Posted by chicagomedia.org on December 09, 2008 at 10:50:05:
Web Promo Soups Up Chicago Car Sales
By Arthur Greenwald
TVNEWSDAY, Dec 8 2008, 12:50 PM ET
As the Big Three automakers returned to Washington last week to request bailout money, a new poll hinted at a dark horizon. Fifty two percent of Americans say they won't buy or lease a car from a manufacturer that has filed for bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, the Big Three announce plans to reduce dealer ranks by an average 34 percent, a loss in local profits and sales taxes that would impact everything from school systems to little league teams.
Except for the dealerships themselves, no local business suffers more from this mess than local broadcasting, which derives as much as 40 percent of its revenue from car dealers.
But what's this? A couple of rays of sunshine are piercing the fiscal gloom, coming in the form of two smart sales promotions for dealers and stations. And MarketShare is pleased to profile them this week and next.
First up, the Great Chicago Used Car Sale - an innovative partnership between NBC O&O WMAQ, Comcast, the automotive Web site Vehix and a forward-thinking ad agency.
The latter, Mudd Advertising founder Robb Mudd, came up with the idea, which draws on his more than 25 years of experience in local automotive advertising. Mudd says that long before the present crisis, car dealers already faced major hurdles. "Eighty three percent of car buyers go to the Web to purchase cars," says Mudd. "Our challenge was finding ways to drive that business back to retailers."
Mudd's strategy quickly focused on the most lucrative part of the local car business: used cars, which typically outsell new cars by a factor of three to one. Even more important, says Mudd, "used car sales generate the profits that drive local dealerships, an average of $1,500 to $2,500 per car."
Although a tough economy often stimulates used car sales, consumers still lacked a fresh reason to buy those cars from dealerships. "We needed to enhance the experience for the consumer," says WMAQ's Patty Golden, senior VP of midwest sales for NBC Local Media.
And so was born the www.greatusedcarsale.com Web site, powered by Vehix, which featured thousands of cars immediately available from participating dealers.
According to Golden, TV spots on WMAQ provided reach for the campaign, while additional spots on Comcast provided frequency. (The campaign was also supplemented by radio spots on local CBS stations.)
During the five-week campaign, visitors could search the site by a car's make, model, and year, as well as by monthly payment or distance to dealer. An interactive map displayed each participating dealer along with the cars available on each lot.
Visitors could click on the photos and descriptions of as many as 1,500 listed used cars at a time and respond in three ways: by visiting the dealer in person, by phoning the dealer, or by submitting their contact info online.
This latter method, which generates firm sales leads, is how dealers traditionally measure online success. And more than 7,000 consumers submitted their names, which, according to Mudd, counts as a solid success for a brand new sales promotion.
Mudd believes that much of the credit goes to the two-minute video that greeted new visitors to the Web site. In it, a spokeswoman explains the site and the online search and shopping process. She also offers a compelling rationale for trusting the extra service and convenience offered by local dealers.
By the end of the campaign, dealers "cleared" 2,700 of 3,000 available cars and more than two-thirds returned a profit. That's an impressive number, even when you adjust the total for the 10 percent or so that may have been auctioned at a wholesale price.
Cliff Banks, editorial director of Ward's Dealer Business (the Wall Street Journal of auto dealers) calls Chicago's Great Used Car Sale "probably the best campaign all year for used cars in the whole United States."
Plans are already underway to repeat the campaign in the first quarter of next year, with two improvements. Mudd plans to beef up the campaign's capacity to track responses by phone and in person - and to add a customer incentive element to drive more foot traffic to dealerships.