Please inject some reality into my life. I’m in marketing and always have my ear to the ground looking for how dealers promote their stores and brands.  Last night, I heard a radio ad for a local car dealership (Volkswagen Subaru in Bellevue Washington) that disturbed me.  The ad was almost exclusively promoting the idea that this dealership offered what they termed ‘AN UNASSISTED TEST DRIVE’ meaning that they are promoting the fact that you can test drive a cars WITHOUT A SALESPERSON in the car with you. Here’s why it bothered me.  While I believe that most dealerships would probably offer the same thing if a customer asked for it, or even offer it casually at the time on site as part of the sales process (“hey- take it for a spin without me if you want”) - the idea of promoting NO SALESPERSON as a marketing point of difference bothers me because – by extension-   it promotes the idea that SALESPEOPLE ARE A NEGAT...

Do you post dealership videos on the web?  If so, new rules could cost you. Videos your dealership posts on You Tube, Facebook and other unpaid social media and digital platforms could soon face an increased level of scrutiny and monitoring from your brand.   At least one major manufacturer has announced they intend to begin actively monitoring dealership videos posted on the internet for things like brand standards, logo usage, and possibly MAAP and other standard compliance issues such as the scissors rule. Failure to meet existing standards in these new areas could well begin to result in costly “strikes” to your dealership. First off, you might be wondering how or why a manufacturer can even get involved in monitoring advertising on a free platform like YouTube.  After all, as it stands today for most brands today, compliance is geared to insure that paid advertising in places like newspaper, direct mail, radio or television are required to com...

Fun and informative day at the Seattle PCG Pitstop.  Just as he did in Florida, Brian Pasch and his excellent speakers presented informative, thought provoking tactical advice and examples to improve the digital strategies and tactics at the local dealership level.  Especially interesting was the update on all the changes surrounding Google Places.  Also the google "zero moment of truth". Cobalt presented a nice event for local dealerships the previous evening.  Good number of  local dealers attended and in chatting with some of them, they too felt the event to be worthwhile.  Great to make new connections and thanks all for a good event here in Seattle. ...

As of September 7, 2011 the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will begin offering .xxx domain registrations. The registry will be operated by Florida-based ICM Registry (ICM), the company that first applied for the .xxx domain in 2004. ICM's intent is to create designated domains for adult content which are operated under its policies which are intended to reduce malware, SPAM, and intellectual property infringement. The .xxx domain also represents the creation of new internet real estate and, because any string ending with .xxx can be purchased, the launch of .xxx represents an opportunity for domain squatters and trademark infringers. In other words, your trademark could become associated with a .xxx domain and website. Fortunately, you have options to prevent this from occuring. Sunrise B Opt-Out Period Owners of registered trademarks who are not involved in the adult entertainment industry, and who do not want their trademarks to appear in a .xxx...

Today the Green Human team is driving two TDI Passat’s from Auburn Washington to the Golden Gate Bridge in California to do a real world test of the VW TDI’s promised 795 miles on one tank of gas.  The distance will cover 805 miles. Both teams will be driving Volkswagen’s new Passat TDi clean burning diesel. Sponsored by two local Northwest Volkswagen dealerships, a hybrid and an EV were originally invited to also participate, however there are currently no vehicles of that type with even the possibility of driving that far without stopping to re-fuel or re-charge. The teams will stop in Portland and other places along the way to talk about eco friendly cars while interacting with communities online with video, blogs, social networking, and more. “48 hours of green car fun!” says Ed Steenman, one of the producers of the mobile event. “It’s amazing how excited people are to talk about better ways to get around. I just hope we c...

If you publish videos on the YouTube you need to be aware of a change from Google and YouTube that affects who can view, share, or edit your videos.  This change affects any video originally posted to You Tube including any links or embedding content provided from YouTube to your website or social media sites.

Google just recently announced the introduction of Creative Commons licenses for YouTube.  Individual users MUST decide at they time they upload video -whether to publish their content under the new CC license. If they do so, the video then becomes accessible to every YouTube user for use in their own videos via the YouTube Video Editor.  The new feature will give users a large selection of video clips from all types of subject areas.  Adding Creative Commons tags will also help YouTube on the copyright front by clearly distinguishing what clips users can use freely and what they cannot.

Users who want to check out the Creative Commons selection right no

I’m going to tackle a topic certain to raise some eyebrows - our vision for the posting of the ‘daily wall posts” on facebook and daily ‘tweets’ on twitter. This is the part of your social media website that is ever changing, the updated ‘short form’ content - often with links to other websites or areas. What makes this subject controversial is that there are few official ‘rules’, and if you were to sit down with ten social media ‘gurus’ I predict you’d get ten different ‘expert opinions’ on the ‘correct’ things to include. From my perspective, it’s easy to rush straight to the activity of posting, while glossing over the necessary underlying strategy needed for any advertising or publicity project. In it most base form, ask the question; ‘what is the expected outcome or goal from what we’re doing? But before you bellow out “sell more cars!” let me suggest...

Hi all. I waited a day to post my wrap up on Boot Camp.  Three days of workshops, speakers, and networking was intense and I wanted to get back to Seattle, sit at my desk, and think about the real world ‘takeaways’ from the event.   Here are my three: Takeaway #1:  ‘The Plan Doesn’t Have to be Perfect For You to Start It’.   This may seem counterintuitive but the fact is this is fast moving landscape and there are lots of vendors (and dealers) out there trying many different things.  In fact during the course of Boot Camp I heard two ‘expert opinions’ on one piece of SEO that were actually exactly 180 degrees of each other.  Fact is, contrary to what we learned in school, sometimes there actually is more than one right answer. The practical approach I recommend is to grab whatever piece of the digital universe that makes the most sense TO YOU and start there.  The build from that piece.  Tak...

Day 2: Today was everything from rating dealerships on phone and internet 'ups' -  to motivation speaker Bob Burg - to tech demonstrations, lunch and dinner speakers, cocktails, and music.  But the real meat of the day was the breakout and tech sessions.  Since I couldn't be everywhere at once I chose in the morning Brian Pasch’s seminar on SEO and SEM which covered something every dealer needs to know and that is all about the new google places and impact that will have on your dealership ratings, as we as redefining to some extent organic SEO.  The other session I found extremely valuable was the one on the "Gen Y” car buyer presented by Jon Quade and Coblat.  One dealer referred to it as a life changig experience - I don't know if I'd go quite that far but it certainly could provide a paradigm shift in considering that by next year 2012 the 19- 31 year old 'Gen Y'ers" will reach 75 milliion strong and ar...

Great first day at bootcamp.  Strong round table discussion on a variety of topics including integrated marketing solutions, BDC structures and processes, internet lead management, automotive advertising, video seo, social media, and more.  These round table panels were hosted by a good mix of industry experts, and attended by a welcoming group of dealers.  Following the roundtable, there was a spirited customer retention management panel led by Gary May.   My takeaways from Day 1.  Yes, it’s about technology which is a fast moving landscape.  The tools are going to change and it’s important to stay abreast of the technology – and ahead of your competitors.  But the technology of the day is ever changing, so it’s about something more.  It’s about people and processes that create success.    An example occurred during the roundtable.  As the Customer Retention Management discussion evolve...