New Social Media, Video and AI Technology Program to Support Businesses and

Communities Impacted by the Coronavirus Pandemic

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – (March 13, 2020) Digital Air Strike, the leading social media, intelligent
lead response and consumer engagement technology company, today unveiled its new
Video Retailing Program with White Glove Service to help dealerships handle more steps
of prospect conversion, the full sales process, and vehicle servicing utilizing video, virtual
messaging, AI, and much more.
The Video Retailing Program allows consumers to do more of their research, shopping,
transactions, and even vehicle delivery or servicing leveraging social distancing
techniques powered by Digital Air Strike technology. Dealerships will receive custom
graphics, videos, video conferencing, and training to immediately implement exclusive
White Glove Services to support any consumers with health concerns while still buying or
servicing vehicles.
“First and foremost, our thoughts are with everyone affected by coronavirus. We
understand how this pandemic is changing the way consumers want to engage with
businesses. In response to that, we are helping our dealers and the automotive industry
thrive while concurrently assisting to flatten the curve of this outbreak,” said Alexi Venneri
co-founder and CEO of Digital Air Strike. “We are offering our Video Retailing Program at
no charge for the next 30 days to all clients, and we will continue to refine and evolve
the program to assist with community outreach and reinforce health best practices. It
can also help accommodate staff that may need a work-from-home option but still need
to assist consumers at the same time. "
The Digital Air Strike Video Retailing Program leverages the company’s Video Logix
solution in a very custom way, paired with technology Digital Air Strike has already been
providing to its clients while leveraging video conferencing through Facebook Portals or

iPads. Through training, custom videos and graphics, as well as campaign and in-
dealership best practices, Digital Air Strike has created the automotive industry’s first

turnkey program to immediately lessen social contact and provide new ideas to support
concepts such as solo test drives, custom walk-around videos, concierge delivery of
vehicles for sales and servicing, and much more.
Digital Air Strike was the first corporate entity to adopt Facebook’s Portal for business
communication and has provided thousands of dealerships with the device. The

company was also first to develop many industry-first consumer engagement, social

media and reputation management technologies that have always been market-
leading. Technology is an integral part of how Digital Air Strike will help each dealership

provide White Glove Service as it empowers dealership staff to communicate “face to
face” with customers through video both remotely and if consumers choose to opt to
take delivery of their vehicle leveraging social distancing with video while even inside a
dealership.
The technology company was founded in 2010, at the height of the recession, when
dealers were cutting their marketing budgets and struggling to sell cars. Offering the first
custom social media solutions, Digital Air Strike continues to offer innovative programs to
connect with consumers virtually and today is providing this new solution for dealerships
and all clients, in all industries, at no cost to help our economy and communities
nationwide. You can view an example of how the Video Logix tool is used, which is part
of Digital Air Strike’s Video Retailing Program, here.
Digital Air Strike is presenting a series of free webinars to outline their innovative solution.
“Start Video Retailing Today: Survive & Thrive During the COVID-19 Pandemic” webinars
are being offered on multiple dates. More details can be found here:
https://digitalairstrike.com/webinars/

About Digital Air Strike
Digital Air Strike is the leading social media, intelligent lead response technology and
consumer engagement company helping 5,000 businesses increase consumer response
and conversions in digital and social media environments while generating measurable
ROI.
A pioneer in digital response, social media marketing and online reputation
management solutions, Digital Air Strike deploys industry-specific mobile apps, software,
intelligent messaging and managed service platforms to monitor, engage, improve and
manage consumer interactions for thousands of businesses in the United States, Canada
and 11 additional countries, including working with seven of the largest automotive
manufacturers. More information is available at www.digitalairstrike.com and
www.facebook.com/digitalairstrike.

[Update 3/6/2020]

I recently had a conversation with CarGurus.  They wanted to set the record straight on some of the information listed in the email below.  Here is their response:

"There is a lot of misinformation floating around right now. This letter is a prime example, and we wanted to set the record straight with the actual truth: 

-          CarGurus and Carvana are not owned by the same firm. We're both publicly traded companies and ownership information is easy to find.

