AdAgencyOnline.Net

Automotive advertising agencies are being asked to deliver more for less by a consolidating auto industry in response to reduced sales volume, profit margins and automotive advertising budgets.  The solution, as is often the case, lies in the leveraged use of technology applied to a constant in automotive advertising and the auto industry that it serves — change.  Another constant that can be found in automotive advertising is human nature.  These two constants, change and human nature,  power the explosive growth of the use of social media by automotive advertising agencies.  Unfortunately, the change is happening at warp speed on the Internet Super Highway and automotive advertising agencies don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to new automotive advertising technologies and applications being developed to monetize social media.

Attempts by automotive advertising agencies to provide a presence for automobile dealers on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter fall short for the same reasons that these online communities of friends are so successful with consumers.  People hate car dealers and they often turn to advice from likeminded consumers on social networking sites to get away from them.  Automotive advertising agencies that impose on these personal conversations with self serving sales messages are often ostracized and even virally attacked as an intruder.  The potential damage to the online reputation of their auto dealer clients represents a risk to reward formula that has forced many automotive advertising agencies to abandon social media as a viable channel to deliver a retail sales or service message.

Fortunately, the same social media that teaches consumers how to buy a vehicle can provide automobile dealers with the information and the tools that they need to sell them one.   Social networking portals developed by likeminded automotive advertising agencies, automotive advertising vendors and auto dealers allow their members to share best practices with the common philosophy that a rising tide floats all boats. 

Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. and the host of the automotive advertising resource / networking portal AdAgencyOnline.net, discussed a number of auto industry focused social networking sites on the blog talk radio station WAAOL – All Automotive Advertising News All The Time featured on AdAgencyOnline.Net.  “I host a network of networker in a special section hosted on AdAgencyOnline.Net titled Auto Industry Insiders.  Contributing member sites include Ralph Paglia’s AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.Com, Jared Hamilton’s DrivingSales.Com, Brian Pasch’s InternetSalesmanager.Org, Chris Saraceno’s DealerElite.Net, Jody Devere’s AskPatty.Com, Keith Whann’s Auttr.Com and Scott Monty’s ScottMonty.Com.  Each online community boasts its own personality and rules of the road to keep members in their lane.  The temptation to sell to each other is controlled by the same social pressures that exist on consumer facing social networks for those that forget why they are there — to listen and learn so they can presume to teach their auto dealers how they can sell cars and service to their online friends.”

In addition to sharing best practices, many automotive advertising agencies use social media to discover new automotive advertising technologies and vendor applications that have not yet been discovered by the mainstream automotive advertising industry.  New automotive advertising platforms and vendor clients that Philip Zelinger sourced from his searches on social media include SiSTeR Technologies Video CarLot – an automated video production platform that produces scalable interactive videos from pictures using human voice to narrate them that are placed on the auto dealer’s website and pushed through a dedicated API with You Tube onto the WWW.  An equally revolutionary discovery claimed by Philip to have been discovered using social media was ronsmap.com — a consumer centric inventory marketing platform that offers auto dealers free listings and free leads with the ability to purchase real time market analytics and social networking profiles that empower the salesperson to answer the customer’s questions even before they ask them.   

Each of these vendor applications were introduced to the market through automotive advertising social networking communities that enabled them to listen and learn from their members about how they can improve their products and services before they introduced them to the general market.  Philip claimed that his access to these automotive advertising solutions and new vendor clients of Ad Agency Online was only possible as a result of the time he invested on social media looking for them so that he could stay one step ahead of the competition.

Online blog talk radio stations hosted on automotive advertising networking portals — such as AAOL featured on AdAgencyOnline.Net — provide a another social media forum for finding and reviewing new automotive advertising solutions.  Regularly scheduled blog talk radio shows with live interviews of the developers of bleeding edge automotive advertising applications allow their online audience to ask vendors questions in an open forum.  These open exchanges of ideas in a problem solution format help the vendors as much as the automotive advertising decision makers that follow the shows.  A new mobile sales presentation platform with an integrated training component — IntellaCar by Hughes Hunter — was recently discussed on a blog talk radio show hosted by Philip Zelinger to solicit feedback from the audience.  Their insights were used to modify the platform before IntellaCar began their beta test it in the real world saving thousands of wasted dollars and man hours that would normally be required to mature their application.

