Media: Strategy of the Week - Auto Trader seeks readers beyond car-savvy men.

A multimedia strategy aims to show the title's not just for the trade.

Last week, Trader Media Group launched a pounds 5 million multimedia marketing effort to address Auto Trader's sliding circulation by widening its target audience.

Recent circulation figures show that the title recorded a 3.8 per cent year-on-year slide to 351,654. The reason, according to the publisher, is that the market it has traditionally been associated with - car-savvy men - has limited scope for growth.

The challenge now for Auto Trader and its agencies is to break the perception that the title is only for those who understand the workings of cars and know exactly what kind of car they want.

Paul Kirkley, a board account director at Auto Trader's creative agency, J. Walter Thompson, says: 'There is an uncomfortable feeling among consumers that it's just for the motor trade.'

To address the problem, JWT and Auto Trader's media agency, MediaCom Scotland, worked together to develop a multifaceted campaign to expand its audience.

'The campaign has to be careful not to get rid of its existing readers, while engaging those who have resisted it in the past,' Euan Jarvie, the managing director at MediaCom Scotland, says. 'It's a product for everyone rather than just men.'