Archive for May, 2008

Park your luggage, Maam?

Friday, May 30th, 2008

Samsonite luggageSo you need some high end luggage to go with that luxury model car? Samsonite now has a line of luggage designed to look and function as well as the cars their styled after. I found some pictures of the suitcases on AutoBlog.com. The line is called Spinners, and they are made of a strong, lighweight composite material known as CURV, In addition to the nifty parking brake, you can get your Spinner in a diamond plate finish.

2007 Internet Ad Revenues Up

Friday, May 30th, 2008

While the decline of auto advertising may be hurting some media groups (see last blog), it certainly didn’t hurt 2007 internet revenus! A research brief from the Center for Media Research references the IAB Internet Advertising Report, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, released in May, 2008, states that US Internet advertising revenues totaled $21.2 billion for the full year 2007

David Silverman, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, concludes “… Interactive advertising is not just the future, it is the here and now… it represents a meaningful and growing component of US advertising and marketing spend.”

Automotive revenue accounted for 21% of the 2007 revenues.

In 2007 Omni Advertising helped many of their automotive clients run very successful internet advertising campaigns. For more information on how Omni Advertising can help you with your internet advertising call 561-620-4774.

Advertising hurting media firms

Friday, May 30th, 2008

An article on AdWeek.com cites a UBS survey stating that media groups, CBS Corp and News Corp, are at risk to loose money due to their running automotive advertising. These two groups run a higher percentage of auto ads than their competitors who run more fast-food and consumer staples ads. During a recession auto advertising is more likely to suffer cutbacks than other ads, particularly film and entertainment, which do not seem to suffer as much.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Viacom, which is going through a ad growth slow down, views itself at less risk due to lower exposure to auto advertising.

In-Car Advertising - The Next Frontier

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

Advertising. We’ve grown accustomed to seeing ads everywhere we go. On TV and radio, in newspapers, on billboards, posters, walls, skywriting, movies, on cell phones, even on promotional pieces like pens and coffee mugs. Just when you thought ‘they’ couldn’t think of another way to advertise to you, along comes ‘telematics’.

As the technology inside your car has evolved it has opened up the door for advertisers to gather all the information they need to sell more products. The computer in the vehicle that controls your engine will be doing a whole lot more in the next few years. And while the cost of most new technologies are passed on to the consumer, the thought is that the cost of this will be placed on the advertisers themselves.

According to a report on The Detroit Free Press, todays consumers don’t necessarily want to pay for certain technologies. They already have cell phone and laptop computers. And younger buyers, who don’t have the budget of the older counterparts, aren’t willing to spend as much. Even then, neither really wants to pay for it at all. The fastest way to make sure that it gets into the vehicle is to have the advertiser pay for it.

A similar report on USNews.com points out that your vehicle computer is already tracking your gas mileage, your GPS knows where your going, where you went and how you got there.

As telematics ties into more sophisticated in-car computers it will be able to deliver important consumer information to advertisers who will in turn use it to target you, in your car, with product information based on your own habits. This is similar to the way you grocery store tracks your purchases. When you scan that little key fob at the register it knows to send you an email next week with similar on sale products. Very soon advertisers will be able to know if your car needs gas, what restaurants you eat at, what gas stations you go to.

Estimates for the number of cars that will have this type of technology installed five years from now is 50 million vehicles.

Free Gun with Car! Is this a good idea?

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Have you heard about the car dealership in Missouri who is giving away a gun when you buy a new car? The story has shown up in several online articles and blogs over the last week. It seems that Max Motors, in Butler, Missouri, is offering anyone who buys a vehicle from its dealership a choice of $250 worth of gasoline or a free semi-automatic handgun. Seems that the gun is winning out over the free gas eight out of ten times.
So the question seems to be, would you rather have protection or gas? With the soaring price of gas you would think the answer would be the gas. But then again, rising incidents of violent crimes may be the motivation to take the gun. Also reported this week, thieves are stealing gas! Hmmm… How about a free locking gas cap with that gun?

Detroit Future Plans

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

According to this Motor Trend article, the “Detroit Three” - GM, Chrylser and Ford, are finally taking steps to compete with Japans bestsellers, Toyota, Honda and Nissan. The targeted vehicles would include the Buick LaCross, which would become the Ivicta, Pontiac G6, Chevrolet Malibu, Dodge Avenger, Chrysler Sebring, and the Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan. The authors reasoning behind the changes is rising gas prices and stricter fuel economy standards which seem to be slowing the popularity of bigger V8 engines.

2009 Nissan Maxima

Monday, May 19th, 2008

2009 Nissan Maxima

For those those of you who, like myself, didn’t know about the new 2009 Nissan Maxima reveal in March, you might be interested to read the First Drive Review on caranddriver.com. The new Maxima is almost 4 inches shorter with a new design unlike the other Nissan models.

The 2009 Maxima is still not posted on the Nissan website, but you can view some pictures here.

Here is a YouTube video of the 2009 Nissan Maxima.

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Buy or Lease Your Next Car?

Monday, May 19th, 2008

With the rising cost of gas and these times of economic recession, people are questioning whether or not to purchase or lease a new vehicle. Anytime you are going to spend your hard earned cash on a large purchase you should examine all of the facts. AOL suggest you answer these questions before purchasing a new vehicle. Leasing or buying, these are questions you should ask yourself about any vehicle. (more…)

Boost Your Campaign with a Micro Site

Monday, May 5th, 2008

Is your dealership utilizing every online marketing strategy it can when it comes to your creative campaigns? If you answered yes, but your not backing up your campaign with a micro site, you may be missing another opportunity to steer customers to your dealership.

When you run a high profile creative campaign you need to utilize every opportunity you have to be recognized by the customer. By creating a micro site that ties into your campaign, you essentially add another avenue for the customer to contact you.

Why should you create a separate site for your campaign? Well, the first reason would be to create a site that is designed specifically for your campaign. Doing this creates a visual connection to your TV and radio creative. When someone visits the micro site, they see a site that ties in directly with your campaign.

The second reason, and probably the most important, for creating a micro site is measurability! By steering people to your micro site you can track their movements and extract statistics from the site reports. A properly designed site should capture the visitors attention and then steer them to a contact or conversion page to gather information for your dealerships internet sales people. All of this is measurable. And if something can be measured, a value can be placed on it.

So why not use your dealer site in the campaign? Well, if your dealer site was designed correctly, it has a totally different goal. It sells your dealership! It informs about the product and your services. It wasn’t designed with the same goals as a campaign micro site. By using the campaign site, you can have better control over steering the visitor to where you want him to go - the contact page.

Automotive campaign advertising web sites are an effective tool to capturing and converting visitors to paying customers.

If your not using a campaign micro site to tie into your advertising campaigns you may be letting sales get away! Contact Omni Advertising today to learn more about how we can help you maximize your campaigns effectiveness with a campaign microsite. Call Gail Yaciuk at 561-620-4774.

Internet Marketing Strategies

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Want to know the secret to a successful internet marketing strategy? Well, it’s no secret anymore. Read this Cars.com article and find out what three internet/e-commerce sales directors do to make their internet sales excel. Well, I guess it’s not a secret anymore.

  • Respond to the lead, immediately, if not sooner
  • Follow up within 24 hours
  • Don’t spam your clients with emails
  • Provide online inventory
  • Provide quality pictures of used inventory
  • Be as knowledgeable as the buyer
  • Get the buyer to the dealership
  • Update your staff on strategy regularly
  • Optimize for search engines