Cracking Those Christmas Puzzles With Auto Trader

NEWTON-LE-WILLOWS, England, December 14, 2011 -

The UK’s leading network of car dealers, Auto Trader, has launched an interactive social media treasure hunt to give its Facebook and Twitter fans a chance to win a range of mystery prizes.

The automotive giant, which currently has over 43,000 likes on its Facebook page, 6,000 followers on Twitter and has recently launched a Google+ page, will be providing a series of cryptic clues on each respective page in a bid to drive users to dig around its website for the hidden Christmas crackers.

Contestants will be encouraged to sift through the used car pricesand new car dealsto locate the Christmas crackers, which will include a variety of prizes from cash rewards to the highly desirable Amazon Kindle. Getting one’s hands on these prizes won’t be easy, though, as Auto Trader is seeking to make the competition as enigmatic as possible.

A total of two clues will be published every day between the 13^th December and the 22^nd December to give fans maximum chance of winning the prizes, but they will have to work together in the social media sphere to have any chance of coming away with a top prize. Interaction between members of the Auto Trader community will be encouraged throughout the competition, with puzzles and problem solving set to fit the bill for the build up to Christmas.

Auto Trader has enjoyed previous success with its social media campaigns. Last year saw the Golden Keys competition, which added an extra 1.6 millionto its total online searches during the competition period.

The Head of Consumer Marketing at Auto Trader,Ian MacDonald, commented on the current competition: “Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter offer a wealth of benefits to marketers, one of which is their real-time nature.

“We have seen great success from leveraging this to delight UK consumers with engaging, interactive, real-time treasure hunts which also encourage users to sample how easy our site is to use, when searching for a new or used car.”

Auto Trader has more than 10.3 million unique visitors a month, which makes it the leading motoring website when it comes to providing new and used cars to motor fans across the country. It is owned by Trader Media Group and operates successfully on numerous platforms, including online, magazine and mobile, the latter of which has already attracted over 800,000 people.

Trader Media Group is jointly owned by Guardian Media Group and Apax Partners.

Contact: Stuart Long - +44(0)113-241-4100 - Stuart.long at branded3.com