Oracle revealed that Gumtree is using Oracle Marketing Cloud software to increase engagement with its platform. Gumtree has a stated aim to be the #1 digital brand in the UK. Gumtree announced its aim in January 2016 when they launched their new brand.
So has Gumtree grown?
In January an article in Marketing Week revealed that the site received an average of 15.3 million unique monthly users. This is well below the 45.7 million Google receives and the 40 million Facebook has. Gumtree hoped that the change of branding would change that. Figures in the Oracle press release seems to indicate it has not yet achieved the growth it wants. This may be the reason why Gumtree has turned to Oracle Marketing cloud to help increase those figures.
Similarweb.com places Gumtree at #23 in the UK by Internet traffic volume. This is something that Gumtree would have hoped to have improved. It would also have been interesting if Oracle had revealed more up to date statistics in the press release.
So is Marketing Cloud helping
The deal for Oracle Marketing Cloud has only just been made public bit it isn’t clear when Oracle Marketing Cloud was implemented. Gumtree does have a clear vision of what they expect from Marketing cloud and what it can achieve. They want to create online, offline and mobile integrated marketing campaigns delivering personalised information to their target audience.
With the Oracle solution in place they are able to target individuals with personalised messages about content they previously viewed. The aim is to increase conversion rates and customer satisfaction. That will increase the number of listings on the site as trust is improved.
Nick Martin, head of Commercial Operations, Gumtree commented: “The ease of integration was a key reason we selected the Oracle Marketing Cloud. Oracle has brought together industry-leading technologies within the Oracle Marketing Cloud and this integration has helped us streamline processes and improve results. For example, we will be able to use the detailed consumer insights from the Oracle Data Management Platform to increase collaboration across our marketing, advertising, sales and technology teams. This will help us increase consumer engagement and ultimately grow our customer base.”
Improving apps with Oracle Marketing Appcloud
Gumtree is also looking to take advantage of Oracle Marketing AppCloud. Whether they are looking to leverage one of the apps on the marketplace or develop an integration to their own mobile apps was not revealed. The marketplace has more than 3,500 apps to choose from and Gumtree should be able to enhance their solution further by implementing some of these.
Ghislain Lefebvre, Sales Lead, Data Management Platforms for Oracle Marketing Cloud commented: “Gumtree has built a very strong brand that has helped it become the number one classified site in the UK. With the powerful consumer insights delivered by the Oracle Data Management Platform, Gumtree will be able to increase ROI on its advertising and enhance the customer experience through truly personalised cross-channel communications.”
Conclusion
Gumtree has also launched in South Africa, but it is not known if the platform will be used there as well. The problem for Gumtree is that other websites are investing heavily in marketing. It is having to overtaking other brands with the help of technology and fighting off newcomers as well.
What would have made this announcement more relevant is for Gumtree to reveal their latest figures. The problem is that this might have shown a decline. Alexa shows a notable seasonable decline for them at the end of 2016. Whether that will reverse early in 2017 is too early to say.
For Oracle this is a well known brand that has selected the product but to date the results are unremarkable. As more information is available become available this could still prove an excellent case study for Oracle though.
