Manheim-New-Zealand-Market-Report-Q3-2016 | Page 15

New Zealand Market Report Cox Automotive Initiatives Q3 Final Four Ford Auction “This was an outstanding team effort within a tight timeframe and shows the power of Cox Automotive’s combined forces.” Manheim assist in a historic Ford event. W ith Ford ceasing the manufacture of vehicles in Australia, the company wanted to do something spectacular – and charitable - with their last four saleable vehicles. As our long term customer with a 26 year relationship, Ford asked Manheim to help out and turn the sale into a landmark special auction event. Led by Ford National Account Manager, Jeff Sakellaris and Director of Marketing, Justin Hodgson, we put together an extensive promotional program to advertise the sale of the final four Fords and organised the onsite charity auction which was held on Saturday, October 15. We built a dedicated ‘Ford’s Final Four’ website through fellow Cox Automotive company, Dealer Solutions, which advertised the cars for sale and allowed people to register for Simulcast in order to participate in the auction. Manheim heavily promoted the event to help raise massive interest levels to ensure a strong online turn out for the auction, which was being held as part of an invitation only Ford ‘Loyalist’ event at Avalon. The campaign, largely conducted using social media channels reached more than 390,000 people and over 37,000 watched the auction via a live stream on Facebook. As you would expect, the sale of the vehicles also attracted huge media interest with coverage of this iconic event right across the country. CEO of Cox Automotive Australia, Campbell Jones, was extremely happy with the result and proud of our team for the work they did to produce a successful auction for Ford. “This was an outstanding team effort within a tight timeframe and shows the power of Cox Automotive’s combined forces.” “It was vital that we did as much as we could to look after Ford, a partner of ours for 26 years.” “It was a great result for Ford in a difficult time and we thank our Cox Automotive family for their hard work.” The Manheim run auction saw a Falcon XR6 (non-Turbo) sedan in Kinetic Blue colour go for $81,500; a Falcon Ute XR6 Turbo in Smoke Grey sell for $81,000; a Falcon XR6 Sprint(No.500 of 500) in Winter White crack $122,000 and a diesel Territory Titanium in Silver sell for $68,500. Manheim team members organised the event logistics and executed the charity auction perfectly on the day. Using our Simulcast software the auction was broadcast online to give anyone who was interested the chance to own a piece of Australian motoring history. A total of $353,000 was raised which Ford Australia donated to their long term charity partners. The proceeds were distributed between a Geelong based Charity, Give Where You Live to help the local community and two student robotics programs in Broadmeadows and Geelong. 15 ((0