The opportunity for automotive advertising agencies and auto dealers to listen, learn and contribute to social networking communities allows them to discover what they don’t know while allowing them the opportunity to share what they do know.  Auto dealers are people too!  The same efficiencies and extended resources that attract consumers to social media to research their next vehicle purchase is sourced by automotive advertising agencies who need to stay one step ahead of the competition in a consolidating auto industry that demands more for less.  Automotive advertising agencies don’t know what they don’t know but they can definitely find out on auto industry focused social media.  After all, what are friends for! Read the rest of this entry »

Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. and host of the blog talk radio station WAAOL — All Automotive Advertising News All The Time,  will be reviewing new automotive advertising technologies and applications during live interviews with principals from selected vendors conducted during The 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition.  WAAOL is featured on the highly regarded automotive advertising  resource / networking portal AdAgencyOnline.net and the blog talk radio shows will be broadcast live during the conference at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas October 12th – 14th 2010.

Philip explained his support for the Digital Dealer Conferences and the criteria that he will be using to select his guests for the blog talk radio shows during the event. “My self delegated role at my company, Ad Agency Online, and our automotive advertising resource / networking portal AdAgencyOnline.Net has been to research and review new automotive advertising technologies and applications for our affiliated automotive advertising agencies.  Today’s automotive advertising industry is traveling at warp speed on the Internet Super Highway and frankly most independent automotive advertising agencies and auto dealers simply don’t have the time keep their eyes on the road.”

“I follow and contribute to a diverse mix of complimentary automotive advertising social networking sites linked through our online network of networkers in a special section on AdAgencyOnline.Net headed — Auto Industry Insiders.  Frankly,  my relationship with most of those automotive advertising experts started on the WWW but they matured in real world venues like the Digital Dealer Conferences when we shared best practices in our sessions and/or at the parties where we gathered after hours to network and make new friends.”

“This year I will be focusing on finding new ways to monetize social media and to verify a quantifiable R.O.I. for the time and effort that our automotive advertising agencies are putting into it vs. conventional media such as radio, T.V. and print which no longer fits into our reduced budgets.  I have a number of appointments scheduled to review new vendors exhibiting at the conference and/or hosting sessions as well some updates promised by vendors we are already using.”

“I will be finalizing my blog talk radio show schedule and guest list during our pre-conference networking party co-hosted by my newest vendor client Hughes Hunter to start building the buzz around their new mobile sales presentation / training platform — IntellaCar.  The party is being held at The Japonais Lounge in the lobby of The Mirage Hotel on Monday, October 11th, 2010 from 6PM to 8PM and we will be using it to coordinate our agendas throughout the conference.  I will be co-hosting another party with my vendor client, SiSTeR Technologies  Video CarLot, on Tuesday Evening from 9PM to 11 PM at our suite appropriately titled The Johnnie Walker Blue Thank You Party with a similar agenda to discuss new opportunities. After all, what are friends for!” 

Philip has been invited to host sessions for the first eight Digital Dealer Conferences and his planned session for The 9th Digital Dealer Conference is scheduled for Wednesday, October 13th at 2:30 PM in Room #217.  His session is on the site http://DigitalDealerConference.Com and it is described as follows: 

C2C + B2B = B2C Squared: A Social Media Formula that Provides New Revenues, New Efficiencies and Greater Profits!