-          Shoppers' information went only to the dealer whose lead form they filled out. CarGurus never sold or gave shoppers' information to Carvana or any other dealers.

The start of the issue was a test we ran as part of our goal of building a cash offers product that we could offer to all dealers. As part of that testing, we worked with Carvana because they had the scale and technology to let us test quickly. The one thing the letter gets right is that we did hear our dealers' feedback. What we learned is that we misjudged how polarizing Carvana is to dealerships. Once we heard dealers' concerns, we immediately took the cash offers test off of dealer VDPs and confirmation emails.

Another thing we learned is that we are on the right track: dealers are interested in new inventory acquisition channels. We're going to continue testing a cash offers program, but with more carefully chosen partners.

CarGurus values all of our dealer partners, and we will continue to innovate and build new products and programs to help you succeed. Integrity is central to our company. We commit to you that we are going to do a better job listening and getting your feedback on new product initiatives. As part of that listening and getting feedback, those with questions can either reach out to their CarGurus rep or email FAQ@cargurus.com."

I've hesitated in posting something about this until now, but as we uncover more about the relationship between CarGurus and Carvana, it is hard to avoid.  Almost every vendor uses the mantra, "we don't want to be a vendor, we want to be a partner."  When does this partnership become a problem?

I recently received an email from a dealer that was forwarded to him by his CPA.  Here is that email:

Group

During NADA a dealer client and I met with Car Gurus.  The dealer was quite upset because he had just learned that Car Gurus was soliciting his customers’ trades offering to pay more while the customers were in his dealership.  Car Gurus and Carvana are owned by the same firm.  

The Cargurus senior person at NADA did not deny this happened and said it had been a trial program which was a mistake and apologized.  However now the entire Cargurus/Carvana loyalty to dealers is in question.  Carvana has always been perceived as a threat but this takes it to another level.  

My client received the alert below from another dealer.  You may want to discuss with your dealers whether they are using Cargurus and alert them to this unethical behavior and whether they want to continue paying them money every month.  My client cancelled his subscription with them.

DrivingSales strives to remain vendor-neutral.  We don't advocate any specific products or solutioins.  In fact, rarely does one size fit all. 

I feel this needs situation to be addressed. It would be one thing if Caravana were a franchise dealer group and not a disrupter in the space.  

What are your thoughts?  Has CarGurus gone too far?

New Functionality Provides Automated Vehicle Maintenance and Service Reminders to Customers

LAS VEGAS, NV., Feb. 13, 2020—Spireon, the vehicle intelligence company, introduced MyDealer 2.0 for Kahu® with new features that enable dealerships to grow the customer/dealer relationship with individualized mobile experiences. This enhancement to the award-winning Kahu connected car solution increases consumer engagement through a high-value mobile app, putting vehicle maintenance and control directly into the customer’s hand. Customers can now receive tailored service reminders, schedule necessary service appointments and have visibility into their car’s maintenance needs and history all in one place—their mobile phone.

“Consumers consistently rank vehicle maintenance as a high priority in connected car solutions,” said Brian Skutta, president of automotive at Spireon. “MyDealer 2.0 delivers on this request as dealers are now able to support automated OEM and mileage specific service reminders, ease of scheduling and access to their car’s maintenance history which enables convenient ownership over their vehicle’s service needs.”

MyDealer 2.0 delivers convenience and automation by leveraging previous dealer repair order (RO) history, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) recommended vehicle maintenance schedules, and precise mileage driven to push service reminders and enable online or click-to-call appointment scheduling from the trusted Kahu consumer app. Dealers no longer have to manually create service retention push campaigns as Kahu automatically generates and sends those messages to customers. This ultimately reduces overhead cost of service engagements and enhances fixed operations profit to help address retail margin compression.  

Spireon’s MyDealer 2.0 will be demoed during NADA and is available starting in Q2 2020. To learn more, please stop by Spireon’s booth, 5609N, at NADA, or visit https://www.spireon.com/kahu/.

