Omni Automotive Advertising Blog

New-car sales figures released today seem to indicate a growing increase. According to the nytimes.com article, In November, Car Sales Show Signs of Stability, General Motors, Ford Motor, Toyota and Honda said their sales were about the same last month as they were a year ago. The only major carmaker to report a large drop was Chrysler, whose sales fell 25 percent. Hyundai, in contrast, reported a 46 percent increase. Estimates from G.M. and Chrysler were selling at a rate of about 11 million in November, slightly higher that October’s rate of about 10.5 million. This is much higher than the low rate of about 9 million seen in the early part of 2009.

In response to rising demand, G.M. said it would build 75 percent more vehicles in the first quarter than it did a year earlier, and Ford said it would raise first-quarter production by 58 percent. Both companies had been drastically cutting production since the middle of last year.

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It’s official. The Cash for Clunkers program will end this weekend. When the program started last month we here at Omni were tasked with creating some micro sites for some of our clients. As the first site was posted we already knew that the Cash for Clunkers program was going strong. We had no idea of what would happen in the next few weeks. As we finished the final sites, the first announcement that the program was running out of cash was announced. Then the extra $2B was put into the program, supposedly to keep it afloat for the rest of the year. And now it’s almost over, with all of the funds gone in just over a month.

As an advertising agency we try to account for everything. Looking over our statistics reports, here are some of the numbers our Cash for Clunkers micro sites saw.

Client A

Site Launched July 23
Active 28 Days
Unique Visitors – 287
Visits – 330
Page Views – 1,231
Registrations – 21

Client B
Site Launched July 6
Active 46 Days
Unique Visitors – 1,426
Visits – 1805
Page Views – 7,878
Registrations – 336

Client C
Site Launched Aug 5
Active 15 Days
Unique Visitors – 29
Visits – 47
Page Views – 205
Registrations – 5

Client D
Site Launched July 13
Active 39 Days
Unique Visitors – 551
Visits – 787
Page Views – 4,115
Registrations – 57

Client E
Site Launched July 27
Active 25 Days
Unique Visitors – 884
Visits – 1,049
Page Views – 3,599
Registrations – 61

As you can see, some sites had better numbers than others. However, looking at the number of active days, the number of visitors and the number of completed online registrations we can estimate that as many as 23% of visitors to Client B, the longest active site, completed a registration form. Client C, with only 15 active days, had a 10% registration rate.

At this point we do not have statistics to compare how many of these applicants made a purchase under the Cash for Clunkers program. However we can say that the micro sites did have a dramatic impact in funneling customers to our clients dealerships.

Ok, so it seems Payment Insurance is the hottest thing going on right now. Everyone from Hyundai to GM to Ford is offering it. Even the dealers are jumping on the bandwagon.

So how does the Payment Insurance Big 3 stack up?

Chart from Jalopnik.

Now as you can see, Ford offers more payment assistance, larger payments and a bigger maximum payout. But, Hyundai is the manufacturer that truly covers the consumer’s negative equity. But the benefit of covering negative equity is a difficult thing to explain to a consumer.

To be fair to GM, this is only part of their Total Confidence program.

Now let’s look how the manufacturers tried to convey this complicated message in a 30 second ad.

Hyundai Assurance Plus

GM Total Confidence

Ford Advantage Plan

Placed back to back to back the messages look very different. While Hyundai and GM try to relate to the viewer, Ford dives right into their message. Hyundai adopts a plus sign in their ad, GM uses a rally cap and Ford just uses straight figures.

The problem with Ford’s direction is what will the viewer ultimately remember. After a few minutes do you remember the figures from the Ford ad? Do you remember the backwards hat? How about the plus sign?

Hyundai and GM went soft with their sale, Ford took the hard road with theirs. Ultimately time will decide which direction was the best.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for GM, this story comes out on CNN.

Basically the accountants at GM have serious doubt as to whether GM can survive as a company. These aren’t outside accountants looking in or a talking head specualting, these are the accountants that work directly for GM. In the 480 page document that GM filed with the Securities and Exchange Committee, as part of the bailout agreement, the accountants wrote they have “substantial doubt” about GM’s future.

Sales are down 40% and if that doesn’t change, GM could file for bankruptcy, even with the help of Government money.

Scary just got Scarier. Just reading this makes me want to stay as far away from a GM product as humanly possible. This will not bode well for sales.

So what’s a dealer to do. Put the emphasis on your dealership, not on the manufacturer. Be honest with your customers.

While the manufacturers future is in doubt, you can still count on Dealer Name. We will honor all factory warranties, no matter what happens.

That’s the message that dealers need to put out. Customers are going to worry about their warranties. They’re going to worry about parts and service if GM goes under. So take away their worry by telling them to trust you. Right now, your brand equity can be worth more than GM’s.

Hard times call for old creative it seems. Chrysler has announced plans to bring back Employee Pricing Plus.

You’ll remember that Ford just ran this event during the holidays. And Chrysler ran a similar campaign in 2006.

Dropping 30% in sales from 2007 to 2008 will make you do some crazy things. We’ll see if this jump starts the rest of The Big 3 manufacturers to run Employee Pricing programs as well.