Social media is powered by people and this formula combines S.E.O. with W.O.M.O. (word of mouth optimization) to leverage relationships using technologies fueled by human nature 

The market is a conversation that auto dealers must be invited to join. Customer to customer, (C2C), comments combined with business to business, (B2B), cross promotions equals business to customer, (B2C), marketing messages distributed virally to sell more vehicles and service.  The applications introduced in this session integrate best practices powered by human nature to leverage relationships using social media in a cost effective manner with efficiencies in processes and the use of staff to maximize profits and sales. Monetizing social media at an auto dealership can be as simple or as complicated as you make it.  This session will provide a simple formula with proven success that blends old school best practices with new world technology.  After all, what are friends for! 

About the 9^th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition:

The 9^th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition, October 12 – 14 at the Mirage in Las Vegas: New Ideas, New Revenues, New Efficiencies, Greater Profits. More than 600 dealership attendees are expected. www.DigitalDealerConference.com

The sessions for the 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition  will feature speaking sessions, roundtables and a vendor exposition for dealership managers and directors who are interested in learning more about successfully doing business on the Internet.  The speaking roster include leading industry trainers, consultants and thought leaders covering topics that are of crucial interest to today’s successful automobile dealership managers.  

The 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition is the ideal learning and networking venue for general managers, dealer principals, internet sales managers, e-commerce directors, BDC managers, CRM managers, pre-owned managers, F&I managers and fixed operations managers. More than 550 dealership attendees are expected at the fall event along with as many as 90 exhibitors and sponsors. 

For more information about the 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition, go to www.digitaldealerconference.com or contact Susan Tyson at styson@dealer-communications.com, 312 558-1799.

The conference is owned and operated by Dealer Communications, the leading multi-media information source for the automotive retail industry. Connecting with franchised automotive dealers and managers over ten million times per year, Dealer Communications publishes the monthly print Dealer magazine, and online editions of Dealer, Digital Dealer and Dealer Fixed Operations magazines. Online weekly newsletters include Dealer; Digital Dealer; Dealer Fixed Operations, Dealer Pre-Owned; Dealer F&I, and Dealer Sales and Marketing. To see all that Dealer Communications offers, visit www.dealer-communications.com. Read the rest of this entry »

AdAgencyOnline.Net is an automotive advertising resource / networking portal that shares best practices with automotive advertising agencies on their blog talk radio station WAAOL – All Automotive Advertising News All The Time.  Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online and the host of the blog talk radio shows on WAAOL, will be hosting a session on social media at the 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition.  The auto industry focused event is being held at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas October 12th – 14th , 2010.  Philip will be reviewing automotive advertising applications in his session and he anticipates discovering a number of new social media powered automotive advertising platforms while he is there.

According to Philip, “The 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition is fertile ground for new ideas and best practices in automotive advertising.  I have been invited to speak at the first eight Digital Dealer Conferences and I envision the ninth to be the best experience of them all.  I will be introducing a new mobile sales presentation platform for a vendor client of Ad Agency Online, appropriately named IntellaCar, during a pre-conference networking party on Monday October 11th. from 6Pm to 8PM at the Japonais Lounge in the lobby of The Mirage Hotel which will set the stage for many other new technologies and applications to be discovered by attendees of the conference, including me!” 

Philip’s session is posted and described on the Digital Dealer Conference website as;

C2C + B2B = B2C Squared: A Social Media Formula that Provides New Revenues, New Efficiencies and Greater Profits! 

Social media is powered by people and this formula combines S.E.O. with W.O.M.O. (word of mouth optimization) to leverage relationships using technologies fueled by human nature 

The market is a conversation that auto dealers must be invited to join. Customer to customer, (C2C), comments combined with business to business, (B2B), cross promotions equals business to customer, (B2C), marketing messages distributed virally to sell more vehicles and service.  The applications introduced in this session integrate best practices powered by human nature to leverage relationships using social media in a cost effective manner with efficiencies in processes and the use of staff to maximize profits and sales. Monetizing social media at an auto dealership can be as simple or as complicated as you make it.  This session will provide a simple formula with proven success that blends old school best practices with new world technology.  After all, what are friends for! 