 About Spireon

Spireon, the vehicle intelligence company, is the leading provider of aftermarket telematics solutions in North America. By equipping cars, trucks, trailers and other mobile assets with GPS devices and sensors, Spireon turns any vehicle into a connected vehicle. Award-winning products GoldStar, Kahu and FleetLocate deliver 24x7 asset visibility and actionable insights to auto dealers, lenders, transportation companies, service fleet managers, rental car companies and consumers to increase safety and productivity, boost profits and protect assets. Spireon’s NSpire IoT platform powers all Spireon solutions, supporting nearly 4 million active subscribers and processing more than 1 billion data events each month. Learn more at www.spireon.com.  

 For more information, contact

Miranda Simonson
Havas Formula for Spireon

Spireon@HavasFormula.com
619-234-0345

Dealers attending the 2020 NADA Show can pre-book a Market EyeQ demo

 New York (Feb. 13, 2020) – automotiveMastermind, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO) and a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for dealerships and manufacturers across the country, today announced the company is servicing all major OEMs, representing 30 brands, and additionally, are expanding their service-to-sales offering with CDK integration. The ability to service all major OEMs comes from the company’s commitment to building an improved incentives architecture within the Market EyeQ sales platform to accommodate deeper OEM incentives. Dealers attending the 2020 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Show, taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center from Feb. 15-17, can experience automotiveMastermind’s Market EyeQ sales platform firsthand.

Market EyeQ is powered by household demographic data and other strategic information from IHS Markit and TransUnion. It is the first automotive sales platform that provides seamless integration inside the dealership to better understand every buyer in a dealer’s market.

“Since last year’s launch of Market EyeQ, we've been providing exponential ROI for our dealer partners by identifying quality new audiences, driving high engagement and offering intelligence to close more sales,” said Marco Schnabl, co-founder and CEO of automotiveMastermind. “This year, we are doubling down on our mission to predict and engage with every automotive sales and service opportunity while delivering the highest quality results for dealers. We are using additional valuable data sources to provide actionable intelligence on every automotive consumer. The ability to now service all major OEMs gives us the unprecedented ability to help even more dealers across the country experience the Market EyeQ advantage.”

“The service drive is a huge area of opportunity for dealers, but they need insights on those customers who are unknown to them. Market EyeQ’s Service Conquest component provides those insights with an extremely high VIN match rate, allowing them to activate more in-market buyers into their portfolio,” said Joe Kacala, Chief Product Officer of automotiveMastermind. “The recent expansion of Service Conquest’s capabilities includes CDK service arrival notifications and service appointment reports. This allows dealers to plan ahead for scheduled appointments and have compelling consumer data on walk-ins, too.”

Visit automotiveMastermind’s exhibit 3315C to learn more. Interested dealers can pre-book a Market EyeQ demo here.

####

About automotiveMastermind

Founded in 2012, automotiveMastermind, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), is a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for the automotive industry. Market EyeQ by Mastermind is a single sales platform that identifies, communicates with and closes every buyer in a local market. Mastermind is headquartered in New York City and San Francisco. For more information, visit automotivemastermind.com. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

 The AI-powered auto-customer acquisition solution uses data for the entire US auto buying population to recommend the most likely target area buyers to car dealers and to personalize engagement. 

New Jersey, February 10 2020 -  myautoIQ, a SaaS company providing AI and big-data-driven solutions for the automotive industry, announces the launch of conquestIQ. conquestIQ helps car dealers find potential buyers in their target area and reach them with highly personalized messages and unique offers, thus enabling car dealers to be in control of their marketing efforts and measure their ROI. 

The auto dealer market today remains reliant on the buyers finding the dealers. conquestIQ changes this equation by enabling auto-dealers to find buyers in different stages of the car buying journey and engage these buyers with personalized messages and unique offers. Instead of waiting for the buyer to reach out, conquestIQ gives car dealers the tools they need to be proactive with their customer acquisition and engagement. 

“We are offering true “conquest” capability to the car dealers that enable them to reach out to the right buyer at the right time with the right message,” says Vikrant Pathak, the CEO and Chief Data Scientist of myautoIQ. “With today’s marketing and customer acquisition tools, car dealers’ first point of contact for the majority of their buyers is when the buyers walk into the showroom. conquestIQ advocates for a shift from traditional forms of marketing in the car industry to a personalized approach, thereby enabling our customers to connect with high-quality prospects they would otherwise be unaware of.”

conquestIQ uses machine and deep learning technologies to scan millions of data points, both nationally and locally, for buying patterns and preferences and builds behavior prediction models. Dealers use a simple guided interface to start their micro-targeted campaigns. Next, the prediction engine identifies, categorizes, and classifies potential buyers from thousands of prospects in the target area.

