The New York Giants denied the New England Patriots a Super Bowl ring again. With this familiar, trivial news out of the way, let’s talk about the important stuff – the commercials.

The Gems

Chrysler – Halftime in America

Just before Madonna’s glamorously stilted halftime show, Chrysler unleashed its own multimillion-dollar baby – Clint Eastwood stars in a gruff, industrial portrait of Detroit rising from the ashes of the auto industry fallout. Despite the melodrama and Americana that are the hallmarks of so many bland auto commercials, Eastwood’s gravelly timbre combined with startlingly authentic emotion left America with the growing encouragement that yes, we do feel lucky, punk.

The takeaway for dealers: optimism sells, and sometimes this means more than having an American flag in your dealership’s logo. Chrysler’s ad is effective because it uplifts the audience, replacing mindless patriotism with an honest look at American hardship and resilience. Despite economic struggles, remember to stay positive – after all, it’s only halftime.

Honda – Matthew’s Day Off

Another movie star makes the difference for an auto manufacturer – Matthew Broderick reprises his role as Ferris Bueller from the 80’s classic film. The proof that this ad was successful is readily available – Honda’s retro ad garnered 18.4 million views before the Super Bowl even began!Honda reached almost as many fans on the web as they did during the game itself, proving that digital marketing is the new king of promotional tools.

The takeaway for dealers: go viral. If you have a great promotion, an entertaining video, or a magnetic personality, the best way to get exposure is to post a video online or start your social media campaign. Follow Honda’s example – make yourself heard!

The Entertaining

Audi – Daylight

If the new Hasbro movie Battleship isn’t evidence enough, the world is running out of original source material. In this spot, Audi hops on the sexy vampire bandwagon, well-travelled by hundreds of brands before it. As vampires party in the woods, one lone bloodsucker shows up in an Audi S7 and inadvertently slays his companions with the car model’s new “daylight” LEDs headlights. Yes, the ad walks on what some would call ‘tired ground,’ but the ad succeeds in entertaining and humorously demonstrating one of Audi’s innovative new features, daylight LED headlights!

The takeaway for dealers: features sell just as well as benefits. The more natural LED lighting is a definite bonus and just might convert skeptical luxury shoppers into an Audi evangelist (especially shoppers that hate the Twilight series).  Dealers should always try to drive your marketing messages towards the competitive advantage of your offerings and these days, the shopper wants as much bang for his buck.

But dealers, get with the times! Vampires are out, zombies are in.

Toyota – It’s Reinvented

The third quarter’s Toyota Camry ad was funny, clever, and entertaining.  Still, some may criticize that the ad has little to do with the Camry and never really explains exactly how it has been ‘reinvented.’  The same goes for Acura’s Seinfeld commercial, which was vaguely about a car but mostly about celebrity one-upsmanship…

The takeaway for dealers: Keep consumers entertained but also be transparent about your product.  It’s true that to sell something today, you have to captivate the consumer’s ever-dwindling attention span.  Yet, if you neglect to tell consumers about your product, they won’t buy it.   Therefore, dealers would be wise to seek a balance between focusing attention on engaging prospects and selling automobiles.  Anything else you provide is window dressing.

The Cute and the Crazy

Volkswagen – The Dog Strikes Back

There is nothing more American than self-esteem issues, and Volkswagen knocks it out of the park with its spot about a fat dog burning calories so it can run alongside the 2012 Beetle. With a cute animal, weight loss, and a James Brown soundtrack, how can you go wrong? Surprisingly, the last few seconds of the spot take an abrupt and random turn, hearkening back to last year’s popular Super Bowl ad featuring the Darth Vader baby.

The takeaway for dealers: Being cute works but it’s best to stick with one idea.  Volkswagen, you had me at cute dog!  Was it necessary to eat up so much screen time reminding me of what you did last year?  Either way, the ad effectively communicated the sentiment of the new beetle as a fun, hip car for healthy people (and dogs).  Selling a lifestyle is something that VW does really well.  So auto dealers, if you sell the lifestyle that comes with the car, you’ll always win.

