How an automotive leader turned analytics into a driver of faster, smarter action across teams

Imagine that you've just completed a major migration to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Your team is exhausted. And now another platform change looms.

For a leading luxury automaker, this moment could have been just another frustrating transition. Instead, they treated it as an opportunity.

What followed was a strategic partnership that transformed decision-making across one of the world's most iconic automotive brands.

The real challenge: More than migration

Platform fatigue is real. After investing time and resources into GA4, the automotive leader faced another migration. But the deeper challenges ran beyond technology:

• Many different teams could publish updates, but some site changes were launching without the data analytics team knowing.

• Analytics tools were usable only by specialists.

• Marketing teams operated independently, missing opportunities for collaboration.

• Decisions were reactive rather than proactive.

The goal was clear: Stop just collecting data and start generating insights.

Why we recommended Heap

At Credera, we're driven by value, not revenue. That means recommending what works, not what's easiest to sell. After evaluating the premium brand's needs, we recommended Product Analytics (Heap by Contentsquare), an intelligent analytics tool that helps visualize data.

Three factors made it the right choice:

1. Peace of mind through auto-capture

For an organization where the digital channel drives critical dealer engagement and leads, losing data isn't an option. Heap's auto-capture capability meant our client could confidently say, "We're not missing anything."

No more second-guessing. No more retrofitting tracking after launches. All relevant data was captured automatically.

2. Visualization that drives democratization

Heat mapping, session recording, and self-service data analytics turn data from something you requested into something you can explore. The focus is on making insights accessible through data visualization to product owners, marketers, and leaders who needed to act on them.

3. A team that became an extension of ours

Heap delivered more than software. The automaker’s team adapted their process to the luxury manufacturer's timelines and needs, providing product expertise and industry knowledge that augmented their capabilities. True partnership means writing the playbook together.

Seeing is believing: A customized demo that changed minds

Before moving forward, we knew the automaker needed to see Heap in action. Not through a generic demo, but one tailored to their specific challenges and use cases.

Credera worked with Heap to create a personalized demonstration that brought the platform to life using scenarios the automotive brand faced daily:

• Understanding user drop-offs in the vehicle configuration journey

• Visualizing engagement across newly designed pages

• Empowering non-technical stakeholders to access insights independently

The demo transformed abstract capabilities into tangible solutions, building confidence that this was the right tool for their transformation.

Implementation: Built for people

Technology implementations fail when they forget about the humans using them. Our approach centered on three pillars:

Alignment: We started with clear business goals and success metrics. What does "insights-driven" mean for this organization? How would we know we succeeded?

Integration: Rather than forcing our client into a standard process, Heap and Credera adapted the implementation to fit their world.

Onboarding: We designed tailored training for both power users who would become admins and business users who needed self-service access. Different roles, different needs, different approaches.

The automaker followed these five people-centric principles for a successful transformation:

1. Secure executive support and identify champions: Change needs advocates at every level. Find them early.

2. Make it their win: Connect the platform to what users care about: their goals, their challenges, their metrics.

3. Have a plan: Set clear expectations for training, content, and timelines. Structure creates confidence.

4. Be patient: Expect to review the same information multiple times. Repetition builds adoption.

5. Get closer to users: Understand how their individual goals support organizational objectives. Alignment happens person by person.

Real impact: What changed

Today, Credera operates as the power user and admin of the platform, supporting adoption across the company and ensuring the tool delivers long-term value.

But the wins aren't just in the metrics.

For teams:

• Confidence replaced doubt. Knowing all engagement data was captured gave teams the assurance to move faster.

• Past work was validated. The new platform confirmed previous analytics recommendations, boosting credibility.

• Qualitative met quantitative. Session recordings and heat maps added the "why" behind the numbers. 

For the organization:

Product owners became curious. With self-service access, they started asking better questions and taking ownership of outcomes.

Leaders thought differently. Data became part of strategic conversations to inform decisions, not just reporting.

Departments started talking. The Digital Experience and Brand teams, previously siloed, began planning future campaigns together, united by shared insights.

Time became an asset. Faster insights meant faster decisions and faster results.

The bottom line 

This was a cultural shift that happened to involve technology. This global automotive icon gained more than a new analytics platform. They gained a common language for data-driven decisions, cross-departmental collaboration where silos once stood, confidence that their most critical channel was fully understood, and the speed to act on insights rather than just collect them.

If your organization is stuck in reactive data collection mode or facing platform fatigue without clear ROI, let's talk. We bring proven expertise in analytics transformation and change management. Schedule a call with our team to get started.

[This article was adapted from a presentation at Contentsquare’s CX Circle in New York.]

• Data
• Automotive
• Google Analytics
• Technology
• Data Analytics