The prediction engine then identifies a list of the most likely potential buyers for the make and model or the type of car that the dealer wants to sell. This list is further refined by buyers who are actively shopping for a car. Once the list of high potential buyers is identified, myautoIQ matches the top three cars in the dealer’s inventory for each buyer and sends personalized offers by email, post, or both, based on the buyer’s auto preferences.

“Our first of its kind real-time AI-platform and the proprietary big-data universe brings in external data to auto dealer world and goes beyond the traditional equity mining solutions,” says Rohit Sharma, the CTO of myautoIQ. “Our customers like the simplicity of creating micro-targeted campaigns, the ability to target customers in specific zip codes, deliver messages through multiple channels and the ability to get engagement recommendations for every auto-customer.”

myautoIQ will demo conquestIQ at NADA 2020. Stop by booth #1328C for a demo or make an appointment by visiting myautoiq.com.

About myautoIQ

myautoIQ is on a mission to change how auto businesses acquire, engage with, and retain their customers by making every customer interaction personalized and intelligent, using real-time AI, and proprietary data, delivered within the business workflow.   

NEW YORK (February 6, 2020) – automotiveMastermind®, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), and a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for dealerships and manufacturers, hired one executive and promoted another as an extension of the company’s product and technology departments. Mastermind hired Andrew McGuire as Vice President of Product Data and promoted Michael Ferreira to Vice President of Information Technology. Both strengthen Mastermind’s product and technology teams.

Prior to joining Mastermind, McGuire was the Director of Product Management at Dealertrack, a brand of Cox Automotive. With his background in APIs, recommender systems and other technology platforms, McGuire will help Mastermind translate customer insights and increase product efficacy on the company’s Market EyeQ platform. The assistance will help the company continue to expand, providing more dealerships personalized access to Mastermind’s unique data marketing solutions.

In his new role, Ferreira is responsible for information security, systems infrastructure and expanded network architecture. He will also continue to assist with service desk, CRM operations and procurement. Existing Mastermind customers will see more efficient online support times and access to digital resources.

“With unique data personalization at the forefront of marketing trends and the rising cost of new vehicles, automotiveMastermind is making strategic internal decisions to reflect the goals and trends of the auto industry,” said Johannes Gnauck, founder and co-CEO of automotiveMastermind. “We want to strengthen our leadership base with skilled data science and analytics capable professionals to ensure our platform is continuing to produce exponential results, as we leverage IHS Markit’s firm-wide data lake across the Transportation, Finance & Energy verticals. This ensures our dealer partners who access our predictive marketing technology are sending the right message to the right prospect at the right time”

###

About automotiveMastermind

Founded in 2012, automotiveMastermind, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), is a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for the automotive industry. Market EyeQ by Mastermind is the single sales platform to identify, communicate with and close every buyer in a local market. Mastermind is headquartered in New York City and San Francisco. For more information, visit automotivemastermind.com. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

NEW YORK (Jan. 21, 2020) - automotiveMastermind®, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO) and a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for dealerships and manufacturers, today announced it has hired four new executives to support growing customer demand. Joseph Kacala was hired as a chief product officer; Chris Long as vice president, product; Tushar Manglik as vice president, software engineering; and Yong Li as vice president, architecture.

Kacala has more than 25 years in the automotive industry, with experience in dealership software product management, marketing, business development and strategic partnerships. He will help lead the charge in expanding Market EyeQ into exceptional new partnerships with dealerships and OEMs. This expansion will help drive sales and profitability during a critical time for new car sales at both the automaker and dealership level. 

Long has an expansive history in building online consumer-driven lead generation tools and will use his expertise to lead the consumer product and marketing team at automotiveMastermind, bringing added value to customers with tools that will increase ease of marketing outreach for dealers. 

