GAC Motor: Brand Awareness Boost through Kazakhstan's Top Auto Media

Background

GAC Motor entered the Kazakhstan market in 2023, introducing several models through the Aster company. In 2024, the brand expanded the car’s lineup for Kazakh buyers. Thus, new models appeared on the market: flagship off-roader GS8, compact crossover GS3, and minivan M8. For a spectacular car ‘debut’ GAC Motor decided to organize a test drive in Almaty.

Goal

The client set RMAA a challenging but exciting task: to transform an upcoming auto brand event into a major news story. We had to find media outlets with an audience of potential car brand customers and provide full PR support.

Solutions

After a preliminary analysis of the media market in Kazakhstan, we chose one of the largest outlets, Tengrinews.kz (part of the Effective Media Liaison media holding).

Its website receives approximately 53 million views in Kazakhstan each month. In addition to the main news portal, Tengrinews.kz, the media group has a number of additional thematic resources. These include Tengriauto.kz website, which attracts over 1.4 million users a month, 84.5% of whom are men aged 25-34. Furthermore, Tengri has profiles on leading social networks, where additional news about the GAC Motor test drive can be posted.

In short, the collaboration with Tengrinews.kz met our client's primary objectives: precise targeting of the desired audience, the ability to distribute the content across multiple websites and social media platforms with diverse formats, and the flexibility to adapt to different formats of information presentation.

After approval of the media for the project, the RMAA team faced additional tasks:

• organizing photo and video support for the media on the day of the test drive;
• participation in the text and visual content creation, with regard to the client's wishes;
• control of publication release;
• additional coverage of the event in social networks;
• reporting and documentation.

Implementation

GAC Motor test drive in Almaty took place on September 10, 2024. The Tengrinews.kz team arrived at the venue to shoot photos and videos, as well as interview the test drive participants. Timur Mustafayev, a well-known car blogger in Kazakhstan, and Katrin Kaztay, an Instagram influencer also attended the event.

Three days later, on September 13, we received visuals for publication, including two videos that the client could use for a variety of promotional purposes as they saw fit.

The first one-minute clip was created in the format of a video report on the event, including footage of the guests and test drive organizers.

The other 30-second commercial was edited for TV advertising. Each frame emphasizes the brand's cars from different angles in both static and dynamic positions. If the client decides to run TV advertising (which is the best way to promote car brands), he won't have to spend extra money on creative in Kazakhstan because he already has it.

On September 21, Tengriauto.kz published an article. It was comprehensive and detailed, covering not only the test drive but also providing valuable insights into the brand, its activities in Kazakhstan, and brief descriptions of the cars. The material was placed in the "Car of the Week/Special Project" widget section for 72 hours after release to ensure maximum visibility.

The video posts were released on social media on the same day. The content was published in Reels format on @tengrinewskz and @tengri.auto Instagram accounts, as well as on the @tengriauto TikTok account.

Посмотреть эту публикацию в Instagram

Публикация от TengriAuto (@tengri.auto)

Thus, the client received not only media coverage but also photo and video materials, as well as posts on Tengri's social media channels. The RMAA team's ability to go beyond the designated target and coordinate additional activities for media campaigns was the driving force behind this success.

Results

When we talk about the brand's media promotion, the final goal of the campaign is not additional bonuses. It's views. The Tengriauto.kz website publication dedicated to the GAC Motor test drive in Kazakhstan achieved excellent results.

Also, video posts on the outlet's social media accounts received additional reach.

All this combined with prompt work, quality visual content, and full project management by the RMAA team made a strong impression on the client. We, in turn, gained good experience in brand image promotion in the CIS.