Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the automotive industry as a whole really started to transform itself. Car dealerships nationwide transitioned many of their internal processes to digital formats. The pandemic also revealed a significant change in how consumers expected dealers to do business. Which, in turn, meant car dealers had to pivot to meet those expectations.
However, even amidst all of these changes, the automotive industry is still challenged with a perception issue. This puts the onus on automotive marketing teams to educate those consumers about the new changes. They need to tell the new story that needs to be told. To discuss this further, we’re pleased to welcome Kevin Bacon, Digital Director of Automotive for Effectv, and Ryan Dooley, Owner of Dooley Advertising.
When dealers felt uncertainty during the pandemic last year, some of them took their advertising “off-air,” and others bolstered and got more focused. According to Bacon, there are two schools of thought. Some automotive marketers saw the pandemic as a daunting challenge, others, like Dooley, saw an opportunity.
Dooley Advertising only slightly trimmed its budget in 2020. Instead, they focused on marketing channels that have a deep impact on consumers, including traditional television advertising. Consumers were largely glued to their TVs at the beginning of the pandemic trying to stay up-to-date on the latest news. In fact, Bacon notes that video marketing, in terms of allocation of funds, has increased 26%. With this understanding, Dooley Advertising then targeted their television commercials geographically and optimized them to work succinctly with retargeting ads and social media campaigns.
The big takeaway here is that car dealers can apply the same digital techniques they are leveraging, to advanced targeted television advertising as well. The key for car dealers is to focus on the households in the market for your vehicles, and to ‘light up’ every device in that household. Connect all of your channels together and lean heavily into the data acquired from them.
Effectv has put together an automotive guide complete with insights, tips and covers some of what was shared today. To download it, visit Effectv.com/insights.
Did you enjoy this interview with Kevin Bacon and Ryan Dooley? Please share your thoughts, comments, or questions regarding this topic with host Jim Fitzpatrick at jfitzpatrick@cbtnews.com.
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