Subaru
Driving engagement
Subaru of New Zealand have been a Sparks client since 2015 when a new Drupal 7 site was delivered. Jump forward close to a decade and the impending Drupal 7 EOL, a new Drupal 10 website was planned and delivered.
The site needed to be “easy to consume” and the client was thinking “minimalist excellence” on par with premium or luxury brands - both other automotive peers but also in the fashion, travel and lifestyle space their customers also saw themselves in.
Sector
Scope
User experience
Strategy
Design
Content management
Build
Content migration
Support
Search optimisation
WHAT WE DID
The existing Drupal 7 website was already doing what it needed to do. It had driven growth and met marketing goals since the day of launch and the client was very happy. The goals of the upgrade to Drupal 10 was to provide a platform for the future, showcasing the marketing collateral and rich content available for the online experience.
The build uses the latest technology to drive the interactive features. With attention to security and privacy the new site integrates seamlessly with Autoplay to deliver all leads directly to our dealers, as well as custom CRM API integration. Search engine traffic is catered for with optimisation built-in, and marketing campaigns are supported with lead pages for promotions, and articles to support talking points in the trade press.
Each page is designed to lead the eye through key points of the range and specs, with the dynamic comparison table giving easy access to all the detail for each model. Standout features and selling points are picked out for each vehicle with photos and clear headlines, and every car gets an image gallery showing them at their best.
Designed with mobile-first in mind, the site looks great and is fully functional on phones. The platform is built for the future, with a roadmap for updates and room to grow - ready to put Subaru in front of the customer for many years to come.
The process of building a new website from scratch is often quite an overwhelming project to tackle, with attention to detail required at each milestone of the build.
Working with Sparks Interactive was easily the best experience I’ve had on a website build. Sparks have a professional deadline focused approach, and yet they never seem stressed, even at critical phases of a project. Sparks took on all the heavy lifting of our website design and build, they are very solutions focused – nothing was ever an issue.
Our brief was to simply build a site which provides an excellent customer experience across all devices, while empowering the Subaru team to be able to take ownership of the site. We didn’t want to be tied down to web developers every time we wanted to create a page or build a form. Sparks took this on board and built a site that has exceeded expectations. Analytics are already demonstrating return on investment, and we are also enjoying evolving the site together following the launch. We look forward to a long term future with the team.
If you are looking for new digital business partners, I highly recommend you get in touch with Sparks.
Daile Stephens. Head of Brand Marketing, Inchcape New Zealand