Philip reviewed his session on his recent blog talk radio show, Lunch With Phil Discussing Automotive Advertising.  He plans to distribute the following overview of his session to attendees so they can listen and learn without having to focus on taking notes: 

Introduction:  The Internet has changed the dynamics of the retail auto industry in ways that are more evolutionary than revolutionary.  Human nature — the driving force behind all marketing campaigns and sales processes — hasn’t changed and it never will.   Similarly, relationship based selling systems that rely on earning the customer’s trust to direct a presentation towards a mutually beneficial transaction is still job one.  New technologies / applications applied to marketing on the WWW complemented by the social dynamics and personalized communications enabled by online social media is the focus of this session.  

Internet based social networking was initially perceived by auto dealers and their automotive advertising agencies as the virtual version of a community forum linked by technology serving as a central communication and distribution tool. This limited understanding and application of social media was based on the presumption that B2C marketing messages were the only means to sell more cars and service.  Dealers attempted to replicate proven real world selling processes translated onto the World Wide Web as an extension of their virtual showrooms. 

Unfortunately, dealers discovered that the glass wall between them and their customers was an obstacle that customers were able to hide behind while still accessing the information that they needed to make a buying decision.  Relationship based selling processes in the real world were presumed to be transferable onto the World Wide Web, but based on experience; not so much! Dealer-centric messages are diluted when filtered by the glass wall that isolates the customer from the dealer. 

The logic to “Sell yourself, sell the dealership, sell the vehicle and then justify the price” is an accepted wisdom based on human nature. Unfortunately, human nature also drives the need for consumers to seek the path of least resistance when looking for information to satisfy a need — like purchasing or servicing a vehicle — and the next generation of consumer-centric social networking and C2C marketing supplemented by B2B shared networking satisfies that need better than an auto dealer can; or ever will. 

Internet based social networks represent an online community of likeminded consumers who have a strong influence on their online friends. Auto dealers recognize that they must join these online communities as people, not as an auto dealer.  Unfortunately, they will always be perceived as an outsider with self serving interests no matter how they introduce themselves. Their best intentioned efforts to earn the trust and consideration of their new online friends when they need a new vehicle — or service for their present one — will always be suspect. 

The solution for dealers to maximize their R.O.I. from social media relies on referrals and word of mouth advertising. The Internet and technology driven social media applications provide viral components that can be quantified with new expectations of Word Of Mouth Optimization, (W.O.M.O.). Processes and analytic reports similar in structure to Search Engine Optimization, (S.E.O.), tools governed by search engine protocols and algorithms have been supplemented by consumer driven protocols and etiquette established in social networking communities using people power to sell cars and service! After all, what are friends for! 

Once a need has surfaced, the transition from casual conversations to focused selling processes must be transparent, relevant and comprehensive to move the consumer through their online shopping experience. Technology can communicate the information needed by both the consumer and the dealer to move forward into a transaction. However, the processes must build on the personality and relationship built on the social networking site that surfaced the opportunity. The differentiator between the dealer down the street selling the same product is not the price, but the people that started the dialogue built on an earned relationship and trust. 

The salesperson has been replaced by the consumer who introduced him to the potential customer, and it is that credibility that will move the conversation into a negotiation and a sale. As a result of this new dynamic empowering the consumer in the exchange of information the negotiation has also shifted to the customer’s side of the table and the dealer’s role must be adjusted accordingly. 

An equally valued element of this session is the inclusion of B2B, Business to Business, social networking as an integral part of the equation — C2C + B2B = B2C SQUARED!  The leveraged resources of non-competing business partners and community organizations is an easily accessed resource that proves another relevant formula to maximize an auto dealer’s R.O.I. from social media — 2+2 = 5 if you add the right two!  Complementary messages and shared access to customer data bases allow local businesses to share relationships as well as revenue using social networking communities with reciprocal links and common goals for participating members. 

