Convinced that TRANSPORTER was a better product at a better price we took a new and potentially controversial approach. Our idea was to create a commercial vehicle comparison site and www.comparevans.co.nz was born. It provided a permanent presence for TRANSPORTER and place where potential buyers could compare the relative merits of different vehicles in the category.To get people to www.comparevans.co.nz we optimised the site with keywords we knew would influence natural ranking. Even the website name was carefully chosen. This was supported with paid search, contextually targeted links and performance display. When anyone Googled ‘Toyota Hiace’, the most searched, or ‘compare vans’, the second most searched for term in the category, our comparison site was one of the top search results returned.

Despite the potentially controversial nature of this approach, there was no competitor retaliation because of the accuracy and transparency of information on the site.

www.comparevans.co.nz was just the wake-up call needed to convert Hiace Zombies to TRANSPORTER buyers. Car dealers across the country also used the site as a handy information source.100% of our budget was invested into digital, bucking the category convention of using ‘trade press’. A huge strategic win in itself.Using the combination of search, contextual links and online display, over 17,000 people visited the site - exceptional in a niche market. Of the 40,000 category related Google searches in 2010, we converted over 25% to comparevans.co.nz. Most importantly, TRANSPORTER’s sales rose by 57%, well above the target of 22%.