and the overall results surpassed previous campaigns. I’ve been very impressed with the outcomes that this new solution offers, and I feel it will only continue to evolve.”

Joe Root – CEO and co-founder at Permutive said: “As the era of third-party data ends, we’ve seen Bauer set an example for the industry with their first-party solution Illuminate. Bauer has completely changed how they sell media, and we’re proud to work with them as they use privacy-first tech to deliver a cookieless future for their advertisers.”

Nicky Holt – Managing Director, Commercial Publishing at Bauer Media said: “These results and consistently positive feedback from our advertisers demonstrate that Bauer Illuminate continues to deliver important outcomes – in what has been a challenging environment for manufacturers and car buyers over the past two years. While there is uncertainty in digital advertising as its shifts away from a reliance on third-party cookies, Bauer Illuminate provides certainty to advertisers that they can access the right audiences in trusted environments, supported by quality data. We understand how to engage with our audiences throughout their buying and ownership journey, with Illuminate playing a pivotal role in influencing choice when it matters. As a key pillar of our commercial strategy, it is great to see how Bauer Illuminate is being received in market as the product continues to evolve.”

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About Bauer Illuminate:

Bauer Illuminate is Bauer Media’s premium data-led targeted advertising solution, providing advertisers access to valuable first-party data gathered from its digital environments. As first-party data becomes increasingly important to brands in the move away from third-party data, Illuminate helps brands to access diverse, engaged, and scalable audiences across influential and iconic Bauer brands including Grazia, Parkers, MCN, Mother & Baby, Empire, Magic Radio, KISS and Absolute Radio.