Chevrolet – 2012

Chevy’s message this year was simple: as the oldest truck manufacturer in the world, its car models can outlast even the inevitable Mayan apocalypse. Battered refugees drive their dusty, dependable Silverados across a city’s ruined hellscape as Barry Manilow’s “Looks Like We Made It” comforts the survivors. The commercial is certainly funny, poignant and a sci fi film enthusiast’s dream, but Chevy might have gone too far by suggesting that those who drove Fords “didn’t make it.” In fact, Ford execs have officially taken offense to the ad.

The takeaway for dealers: lighthearted jabs at the competition are fun but can result in negative consequences (no matter how ridiculous or exaggerated the circumstances). It’s always best to focus on your dealership’s quality of vehicles and service. Remember that your goal is to sell as many vehicles as possible, which doesn’t necessarily mean “destroy the competition.”  Even though Chevy’s comment was hilariously facetious, being negative about competitors (especially with nasty politics polluting the airwaves on a regular basis) does little to build its brand.  It’s always best to stay positive and leave competitors out of the conversation.

As for GM, Global Chief Marketing Officer Joel Ewanick says that “we can wait until the world ends, and if we need to, we will apologize.  In the meantime, people who are really worried about the Mayan calendar coming true should buy a Silverado right away.”

Another takeaway – always maintain a sense of humor and don’t take yourself too seriously 

_

The New York Giants denied the New England Patriots a Super Bowl ring again. With this familiar, trivial news out of the way, let’s talk about the important stuff – the commercials.

The Gems

Chrysler – Halftime in America

Just before Madonna’s glamorously stilted halftime show, Chrysler unleashed its own multimillion-dollar baby – Clint Eastwood stars in a gruff, industrial portrait of Detroit rising from the ashes of the auto industry fallout. Despite the melodrama and Americana that are the hallmarks of so many bland auto commercials, Eastwood’s gravelly timbre combined with startlingly authentic emotion left America with the growing encouragement that yes, we do feel lucky, punk.

The takeaway for dealers: optimism sells, and sometimes this means more than having an American flag in your dealership’s logo. Chrysler’s ad is effective because it uplifts the audience, replacing mindless patriotism with an honest look at American hardship and resilience. Despite economic struggles, remember to stay positive – after all, it’s only halftime.

Honda – Matthew’s Day Off

Another movie star makes the difference for an auto manufacturer – Matthew Broderick reprises his role as Ferris Bueller from the 80’s classic film. The proof that this ad was successful is readily available – Honda’s retro ad garnered 18.4 million views before the Super Bowl even began!Honda reached almost as many fans on the web as they did during the game itself, proving that digital marketing is the new king of promotional tools.

The takeaway for dealers: go viral. If you have a great promotion, an entertaining video, or a magnetic personality, the best way to get exposure is to post a video online or start your social media campaign. Follow Honda’s example – make yourself heard!

The Entertaining

Audi – Daylight

If the new Hasbro movie Battleship isn’t evidence enough, the world is running out of original source material. In this spot, Audi hops on the sexy vampire bandwagon, well-travelled by hundreds of brands before it. As vampires party in the woods, one lone bloodsucker shows up in an Audi S7 and inadvertently slays his companions with the car model’s new “daylight” LEDs headlights. Yes, the ad walks on what some would call ‘tired ground,’ but the ad succeeds in entertaining and humorously demonstrating one of Audi’s innovative new features, daylight LED headlights!

The takeaway for dealers: features sell just as well as benefits. The more natural LED lighting is a definite bonus and just might convert skeptical luxury shoppers into an Audi evangelist (especially shoppers that hate the Twilight series).  Dealers should always try to drive your marketing messages towards the competitive advantage of your offerings and these days, the shopper wants as much bang for his buck.

But dealers, get with the times! Vampires are out, zombies are in.