This session will outline several marketing platforms and technology driven applications that will allow an auto dealer to invest in social media in a scalable and cost effective manner with quantifiable R.O.I. to deliver more vehicles with less staff and costs. Integrating real world selling systems and facilities with newly developing online processes and social networks is dependent on the auto dealer’s ability to place their customer’s interests ahead of their own with the confidence that they will both win in the process.  Leveraging resources and staff is critical to accomplish this goal and viral marketing is a key element that should be understood and applied.  Read the rest of this entry »

Shrinking auto sales, profit margins and automotive advertising budgets have forced automotive advertising agencies to shift their investments from conventional radio, T.V. and print media to the internet and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and too many more to list.  Unfortunately, conventional automotive advertising wisdoms don’t always apply on the Internet Super Highway.  As a result, automotive advertising agencies are struggling to find out not only what works, but how they can prove it to their auto dealer clients who are demanding a verifiable short term R.O.I. for every dollar in today’s struggling economy.  Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. and the host of the automotive advertising resource / networking portal AdAgencyOnline.Net, is directing automotive advertising agencies to promote people over product or price using social media to produce quantifiable and qualified results.

Relationship based selling systems and marketing messages have always been part of the plan for auto dealers in their brick and mortar facilities and it has been carried over to their new online virtual showrooms. However, the assumption that people and personality serve only to build brand awareness or to enhance the retail message vs. replacing it is a dated concept that must be adjusted to fit the demands of today’s empowered customers.  Auto dealer’s self serving retail messages delivered by their automotive advertising agencies — regardless of the media — is no longer perceived as relevant or transparent to online shoppers who prefer to ask their friends and/or trusted third party resources for information they need to make a buying decision.

Digital marketing techniques and priorities established by automotive advertising agencies — such as focusing on Search Engine Optimization, (S.E.O.), Search Engine Marketing, (S.E.M.) and various other manipulations of the algorithms that determine page positions for the online search engines — are no longer the best and/or the only way to deliver a call to action to potential customers.  The newest opportunity for automotive advertising agencies to deliver a message that will sell new and/or pre-owned vehicles as well as service and/or parts is to have their past, present and pending customers do it for them.

Initial attempts to transfer hard retail advertising using conventional media and even digital marketing on the WWW using auto dealer websites or dealer centric third party automotive advertising platforms were not received well by the typical online shopper who traveled onto the Internet Super Highway to avoid car dealers and fast talking car salespeople.  Today’s empowered customers prefer customer centric messages sourced from likeminded consumers sharing their shopping/buying experiences before, during and after their purchases. 

Auto dealers who marketed directly to these social networking communities were seen as wolves in sheep’s clothing as they attempted to sell their products and services from the outside in vs. from the inside out.  Automotive advertising agencies were also challenged by their inability to quantify the short term R.O.I. from their efforts to justify their fees. 

Philip Zelinger discussed some of the new technologies and applications being applied to social media that allow automotive advertising agencies to prove the R.O.I. for social media on his blog talk radio show Lunch With Phil Discussing Automotive Advertising.  The show is an open business meeting featured on the blog talk radio station WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The time that is hosted on AdAgencyOnline.net. 

Philip commented on the subject with some suggested resources that automotive advertising agencies can turn to for best practices in social media and accumulating R.O.I. analytics. “Automotive advertising agencies first and best resource is to listen, learn and apply the best practices associated with social media and social networking offered on automotive advertising resource portals including AutomotiveDigitalMarketing.Com, InternetSalesManager.Org, DrivingSales.Com, DealerElite.Net, Autr.Com, AskPatty.Com , ScottMonty.Com and networks of networkers such as Auto Industry Insiders featured on my own AdAgencyOnline,.net.   I also suggest that automotive advertising agencies continue their education in real world venues like The 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition scheduled Oct. 12-14th, 2010 at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. Many of my affiliated automotive advertising agencies and auto dealer/vendor clients will be hosting sessions there on leveraging social media including mine: C2C + B2B – B2C SQUARED; Learn How This New Social Media Formula Provides New Revenues, New Efficiencies And Greater Profits.”