Manglik brings 18 years of experience in software engineering, innovation and leadership. He has a track record in building and mentoring global high-performing teams with a focus on delivery of business-critical features and predictive analytics services. At automotiveMastermind, he will lead the effort to build and deliver enhanced product features across all software engineering, data engineering and data science teams, which will provide dealers with new Market EyeQ features.

Li brings more than 20 years of experience in product development and architecture for web, feed and editorial platforms. In his role, he will be responsible for establishing architecture for the rapid expansion of the organization, as well as working with the product and engineering teams to efficiently manage high-priority, client-focused solutions.  

“When we launched our Market EyeQ sales platform last year, we revolutionized the industry,” said Johannes Gnauck, founder and co-CEO of automotiveMastermind. “To continue our focus on providing cutting-edge technology and world-class service, we knew we needed key individuals to help us focus on building our product. These individuals offer a unique perspective that will be essential in helping us continue structuring our platform to meet the needs of our niche dealer and consumer base, ultimately helping them sell more vehicles.”

####

About automotiveMastermind

Founded in 2012, automotiveMastermind, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), is a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for the automotive industry. Market EyeQ by Mastermind is the single sales platform to identify, communicate with and close every buyer in a local market. Mastermind is headquartered in New York City and San Francisco. For more information, visit automotivemastermind.com. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

MAX Trade Value leverages superior market data for quick and easy valuations

MAX Digital has launched MAX Trade Value, a smart valuation tool that leverages deep market data to provide a quick and positive customer experience valuing a trade-in online. This new tool in the digital retailing suite was requested by and developed in partnership with dealers. User testing helped make it simple and intuitive for customers.

“Shoppers want to get a quick estimate and understand the support for that estimate at a glance,” said Ryan Walker, MAX Digital VP of Product & Engineering. “MAX Trade Value takes seconds to use and supports customers on their way to purchase.”

Early in the shopping experience, consumers want to get a quick estimate without any strings attached of what their trade-in might be worth. MAX Trade Value is designed to deliver that easy instant feedback online. This product joins the portfolio of tools that improve the full car-buying experience including the leading showroom collaboration tool for trade-ins, MAX My Trade.

MAX Trade Value attracts and engages interested shoppers on dealer websites, delivering highly qualified leads. MAX Trade Value is available to all dealerships, as part of an existing full partner package with MAX Digital or may be purchased individually with a wide range of integrations.

“We are consistently looking to understand where car shoppers have barriers to purchase today and how we can knock those down with a better experience,” Walker added. “The integration we are able to achieve for dealerships, helps shoppers get the answers they need today and sets up a positive buying experience in-store.”

For more information on MAX Trade Value visit maxdigital.com/tradevalue.

About MAX Digital
MAX Digital creates experiences that drive success. From award-winning inventory management to people-friendly digital retail solutions, MAX provides deep consumer understanding, advanced analytics, and superior experiences designed to delight customers, empower teams and maximize profits. MAX Digital was named Dealers’ Choice top inventory management system for 2019 in Auto Dealer Today, for more information visit maxdigital.com.

 According to the 2019 NADA Midyear Report, the automotive industry spends an average of $628 per new vehicle sold. Driven Data is the first automotive solution to connect dealerships’ first party data from their CRM and DMS into both paid search and paid social automatically to reduce advertising costs. 

10/23/2019 For Immediate Release 

INDIANAPOLIS, IN. – Driven Data, an Indianapolis-based technology company, announces the launch of its next generation marketing platform for the automotive industry. Driven Data is the first automotive solution to connect dealerships’ first party data from their CRM and DMS into both paid search and paid social automatically. This enables dealerships to drive loyalty by reaching their prior customers while suppressing recent for new customer acquisition. 

“According to the 2019 NADA Midyear Report, the automotive industry spends an average of $628 to sell each new car, an all-time high,” said Jon Berna, Founder and CEO of Driven Data. “With costs rising across the board, dealers need a more robust solution to this problem. Driven Data was purpose-built to provide just that. Dealerships generally see that 17% of their sales in a given month come from prior customers. This new capability can grow that number substantially while saving time and money.” 