Toyota – It’s Reinvented

The third quarter’s Toyota Camry ad was funny, clever, and entertaining.  Still, some may criticize that the ad has little to do with the Camry and never really explains exactly how it has been ‘reinvented.’  The same goes for Acura’s Seinfeld commercial, which was vaguely about a car but mostly about celebrity one-upsmanship…

The takeaway for dealers: Keep consumers entertained but also be transparent about your product.  It’s true that to sell something today, you have to captivate the consumer’s ever-dwindling attention span.  Yet, if you neglect to tell consumers about your product, they won’t buy it.   Therefore, dealers would be wise to seek a balance between focusing attention on engaging prospects and selling automobiles.  Anything else you provide is window dressing.

The Cute and the Crazy

Volkswagen – The Dog Strikes Back

There is nothing more American than self-esteem issues, and Volkswagen knocks it out of the park with its spot about a fat dog burning calories so it can run alongside the 2012 Beetle. With a cute animal, weight loss, and a James Brown soundtrack, how can you go wrong? Surprisingly, the last few seconds of the spot take an abrupt and random turn, hearkening back to last year’s popular Super Bowl ad featuring the Darth Vader baby.

The takeaway for dealers: Being cute works but it’s best to stick with one idea.  Volkswagen, you had me at cute dog!  Was it necessary to eat up so much screen time reminding me of what you did last year?  Either way, the ad effectively communicated the sentiment of the new beetle as a fun, hip car for healthy people (and dogs).  Selling a lifestyle is something that VW does really well.  So auto dealers, if you sell the lifestyle that comes with the car, you’ll always win.

Chevrolet – 2012

Chevy’s message this year was simple: as the oldest truck manufacturer in the world, its car models can outlast even the inevitable Mayan apocalypse. Battered refugees drive their dusty, dependable Silverados across a city’s ruined hellscape as Barry Manilow’s “Looks Like We Made It” comforts the survivors. The commercial is certainly funny, poignant and a sci fi film enthusiast’s dream, but Chevy might have gone too far by suggesting that those who drove Fords “didn’t make it.” In fact, Ford execs have officially taken offense to the ad.

The takeaway for dealers: lighthearted jabs at the competition are fun but can result in negative consequences (no matter how ridiculous or exaggerated the circumstances). It’s always best to focus on your dealership’s quality of vehicles and service. Remember that your goal is to sell as many vehicles as possible, which doesn’t necessarily mean “destroy the competition.”  Even though Chevy’s comment was hilariously facetious, being negative about competitors (especially with nasty politics polluting the airwaves on a regular basis) does little to build its brand.  It’s always best to stay positive and leave competitors out of the conversation.

As for GM, Global Chief Marketing Officer Joel Ewanick says that “we can wait until the world ends, and if we need to, we will apologize.  In the meantime, people who are really worried about the Mayan calendar coming true should buy a Silverado right away.”

Another takeaway – always maintain a sense of humor and don’t take yourself too seriously 

_

What if you could spot engaged and ready-to-buy shoppers as they browse your dealership website in real-time?  How would that transform your Internet Business?

More and more auto dealers are finding automotive live chat to be one of the most valuable assets to their dealership’s Internet business.  Dealers using full service, managed chat solutions tend to experience the largest boost in leads generated from their websites. On the other hand, many dealers believe that their BDC and Sales staff are the most qualified individuals to handle their dealership chat.

Both categories of automotive live chat solutions deliver an increase in website lead generation, yet this increase is primarily achieved as a result of intuitive behavioral targeting by solutions utilizing real-time business intelligence reporting.  In simplified terms, some chat solutions come with supercharged website analytics to deliver you the most high quality leads possible.

Still, chat vendors that lack a deep understanding of retail automotive sales or live chat best practices and trends put their dealership clients at a competitive disadvantage.

A study recently conducted by ActivEngage, the most trusted brand in automotive live chat, analyzed data from more than 4,000,000 chat conversations to understand which specific variables determine the maximum success of live chat technology.

From our findings, we are able to target prospective customers and likely chat participants based on the criteria listed below.

The Average Chat Participant:

• Is a unique website visitor

Unique visitors that land on your site are in the exploratory phase of their purchasing process.  This is your opportunity to make a positive first impression, which is sometimes referred to as the “Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).”  Proactive live chat invitations replicate your showroom “meet and greet,” creating the positive first impression your sales team give “ups” at your physical dealership.