“As far as leveraging limited resources to promote people over product and price one solution that comes to mind is a vendor client of mine — DealerMouth.  They offer auto dealers a master website that allows them to manage and monitor individual sites for each of their sales people and service writers. The sales people can promote themselves to their own spheres of influence in both the virtual world of Facebook and Twitter and the real world at the dealership by directing them to their personal website as a form of online “Why Buy Here Book” or as a personal blog like forum to talk about life.  More uniquely, the dealer can make sure that their staff is using their online time in a productive manner vs. planning their vacations on company time by using the built in moderator functions to monitor content and online activities during business hours.  The individual sites hosted on DealerMouth are internally linked to the dealer’s online resources so it provides salespeople and service writers with a seamless transition to information they need during or after hours to sell a vehicle or service to a friend when the conversation warrants it.” Read the rest of this entry »

Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. and host of the automotive advertising resource / networking portal AdAgencyOnline.Net, will be sharing best practices in monetizing social media with automotive advertising agencies attending The 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition.  The respected auto industry focused conference is being held at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas October 12th – 14th, 2010. 

According to Mr. Zelinger, “Automotive advertising agencies don’t know what they don’t know. To survive in today’s consolidating auto industry they need to find out, and The 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition is the best place in the real world for them to do it!  I host AdAgencyOnline.Net to share best practices with automotive advertising agencies and automotive advertising decision makers on the internet because I believe in the concept that a rising tide floats all boats.  My participation and support of The 9th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition is my way to pay forward for all of the success that I have enjoyed in the retail auto industry built on some my best ideas borrowed from conferences like it over my 35 year career in the auto industry and the automotive advertising industry that serves it.”

Philip Zelinger will be hosting a session titled C2C + B2B = B2C SQUARED; A Social Media Formula That Provides New Revenues, New Efficiencies And Greater Profits.  The session is described on the site promoting the event — http://digitaldealerconference.com– on a section that features all of the speakers including a video of Philip Zelinger offering a personal invitation to automotive advertising agencies to attend his session and the conference.  

The session is described on the site as — The market is a conversation that auto dealers must be invited to join. Customer to customer, (C2C), comments combined with business to business, (B2B), cross promotions equals business to customer, (B2C), marketing messages distributed virally to sell more vehicles and service.  The applications introduced in this session integrate best practices powered by human nature to leverage relationships using social media in a cost effective manner with efficiencies in processes and the use of staff to maximize profits and sales. Monetizing social media at an auto dealership can be as simple or as complicated as you make it.  This session will provide a simple formula with proven success that blends old school best practices with new world technology.  After all, what are friends for!

About Philip Zelinger

Philip Zelinger is the president of Ad Agency Online and founder of a respected auto industry social networking portal – AdAgencyOnline.Net.  His 25-plus years of experience as a general manager and dealer principal are enhanced by his hosting a blog talk radio station – WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The Time – which provides him access to cutting edge advertising technologies before the competition. As the author of two books on the auto industry, including “How to Sell a Car,” he is a recognized authority on market trends with the responsibility of selecting key vendors for his dealer clients.

A complete list of the speakers hosting sessions at the conference, and the vendors representing various products and services to the auto industry exhibiting at the event, can be viewed at http://digitaldealerconference.com/speakers.shtml and at http://digitaldealerconference.com/exhibitors.shtml .

About the 9^th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition

The 9^th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition, October 12 – 14 at the Mirage in Las Vegas: New Ideas, New Revenues, New Efficiencies, Greater Profits. More than 600 dealership attendees are expected.  www.DigitalDealerConference.com 

• A full schedule of sessions:
  • Over 70 workshops in 7 concurrent sessions headed up by top practitioners, trainers, consultants and thought leaders in the industry delivering the newest and best ways to incorporate SEO & SEM, chat, mobile and dealership best practices into your Internet business strategy
    • More than 15 dealership practitioners will share their experiences and deliver hands-on advice and tips
  • Savvy dealerships bring as many as 7 people so they can cover ALL the sessions Read the rest of this entry »