By Adam Wakefield

Hannes Oosthuizen is the consumer experience manager at Cars.co.za, having joined the platform in early 2013. A former motoring journalist and editor of Car Magazine for two years, Oosthuizen has over 15 years of industry experience, including a span with manufacturer GWM.

He joined the team after being approached by one of the co-founders, Ross McIlroy, who “wanted to establish Cars.co.za as a voice of authority in the motor industry, and to use content to further and better assist with consumer decisions,” Oosthuizen says.

“Ultimately, if you’re a classified site, such as Cars.co.za used to be, you potentially only speak to the consumer once every four years or when they buy a car. If you speak to the consumer more often … wherever they may be in the buying funnel, it is beneficial to both the consumer and our own business. That is the purpose of content for us.”

“We want to create content that speaks to the consumer wherever they are in that buying cycle, from general interest to deciding to buy a car, to looking for a specific car,” Oosthuizen explains.

Telling a story that motorists want to listen to

Since the original decision was made to pursue content as a strategy to strengthen that position of authority and consumer service, the content team has grown in size and experience. “The guys put in a lot of elbow grease,” Oosthuizen says. “We are very lucky to have such a strong team.”

On social media, Cars.co.za’s YouTube channel has over 67 000 subscribers and over 20 million views, added to over 354 000 likes on Facebook, 176 000 followers on Twitter, and nearing 30 000 on Instagram. All this achieved by a brand begun primarily as a car classified site in 2008. This is in addition to the more than 1.5 million unique visitors the site enjoyed in January 2017 - according to Effective Measure. Increasingly, Cars.co.za is seen as a major content player.

“It probably comes down to us not believing that consumer motoring journalism needs to be boring. Depending on where a person is in the buying funnel, and which platform they are using, you have to use a different way of communicating and engaging. When they want to be informed, you have to do that, and when they want to be entertained, you have to do that … there isn’t a one-way-fits-all solution to this type of journalism” Oosthuizen says.

“Video, whether you are on desktop or mobile, is one of the most powerful ways to speak to modern-day consumers. We are putting a lot of resources into video, and want to put out a lot more varied video content. That applies to other channels as well.”

Cars.co.za let the facts speak for themselves

A key cog within the Cars.co.za brand and the Consumer Awards, now sponsored by finance provider WesBank, is the on-going Consumer Satisfaction Survey the platform runs in association with data specialists, Lightstone Consumer. The survey consists of around 50 questions, answered by those whose own vehicle is five years old or younger, and serviced through the franchise dealership network.

The survey, according to Oosthuizen, has assisted Cars.co.za in exploding or confirming public perceptions of different cars and motoring brands, and offers verified data to back-up their assertions, specifically with regards to after-sales service and other ownership considerations.

“What I think us motoring journalists tended to do in the past is go on a lot of hearsay, on perception, and not a lot on fact because, unfortunately, that has not been readily available,” Oosthuizen says.

“When we pulled the data from the survey and looked at it, some very clear messages emerged that had nothing to do with the product itself.”

Simple aspects such as how well the salesman knew the product, and satisfaction with what they were offered for a trade in, are among the unknowns that the Consumer Survey has since brought to light.

They will only do it if they can do it better

The data from the survey, which Oosthuizen says is “invaluable”, feeds into the awards, which are organised in collaboration with host John Vlismas’ production company Whacked.

“It’s massively complex. There are a lot of moving parts to the Consumer Awards, and right in the beginning we wanted to make sure of a couple of things,” Oosthuizen explains.

“Number one: With there being other awards programmes in the country, we don’t just want to duplicate what others do. Number two: Cars.co.za positioning itself, to use a worn phrase, as a disrupter. That’s where John Vlismas’s team has been so valuable, they really understand this space and what we want to do as a brand. And, right from the start, they got where we want to take this.”

Cars.co.za wants to innovate and not do what’s been done before, as long as they can do it better 

“Ultimately, however, the purpose of the awards is to be another important buyer’s tool. If it doesn’t have an impact on sales, we’ve not been successful. It is up to us to make sure that the consumers know what the best cars are. We have to engage with them on that, ” Oosthuizen says.

“That means we have to go beyond the traditional model of just writing about the winners ourselves. So, whether you’re browsing our posts on Instagram or driving on a highway in Cape Town or Johannesburg and spot one of our awards’ billboards, that is us talking to you, giving you considered advice that includes the opinions of thousands of people that actually live with these cars.”

According to Oosthuizen, the motoring industry is a closed one, and, traditionally, motoring media has perhaps been guilty of that too, possibly talking down to people who are just consumers, and not car fanatics or petrolheads.

“We think that to assist them effectively and to form these relationships with them, we have to change the way we engage with them and pull them close to the brand on all the touchpoints we can offer. We have to break down some of these traditional barriers.”  

If Cars.co.za’s progress since its founding is anything to go by, they are succeeding.

For more information, visit www.cars.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook, Twitter or on YouTube.