You may find it interesting that unique visitors are more likely to engage in a chat conversation than returning visitors.  This trend is due to a unique visitor’s unfamiliarity with your site navigation and content.  Live chat serves as a means of instant communication to assist visitors in finding the information they seek.  At the same time, dealers are able to engage these visitors in an online sales process with the goal of gathering lead information.

• Views an average 5 to 7 Web pages

A visitor that views more than 5 pages on your website can indicate one of two things: anengaged online shopper or a confused online shopper.  In either instance, the visitor is likely to engage in a chat conversation.  Dealers or chat professionals monitoring an automotive shopper’s website activity can step in and provide visitors in this situation the right message at the right moment using customizable proactive chat invitations.

• Stays on the site between 12 and 14 minutes

Visitors that delve deep into your website content for long periods of time are most likely serious online shoppers.  At this point, these shoppers will either submit a form lead because they’ve found what they’re looking for or they will engage in a chat conversation to request more information.

Dealer Takeaway:

Auto dealers using ActivEngage live chat and real-time business intelligence reporting have prospective customers on their dealership websites automatically identified and engaged.  Progressive dealers using this proprietary chat technology achieve double the lead volume generated from their websites than those without chat.

Only ActivEngage offers dealers live chat with real-time business analytic solutions specifically designed to maximize the amount of leads delivered from dealership websites while reducing the overall cost of lead generation for dealerships.

What if you could spot engaged and ready-to-buy shoppers as they browse your dealership website in real-time?  How would that transform your Internet Business?

More and more auto dealers are finding automotive live chat to be one of the most valuable assets to their dealership’s Internet business.  Dealers using full service, managed chat solutions tend to experience the largest boost in leads generated from their websites. On the other hand, many dealers believe that their BDC and Sales staff are the most qualified individuals to handle their dealership chat.

Both categories of automotive live chat solutions deliver an increase in website lead generation, yet this increase is primarily achieved as a result of intuitive behavioral targeting by solutions utilizing real-time business intelligence reporting.  In simplified terms, some chat solutions come with supercharged website analytics to deliver you the most high quality leads possible.

Still, chat vendors that lack a deep understanding of retail automotive sales or live chat best practices and trends put their dealership clients at a competitive disadvantage.

A study recently conducted by ActivEngage, the most trusted brand in automotive live chat, analyzed data from more than 4,000,000 chat conversations to understand which specific variables determine the maximum success of live chat technology.

From our findings, we are able to target prospective customers and likely chat participants based on the criteria listed below.

The Average Chat Participant:

• Is a unique website visitor

Unique visitors that land on your site are in the exploratory phase of their purchasing process.  This is your opportunity to make a positive first impression, which is sometimes referred to as the “Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).”  Proactive live chat invitations replicate your showroom “meet and greet,” creating the positive first impression your sales team give “ups” at your physical dealership.

You may find it interesting that unique visitors are more likely to engage in a chat conversation than returning visitors.  This trend is due to a unique visitor’s unfamiliarity with your site navigation and content.  Live chat serves as a means of instant communication to assist visitors in finding the information they seek.  At the same time, dealers are able to engage these visitors in an online sales process with the goal of gathering lead information.

• Views an average 5 to 7 Web pages

A visitor that views more than 5 pages on your website can indicate one of two things: anengaged online shopper or a confused online shopper.  In either instance, the visitor is likely to engage in a chat conversation.  Dealers or chat professionals monitoring an automotive shopper’s website activity can step in and provide visitors in this situation the right message at the right moment using customizable proactive chat invitations.

• Stays on the site between 12 and 14 minutes

Visitors that delve deep into your website content for long periods of time are most likely serious online shoppers.  At this point, these shoppers will either submit a form lead because they’ve found what they’re looking for or they will engage in a chat conversation to request more information.

Dealer Takeaway:

Auto dealers using ActivEngage live chat and real-time business intelligence reporting have prospective customers on their dealership websites automatically identified and engaged.  Progressive dealers using this proprietary chat technology achieve double the lead volume generated from their websites than those without chat.

