Strategy & Planning
Strategy that respects a nine-month buying cycle
Most automotive marketing is planned as if a vehicle is bought the way a pair of shoes is bought. It is not. We plan for the real journey: a long, research-heavy, shortlist-driven decision where the brand that shows up early usually wins.
The work
Work out what to sell, to whom, and in what order.
- Typical duration
- 4–6 weeks for a full strategy engagement
- Best entry point
- Before a launch, a rebrand, or a material budget increase
- Inputs we need
- Sales and pipeline data, current media reporting, analytics access
- Works standalone
- Yes — we are happy for another team to execute it
A new-vehicle purchase is one of the largest discretionary decisions a household makes, and the aftermarket and motorcycle categories behave the same way at smaller scale — high involvement, heavy research, strong peer influence. That shapes every planning decision: which audiences are worth paying for, how long to hold a message, and what a lead is actually worth.
We start with the commercial question rather than the channel question. What margin sits behind each model or SKU? Where does the current pipeline leak — awareness, shortlist, enquiry, or close? Which of those is a media problem, and which is a product, price or process problem that no amount of media will fix?
The output is a plan someone can be held to: defined audiences, a channel role for each, a measurement model that survives contact with reality, and a sequenced roadmap rather than a wish list.
Capabilities
What sits inside strategy & planning
Category & competitor mapping
Where the brand actually sits in the consideration set, what competitors are spending against, and which claims are already owned.
Audience & segmentation work
Segments built on purchase behaviour and objection profile — not demographic guesswork. For EV, that means treating enthusiasts, pragmatists and sceptics as genuinely different briefs.
Channel architecture
A defined job for every channel across the funnel, so paid search stops being asked to create demand and brand stops being asked to close it.
Measurement model
Conversion definitions, lead quality tiers, attribution approach and the reporting cadence — agreed up front, so the numbers are not argued about later.
Launch & model-year planning
Sequenced plans around launch dates, plate-clearance periods, model-year changeovers and seasonal peaks.
Budget allocation & scenario planning
What the plan looks like at three spend levels, and what gets cut first if the budget moves.
Deliverables
What you actually receive
Scope varies with the engagement, but this is the shape of it. Everything is documented and handed over — no assets held hostage.
- Market and competitive position summary
- Audience segments with objections and messaging territories
- Channel plan with funnel roles and budget split
- Measurement framework and conversion definitions
- 12-month roadmap with quarterly milestones
- Scenario models at three investment levels
Applied to
Markets we run this in
Automotive & Dealer
Distributors, dealer groups and the retail network in between.
EV & Emerging Tech
Our deepest specialism, and the reason the agency exists.
Aftermarket & Parts
Fitment-driven, enthusiast-led, and unforgiving of vague marketing.
Motorcycles & Rider
A passion purchase with a rational safety argument attached.
Questions
Straight answers
Can you do strategy without also running the media?
Yes. A meaningful share of strategy work is handed to an in-house team or an incumbent agency to execute. We would rather write a plan that gets used than hold a plan hostage to a retainer.
How do you plan when the sales data is messy?
Most of it is. Part of the engagement is establishing what can be trusted, what needs instrumenting, and what has to be estimated in the interim — stated plainly rather than papered over.
Also
Other disciplines
Next step
Ready to talk about strategy & planning?
Tell us what you sell and where the growth has stalled. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right agency for it.