Case Study: Automotive industry white paper marketing campaign
Six Lines delivered a marketing campaign package covering content creation, digital experience, social promotion, and targeted email outreach
Case study: Automotive industry white paper and marketing campaign delivery
Six Lines Marketing partnered with the 4S Mobility foundation and sponsor organisations to produce and promote a white paper titled Mobility at a Crossroads: Driving Mobility Transformation Through the 4S Framework.
The goal was to translate the research into a targeted industry campaign that raised awareness of 4S Outcomes among automotive decision makers and innovators, and to drive high quality leads and downloads ahead of key industry events.
The Challenge
The 4S Mobility team needed a clear content and distribution plan to reach senior audiences across OEMs, suppliers, tier one partners, and urban mobility stakeholders.
The sponsors required a polished white paper product, a user experience to capture interest and contact details, and a multi channel promotion program that would perform around major events and industry gatherings.
Our approach
Six Lines’ automotive marketing consultants delivered a single integrated marketing package covering content creation, digital experience, social promotion, and targeted email outreach.
We split the project into four clear streams:
White paper creation
Converted the 4S research and sponsor inputs into a professionally formatted white paper that communicates the 4S Outcomes framework and its business implications for automotive OEMS, tier one suppliers and governments.
Built out the executive summary, sector insights, recommendations and concise calls-to-action for sponsors.
Designed a professional, premium white paper document for both download and print-friendly formats.
Landing pages and conversion flow
Built a primary landing page to host the ungated white paper download and to collect nominated contact details.
Created event specific landing pages for distribution at IAA Mobility and CES to support in person promotion and registration flows.
Implemented tracking and analytics to measure traffic, attribution and conversion performance.
LinkedIn promotion
Developed an organic LinkedIn campaign to reach product, strategy and innovation leads at OEMs and tier one suppliers.
Produced a mix of post formats including short thought leadership posts, carousel summaries of the report, and single asset ads and a video that linked back to landing pages.
Email campaign
Built segmented sequences for sponsors to send to their corporate lists and to targeted prospect lists.
Produced multiple subject line and creative tests to improve campaign performance.
Coordinated timing with IAA Mobility distribution and follow up during the CES period to sustain momentum.
Key Deliverables
Our team of marketing consultants produced a full suite of assets that supported content distribution, lead identification and coordinated outreach across all channels, delivered on-time and within budget, while allowing ample room for feedback and sign-off from all partner-companies involved in the project.
These assets included:
Full white paper ready for download and print.
Primary landing page.
LinkedIn creative suite including organic posts and custom images and a video for the sponsors.
Email templates, content and graphic design, and campaign management.
Outcome and impact
Six Lines’ automotive marketing consultants positioned the white paper to support both strategic communications and direct demand generation.
The campaign achieved the following outcomes for the sponsors:
Rapid availability of the report to industry decision makers at IAA Mobility.
A clear digital funnel for capturing interested prospects and routing them to sponsor teams.
Sustained social visibility and synchronized email follow up during the event period.
Measurable campaign reporting that sponsors used to prioritise follow up and to shape pilot projects through the 4S Initiative.
How to promote your white paper to automotive OEMs
How you promote a white paper is as important as how you write it. These two concepts should be decided at the same time and reflect each other. Decide the promotion plan at the start. What is the white paper for?
If the main goal is to capture sign ups for your nurture cycle, gate the asset behind a short form and design the landing page to convert. Use a catchy title for the paper that almost feels like click bait, as it is the title that is winning you the attention and audience action, not the content of the paper itself. Bear in mind that gated campaigns typically get about 10 times fewer reads than ungated ones, so do not launch a product manifesto or flagship thought-leadership piece as a gated download.
If the main goal is reach and influence, make the paper ungated and easy to share. Produce an executive summary and a short version you can use in email and social. Make the PDF simple to download, without a form, and build a campaign that encourages sharing. Link the content to a single measurable outcome, and include a clear low friction next step for engineers or procurement.
Deciding promotion up front means the white paper and its campaign work together to get OEM attention and to convert that attention into real meetings.
Quick checklist to decide before you start
✓ Purpose - Define whether you want leads or reach. Are you spreading a message or searching for new leads?
✓ Title - Choose a sharp outcome-led headline that will get clicks. Your campaign success will live and die by the title if you’re gating your white paper.
✓ Gate - Choose gated for nurture or ungated for reach. Make this decision early, as it directly affects your white paper content.
✓ Versions - Create a ‘long paper’, a one page summary, and an email pitch version of your content.
✓ Landing page - Optimise for conversion, or for sharing, depending on your content, campaign and business goals.
✓ Distribution - Plan channels, including events, email, LinkedIn, partner networks and paid promotion (where relevant).
✓ Measure - Track reads, downloads, conversion, and downstream meeting quality. And remember to use this data to improve your next output!
Of course, you can also just have Six Lines Marketing do it for you!
We help Tier 1 suppliers, start-ups, and automotive consultancy teams & researchers by creating outcome-led campaigns that open doors at OEMs, book meetings. and speed pilots. Click the button below to book a free review of your marketing campaigns and get practical fixes you can use today.
Just some of the automotive brands our team have supported
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