Only ActivEngage offers dealers live chat with real-time business analytic solutions specifically designed to maximize the amount of leads delivered from dealership websites while reducing the overall cost of lead generation for dealerships.

Let’s say that you’re an auto dealer with a successful social media aspect of your digital marketing campaign – you have tons of Facebook fans, a healthy community that provides feedback and applause, and an online presence that grows every day. But the point of any marketing endeavor is to eventually convert your fans into loyal customers, and you determine that your Facebook page just isn’t bringing in sales –  despite all the positive metrics that indicate otherwise. What went wrong?

Location has a significant impact on automotive dealerships because of the very nature of the business. It is not economically viable to ship a 4,000-pound vehicle across the country, so you depend on sales within your jurisdiction. Therefore, you reach out to local media. When you purchased that billboard space on the interstate, you did it because you knew that drivers in the area would view it. When you filmed that goofy ad and broadcast it on Channel 12, you did it because you knew that all viewers would be local.

Your Facebook page is very different from these media. After all, what good are fans and followers if they will never buy a car from you? This very question keeps auto dealers from utilizing social media platforms and sticking to the tried-and-true marketing methods of the past. However, you are in luck! Facebook has a built-in feature that allows you to deliver relevant content to the regional audience that can most benefit from your messages. This digital marketing strategy is known as geotargeting.

When you update your followers about your promotions using a Facebook status update, explore the Audience button underneath the entry field. From there you can select what regions can view your status, and with a few clicks, you can customize your posts for different cities, states, countries, and languages. So how can you use this to localize your Facebook page?

If you have a lot of Spanish-speaking customers, use the language filter to connect to them and customize their messages in español! If you have a local promotional event, don’t bother your entire following - send invitations to only those in the area! You could even use this functionality to send different messages to different regions and A/B test them by comparing their conversion rates. But, the most effective way for auto dealers to localize their digital marketing efforts is an analytics tool that can report the exact location of all website visitors in real time!

___

Need help making your Facebook content relevant to your region? Leave a comment at our blog and our marketing staff can help!

Let’s say that you’re an auto dealer with a successful social media aspect of your digital marketing campaign – you have tons of Facebook fans, a healthy community that provides feedback and applause, and an online presence that grows every day. But the point of any marketing endeavor is to eventually convert your fans into loyal customers, and you determine that your Facebook page just isn’t bringing in sales –  despite all the positive metrics that indicate otherwise. What went wrong?

Location has a significant impact on automotive dealerships because of the very nature of the business. It is not economically viable to ship a 4,000-pound vehicle across the country, so you depend on sales within your jurisdiction. Therefore, you reach out to local media. When you purchased that billboard space on the interstate, you did it because you knew that drivers in the area would view it. When you filmed that goofy ad and broadcast it on Channel 12, you did it because you knew that all viewers would be local.

Your Facebook page is very different from these media. After all, what good are fans and followers if they will never buy a car from you? This very question keeps auto dealers from utilizing social media platforms and sticking to the tried-and-true marketing methods of the past. However, you are in luck! Facebook has a built-in feature that allows you to deliver relevant content to the regional audience that can most benefit from your messages. This digital marketing strategy is known as geotargeting.

When you update your followers about your promotions using a Facebook status update, explore the Audience button underneath the entry field. From there you can select what regions can view your status, and with a few clicks, you can customize your posts for different cities, states, countries, and languages. So how can you use this to localize your Facebook page?

If you have a lot of Spanish-speaking customers, use the language filter to connect to them and customize their messages in español! If you have a local promotional event, don’t bother your entire following - send invitations to only those in the area! You could even use this functionality to send different messages to different regions and A/B test them by comparing their conversion rates. But, the most effective way for auto dealers to localize their digital marketing efforts is an analytics tool that can report the exact location of all website visitors in real time!

___

Need help making your Facebook content relevant to your region? Leave a comment at our blog and our marketing staff can help!

