Automotive industry rock star Subi Ghosh has joined Dealer Authority, a digital marketing firm, to be Vice President of Marketing in order to bring cutting edge strategies to car dealers around the country.

Ladera Ranch, CA (PRWEB) March 21, 2014

Dealer Authority, an automotive digital marketing firm, has brought industry expert Subi Ghosh on board as Vice President of Marketing. Her new role is designed to introduce her expertise from the dealership side of the fence over to the marketing side in order to help dealer clients expand their digital footprint through social media, website, and search engine exposure.

Subi has been working in dealerships for the past 6 years as an Internet Manager, Sales Director, and most recently Marketing and E-Commerce Director. Her passion for the industry and drive to be an advocate for dealers serves as a perfect match with Dealer Authority.

"The heart and soul of our company must be centered around people who know the car business," said JD Rucker, Founder of Dealer Authority. "Marketing can be taught. The car business must be experienced. That's why Subi is a perfect fit."

She has been a speaker at multiple automotive conferences as well as a guest blogger with DealerKnows, an automotive consultation firm. Actively involved in the automotive community, she is constantly sharing her knowledge, growing within her profession, and improving the way the industry sells and markets cars.

"Dealer Authority is more than a perfect fit," said Ghosh. "I am passionate about being a voice for dealers. This company provides me an ideal avenue to reach many more dealerships."

Her primary job responsibility will be to help dealers integrate their various digital marketing components into a cohesive strategy. Most dealers are not taking advantage of the ways that search enhances reputation, that reputation enhances social, or that social enhances search. Once you included websites and third-parties into the mix, chaos can ensue. Subi will help to bring order to the chaos so that the whole is greater than the sum of the marketing parts.

"We were in the process of looking for an auto-industry powerhouse when Subi became available," said Tyson Madliger, CEO. "She couldn't have hit our radar at a better time and we're pumped about having her working for our clients."

Insights on Retention Metrics, KPIs, Phone Lead Conversion and Service Pricing – All Backed by Deep and Original Research - to Compete Onstage at the Inaugural DrivingSales Presidents Club event in New York City in April

Salt Lake City, UT -  March 19, 2014 - DrivingSales today announced the finalists of the 2014 DrivingSales Most Valuable Insight Competition, which was created to foster the spirit of progress and thought leadership in the auto industry. The finalists were asked to provide an insight, based on comprehensive original research, which can provide significant value to dealership executives. The four finalists were selected by a dealer panel from a competitive field of submissions and will compete onstage at the 2014 DrivingSales Presidents Club event, held at the Grand Hyatt in New York City on April 16.

The 2014 DrivingSales Most Valuable Insight Finalists are:

• “Words Matter: The Science Behind Phone Lead Conversion,” presented by CallSource
• “Rescuing Service Profits Through Trust and Price Transparency,” presented by Cars.com
• “The Death of Isolated KPIs - A New Formula for Turning Consumer Activity into Smart Marketing,” presented by Cobalt
• “Your Service Retention Metrics are Lying to You; A New Paradigm to Grow Your Service Business,” presented by DMEautomotive

“We are very excited about our finalist presentations this year, each of which starts an important dialogue our industry should be having about process innovation and improvement,” said DrivingSales CEO and Founder Jared Hamilton. “And, what makes these presentations doubly valuable is that they are not just assumptions, but insights that have been tested - and are backed - by comprehensive research and analytics. This is the kind of ‘big data’ we like to see…’big’ because it is truly visionary -- and yet actionable enough that our dealer attendees can put it in their pockets, take it home with them and implement in their dealerships.”

The DrivingSales Most Valuable Insight finalists were exclusively chosen from online applicants by top decision-makers from innovative dealerships across the US. The Dealer Panel based their decisions on the following criteria:

• Insight usefulness & applicability to a dealership/group
• Topic relevancy to a Dealer Principal or GM
• Magnitude of results or impact of the insight to a dealership/group
• Insight originality

Each finalist company will have the opportunity to present its ‘insight’ on-stage at the 2014 DrivingSales Presidents Club. The presentation includes a Q&A with a panel of dealer judges who will score each insight. The finalist company determined to have the Most Valuable Insight will have the opportunity to present findings in more detail at the Annual DrivingSales Executive Summit in October 2014.