Driven Data is the first in the automotive industry to leverage the power of ‘Prescriptive Marketing’, which allows dealers to unlock the power of their existing operational data to inform marketing decisions. This powers advanced features such as Driven Data’s budget optimization engine, which optimizes daily spending based on a predictive algorithm that determines how fast cars will sell at various budget levels, allowing dealers to optimize inventory turn at the lowest ad spend. 

“Driven-Data's Analytics Platform is, quite simply, the best on the market,” said Alex Motevosian of Kirin Automotive. Their diagnostic engine allows you to see operational efficiency and inefficiency at the speed of retail, thus empowering dealers to make decisions in real-time, and with an impact in days—not months.” Motevosian also praised the platform’s ability to automatically generate dynamic, custom audiences in Facebook and Google Ads based on dealer data. “Their universal architecture and data standardization methods allow them to do something that no one else is doing: drop first-party, dynamic custom audiences into Facebook and Ads - automatically. Yes, that last sentence is correct. As a marketing professional, if that doesn't get you excited...you are in the wrong business” 

“If you had 200k total customers in your CRM and DMS it would cost around $250,000 to reach each customer once with direct mail,” said Berna. With Driven Data it would cost less than $1,750 in modern mediums like Google Ads and Facebook. The majority of companies providing digital marketing services for dealerships today still do it manually. Driven Data connects inventory, operational metrics, incentive data and customer data into one marketing and analytics platform. Providing marketing that is connected, optimized and personalized.” 

Driven Data takes dealership data and implements advanced machine learning to generate custom 1st party audiences based on customers who are predicted to be in the market for a new car, shopping for a used car, or may need service soon. Using a proprietary ad platform, Driven Data collects a dealership’s data and their marketing collateral to enable a dealership to automatically develop and publish specific, customized ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google, and additional platforms in the future. 

According to Ryan Moore, Chief Technology Officer at Driven Data, this results in more engaging ads that will reach customers where they already are. “Driven Data’s foundation is the most comprehensive reporting platform in the industry. We integrate with all core dealership systems and leverage these insights directly into the marketing, which has never been done to this extent. This allows for true ad personalization in the customer’s journey to a purchase or service visit.” 

"Driven Data allows dealers to take an in-depth dive into their data that their CRM and DMS do not have the ability to provide,” said Kenon Johnson of Stanley Automotive Group. “They are knowledgeable and have tapped into data to provide insights that have not been readily available. The team at Driven Data are truly professionals that understand the importance of what dealers need to evaluate all aspects of their business." 

Includes advanced features that no other marketing solution offers, such as: 

Data & Insights 

Access advanced reporting on all the most important metrics for each department for a truly connected strategy. 

Prescriptive Social & Search Marketing 

Optimize each campaign to increase engagement and conversion at every stage by leveraging operational and customer data from your CRM, DMS, and Inventory. 

Digital Asset Management 

Host your images and videos with us to dynamically connect them to your marketing. 

Universal Benchmarks 

See how your performance stacks up against the best dealerships on each metric. 

Dynamic Reconditioning Information 

Showcase internal maintenance items like tires, brakes, and alignments with their values directly inside ads. 

Maintenance-free Landing Pages 

Provide the best customer experience with flexible rules to ensure accurate payments and vehicle information. 

Forecasting 

Accurately predict sales six months in the future using a blend of variables including seasonality, weighted trends, digital behaviors, and others. 

Budget Optimization Engine 

Optimize your ad spend based on all dealership data in our system and we predict how long each vehicle will take to sell. 

Diagnostics Engine 

Resolve concerns and get your process back on track by monitoring everything from Web, CRM, Inventory, DMS, and paid search. 

Incentives & Rebates 

Leverage lease and loan payments on every vehicle in ads automatically. 

About Driven Data 

Driven Data is the first insight-driven solution built specifically for the automotive industry. Driven Data delivers comprehensive operational, inventory, and customer insights to optimize dealership marketing with highly personalized ads and unparalleled analytics. By identifying the right audiences based on a dealership’s inventory goals and customer data, Driven Data helps dealerships sell and service more cars at a lower cost. 

To learn more about Driven Data, please visit https://www.driven-data.com/ or call 888-659-5488