Wikipedia, the sixth most popular site on the entire Internet, went dark yesterday in protest of a proposed Congressional bill – effectively halting any college papers from being written whatsoever. Alongside thousands of sites such as Craigslist, Tumblr, and Reddit, the global encyclopedia asks visitors to take action against the Stop Online Piracy Act, a piece of legislation that threatens to give the U.S. government the ability to block access to infringing domain names. This means that corporations can sue websites for user-posted content, potentially crippling start-ups and a variety of social media outlets. But the auto industry is far removed from the entertainment world that the bill targets – why should auto dealers care about SOPA?

It’s easy to understand why movie producers and record labels would want to put a stop to theft of their intellectual property. However, under the guidelines of this new bill, any content that you use to promote your dealership that is not explicitly your own would be subject to legal action from the content’s original publisher.

At the very least, this means that sites that rely on user–generated content will feel extreme pressure to monitor all postings heavily. Auto manufacturers could have the authority to shut down discussion boards that they feel disclose trade secrets. And if someone posts copyrighted content on one of your social media sites? SOPA holds you accountable with fines or a lawsuit.

Ted Rubin, president and co-founder of ActivEngage, believes that the bill is well-intentioned, but poorly executed. “Piracy is a legitimate threat, and innovators and creative agencies deserve protection for their works and products.” Rubin explained that the vague, indiscriminate wording of the bill remains a problem. “The bigger issue is that small businesses could suffer because legislators are trying to impose a solution that is simply not enforceable.”

ActivEngage Director of Virtual Sales Carol Marshall says that some dealers struggle to stay creative as it is. “It would definitely inhibit a dealer’s ability to capture attention quickly if he or she can’t use pop culture to help liven up their websites.” Marshall thinks that policing the Internet for possible infringements is not an intelligent use of time. “Trying to stuff toothpaste back in the tube is a useless effort. Don’t we have bigger fish to fry?”

_

While ActivEngage stands strongly against illegal piracy, we ask you to weigh in on the Stop Online Piracy Act. Visit Google’s petition to tell legislators what you think about the action taken against freedom of speech. Then tell us your thoughts in a comment below!

Wikipedia, the sixth most popular site on the entire Internet, went dark yesterday in protest of a proposed Congressional bill – effectively halting any college papers from being written whatsoever. Alongside thousands of sites such as Craigslist, Tumblr, and Reddit, the global encyclopedia asks visitors to take action against the Stop Online Piracy Act, a piece of legislation that threatens to give the U.S. government the ability to block access to infringing domain names. This means that corporations can sue websites for user-posted content, potentially crippling start-ups and a variety of social media outlets. But the auto industry is far removed from the entertainment world that the bill targets – why should auto dealers care about SOPA?

It’s easy to understand why movie producers and record labels would want to put a stop to theft of their intellectual property. However, under the guidelines of this new bill, any content that you use to promote your dealership that is not explicitly your own would be subject to legal action from the content’s original publisher.

At the very least, this means that sites that rely on user–generated content will feel extreme pressure to monitor all postings heavily. Auto manufacturers could have the authority to shut down discussion boards that they feel disclose trade secrets. And if someone posts copyrighted content on one of your social media sites? SOPA holds you accountable with fines or a lawsuit.

Ted Rubin, president and co-founder of ActivEngage, believes that the bill is well-intentioned, but poorly executed. “Piracy is a legitimate threat, and innovators and creative agencies deserve protection for their works and products.” Rubin explained that the vague, indiscriminate wording of the bill remains a problem. “The bigger issue is that small businesses could suffer because legislators are trying to impose a solution that is simply not enforceable.”

ActivEngage Director of Virtual Sales Carol Marshall says that some dealers struggle to stay creative as it is. “It would definitely inhibit a dealer’s ability to capture attention quickly if he or she can’t use pop culture to help liven up their websites.” Marshall thinks that policing the Internet for possible infringements is not an intelligent use of time. “Trying to stuff toothpaste back in the tube is a useless effort. Don’t we have bigger fish to fry?”

_

While ActivEngage stands strongly against illegal piracy, we ask you to weigh in on the Stop Online Piracy Act. Visit Google’s petition to tell legislators what you think about the action taken against freedom of speech. Then tell us your thoughts in a comment below!