Nowadays, traditional advertising is being more and more often combined with online promotion, which is growing increasingly popular due to the mass use of the Internet. How are these two types of advertising related, and do they impact each other?

Ford Motor Company is one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers. In Germany Ford enjoys substantial popularity: in 2015, 225 thousand new Ford cars were registered, placing the brand at place 6 in the top 10 best-selling cars in the country.

In 2013-2014 Ford advertised its most successful Fiesta and Focus models using various ad media. Since a significant share of new car registrations was attributed to site traffic, this caused an interest in researching the impact of Out-of-Home advertising and other media channels on the number of hits at the two models' web sites. A media agency conducted an efficiency assessment of various media types, namely OOH, TV, radio, film and daily press. Regression analysis of the Jan 2012 – Oct 2015 visiting statistics at Ford.de was used to gather the necessary data.

The researchers have concluded that in 2014, OOH advertising caused 52,553 visits at the Ford Focus web site. Meanwhile, the same resulted in 14,538 hits at the Ford Fiesta site. A substantial 9.1% increase in web traffic was registered in 2014, resulting in 29,792 hits. In both cases, OOH advertising placed second in the media mix efficiency rating (each hit cost €49 and €93 accordingly). Video ads on digital urban billboards, along with TV and radio advertising, also proved effective.

The research has shown that 9.1% of total web site visits were brought by Out-of-Home advertising in particular. OOH advertising secured its rightful place in the efficiency chart, topping TV, radio and periodicals.

Source: http://www.stroeer.de/nc/wissen-inspiration/case-studies/ford.html