The First Thing Drivers Do Getting In Their Car

Before drivers put on their seatbelts or adjust the air conditioning, they do one essential task: plug in their phones. Smartphones have become the hub of in-car entertainment for millions of owners. 

For AutoSky, they have an innovative product to make Apple CarPlay better. Its wireless solution connects iPhones to a vehicle's CarPlay system, adding convenience and unique functionality. 

Most automotive accessory brands depend on traditional retail paths to market, but AutoSky chose to go direct to consumers (DTC).

The company needed a creative way to get its message in front of buyers. Rather than resist the e-commerce giant Amazon, they worked it into their marketing strategy.

Unlocking DTC Product Success

In late 2022, business development manager Jonathan Orozco was looking into a few different marketing strategies to make his product a success in 2023. He connected with Ubiquitous account executive Suzannah Lott to explore campaign ideas.

Given the uncertain economic climate, Orozco was interested but wanted to pause to explore his options. The company was familiar with using pay-per-click (PPC) and social ads as it was standard fare for DTC products.

Then one morning in early March, Ubiquitous' Lott got an email she didn't expect. "We're back on track with this and ready to move forward," the one-line email read. 

And from there, the project went from concept to live within two weeks — a remarkably fast timeline for the influencer marketing industry.

 "Whether clients go with Ubiquitous or not, brands discover that there's a lot that goes into an influencer marketing campaign," explained Lott. "It consists of personalized emails, follow-ups, negotiations, creative reviews, and much more. When they see this, it can be overwhelming, so they see the value of an influencer agency like us." 

AutoSky wanted to build brand awareness and make inroads with automotive enthusiasts. Its audience needed to understand its exciting features and requirements — their vehicles must already have CarPlay. 

From a marketing and sales standpoint, here's what AutoSky had in mind:

• Brand awareness: Brand visibility on TikTok, Instagram, and Amazon
• Revenue: Increased sales of its product on Amazon
• Intellectual property: Ownership of the creative assets for future use
• Budget: Stay within the budget with consistent performance

Orozco wanted to work with a marketing agency that provides end-to-end campaign management. Orozco said that he needed a partner that could help him get real results on social networks. For Orozco, Ubiquitous instilled confidence it was a better investment of his marketing funds than sinking it into Meta ads alone.

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Influencer campaign performance

• Less than $50,000 budget
• 21 million impressions
• 10.6% Engagement rate

Paid media performance (TikTok Spark Ads)

• Less than $5,000 budget
• 670,000+ unique audience reach
• $3.40 average CPM

Campaign Insights

• Identified a loyal audience at the intersection of automotive and Amazon product discovery. This helped the campaign resonate with AutoSky's innovative yet practical product to improve the viewer's lifestyle. This drove a ton of engagement, comments, and traffic to the wireless CarPlay adapter's product page and sales. 
• Blended influencer outreach with paid boosts. Boosting select creator posts helped the campaign reach a massive audience in a way that outperformed typical ad formats. And the creators also benefited from a wider reach and engagement. 
• Secured ownership rights to created content. In addition to the two waves to drive brand awareness and product sales, AutoSky was able to obtain IP to reuse most materials for sales and marketing purposes — such as YouTube or other video ads in the future. 

No joke, influencer marketing is a high-stakes investment. 

A brand like AutoSky couldn't afford to work solo on finding and negotiating with influencers, fine-tuning the paid media support, or tracking all the engagements.

It's a lot for any small marketing team to handle, and that's only a tiny fraction of the logistics involved. 

But by partnering with Ubiquitous, Orozco has proven the marketing channel and wrote the script in their playbook for future product launches.  

Orozco was involved and aware of the milestones and challenges along the way. Unlike some agencies that lack transparency in the process, Ubiquitous provided a dedicated team of influencer marketing pros (no newbies) that kept him in the loop at every turn. 

Orozco told us that he loved getting updates on how our campaign was running. He said it I felt like riding shotgun as the experts helped it land with influencers he enjoys following. He also remarked that he liked how the team was receptive to his feedback throughout the campaign.

In addition to an impressive brand awareness and performance marketing campaign, AutoSky has built relationships with the creators, making future campaigns even more successful. 

With these two successful influencer marketing campaigns in the books, AutoSky is currently working with us on a third wave. AutoSky has additional products for Android smartphones, GPS tracking, and other automotive tech-cessories that will be seen on a TikTok or Instagram feed near you.