Jumpstart Automotive Group

A legitimate worry on the publisher side of the automotive business for a long time has been the quantity of advertising units on each page within their site.  Advertisers are looking for more opportunities to reach their audience, but don’t want too much competition, if any, on the same page.  Additional ad units for a publisher mean more revenue opportunity, until too many lead to a messy content picture and bad consumer experience. 

But a bigger question today seems to be — are the messages aligned and speaking to the right people?  If you take a look at most in-market publishers today, nearly 100% of the pages are owned by OEM’s.  But, are national brand messages the most effective for the audiences within in-market sites?  With regional dealer associations and local dealers shifting strategy and budget online, we may need to rework those OEM upfront dollars to work smarter against ad placement strategies to ultimately sell more cars.

Homepages

The content on an in-market automotive site is king.  With the homepage as the entryway, it acts more like a directory to the content.  It also presents the largest real estate for splashy creative.  It has been a very popular spot for OEM’s to promote launches and sales events, and still seems so.

However, it doesn’t mean Mega dealer groups couldn’t start playing in this area.  Mega dealers have just as much reason to begin developing large reach relationships with consumers using compelling messages.  Homepages can’t become Times Square or as boring as the billboard right outside the dealership.  The key still remains that homepage ads must be aesthetically pleasing and very well integrated into the site. 

Category Pages

Category pages provide a prime area for consumers in the consideration phase of buying a vehicle; they have narrowed their search to the type of vehicle they’d like to be driving in 4-6 weeks.  This section works for all three tiers, but makes more sense for tier 2 or 3 assuming the message is geo-targeted correctly.  Depending on what specific buying stage and/or impulse level the shopper is in, a retail message could work very nicely to speed the buying process up.

Make/Model Pages

The most interesting situation in regards to creative messaging on automotive publisher sites is retention pages.  Here, for the most part, it isn’t a situation of OEM competiveness between Manufacturers, but more between the three tiers within a single OEM.

If you take a look at most make/model pages across the majority of automotive publisher sites, the ads are promoting OEM brand advertising and direct the users back to the homepages or upper level splash pages of OEM’s.  Historically, each OEM and their agencies secure all of their make/model inventory in an upfront structure and conquest competitors if possible. 

But does it really make sense to push consumers back to OEM brand messages when they have done all the work to configure a specific trim level and have started the pricing process? This seems backwards and a huge waste of time, effort and money”¦ ultimately leading to frustration for the consumer and missed sales for all 3 tiers of the name plate.

Who stands to fix this issue”¦ OEM’s, agencies, the publishers?  It will no doubt take collaboration from all sides. 

Here’s an idea for a solution – 3 ad spots, with 1 dedicated to each of the tiers (leaderboard = OEM, skyscraper = local, and small ad above skyscraper = regional)?

A longer term solution needs additional strategy work and collaboration.  Including what to do when creative is coming from two different agencies, impacting overall brand messaging and pricing/promotions.  Once we have confidence the messages are speaking to the right consumers, think how much more powerful rich creative like video and expandable units with multiple links become.

Behavioral Targeting – Sequential Messaging

Currently, ad messaging for automotive behavioral targeting looks and feels very similar to creative within contextual automotive publishers.  Very little creative strategy is being developed specifically for behavioral targeting, one of the most targeted elements of media available anywhere. Behavioral targeting provides the unique opportunity to vary messaging based on how long the person has been in-market, how often they have engaged with brands, as well as the ability to serve geo targeted messages and offers.

Another truly unique element of behavioral targeting that is being ignored is sequential messaging.  We have the ability to employ variations of a creative message to the consumer in order to lead them down a beneficial path or provide subsequent offers.  There’s been a lot of talk regarding sequential messaging, but little strategy and implementation.

1st Impression: Brand Awareness

2nd Impression: Customization

3rd Impression: Pricing

With all of this to think about, who will lead the way with creative strategy, testing and ultimately case studies?  I’m sure we’ll see some innovative work at the 1st annual Catalyst Awards presented at the 2008 J.D. Power and Associates Automotive Internet Roundtable.