The Most Valuable Insight Competition is part of a high-level line-up at the DrivingSales Presidents Club that includes Gary Vaynerchuk and DealerTrack’s Mark O’Neill. Visit http://www.drivingsalespresidentsclub.com for more information and to register for the event.

For more information about the DrivingSales Most Valuable Insight Competition, go to http://www.drivingsalespresidentsclub.com/competition/.

Check out today’s blog on DrivingSales at: http://www.drivingsales.com/blogs/DrivingSales/2014/03/18/2014-most-valuable-insight-finalists-announced.

About The DrivingSales Presidents Club

Held annually on the east coast, The DrivingSales Presidents Club offers dealer principals a place where they can access the right, relevant information to lead their dealerships – profit-building information filtered through those who understand it best: innovative leaders from inside and outside the industry who have built great business strategies; progressive dealerships who are making a difference on the ground, and the forward-thinking general managers and dealership principals who not only know what information matters, but how it matters. The event, which is dealer-designed to cover the topics most relevant to the challenges of dealership leadership today, also emphasizes peer interaction and idea-sharing forums. Discussions and presentations focus on the three foundational assets of successful dealership operations, Capital, Brand and People and the event includes The Most Valuable Insight competition.

About DrivingSales

DrivingSales is a professional network serving the auto industry with dealer-driven news and information, online training, and performance data, all to enable dealers to make critical business decisions at their dealerships. DrivingSales’ mission is to connect progressive dealership professionals to the people and information they need to maximize their success. Founded by a third-generation car dealer, and opened up to the industry in 2008, today DrivingSales has registered users in over 50% of new car dealerships in the US and is active in several other countries around the globe. To learn more about the DrivingSales community, training or performance analytics visit DrivingSales.com, DrivingSalesUniversity.com and DrivingSalesData.com

DrivingSales Media Relations:
Melanie Webber (melanie(at)mwebbcom(dot)com), mWEBB Communications, 424.603.4340
Crystal Hartwell (crystal(at)mwebbcom(dot)com), mWEBB Communications, 714.987.1016

March 11, 2014

Today, DealerOn, the leading website provider to car dealers, announces the hiring of Jason Ezell as their new Vice President of Sales. Recently, Ezell resigned his role as President and active partner of Dataium, LLC, the largest aggregator of auto shopper behavioral data in the industry. Jason had previously founded and led another automotive website provider, Dealerskins, through and following its purchase by Dominion Enterprises in 2005.

Ali Amirrezvani, DealerOn’s CEO, said, “We are honored to be able to add such an amazing individual to our Management Team. Jason is often recognized throughout the industry as one of the leading experts in Automotive Consumer shopping and website optimization. While he is known as one of the smartest, most accomplished people in our industry, he is universally regarded as an even better person. That’s why we are so excited to welcome him to our team, given the explosive growth we’re experiencing with our new Responsive Design website platform.”

DealerOn’s new Responsive website platform, just released at NADA 2014, was a huge success among dealers at the show. The platform automatically optimizes itself for any form factor or screen regardless of device. This platform provides a necessary solution for car dealers, given that the average dealer’s site receives traffic from nearly 1,000 unique screen resolutions each month. DealerOn’s new platform is currently in Beta, with its full release scheduled for May 1, 2014.

Said Ezell, “After 24 years in our industry, I am not just honored and thrilled to join this amazing company, but I get to return to my first and true passion -- dealer websites. Since the early years of my first company, Dealerskins, DealerOn has grown and evolved into the company I had always dreamed of creating. Now, 10 years later, I get to fulfill that dream, selling what I feel is the most dynamic, powerful and revolutionary website platform in the industry. I also get to work alongside the most passionate and professional team of people I’ve seen assembled. This is literally a dream come true.”

At Dataium, Ezell worked alongside Founder Eric Brown and their teams to start, develop, and build the first completely independent, non-biased data aggregation platform in the automotive industry. Dataium was the first to aggregate real-time shopper behavior across multiple website platforms, and normalize that data to observe the exact path to purchase for 34 million unique shoppers every month. This data has, and is, making huge positive impacts in our industry on every level.

Ezell concluded, “I want to help DealerOn incorporate everything I’ve learned over the last decade into the very epicenter of the dealer internet strategy; the dealer website. DealerOn is building a world-class sales team around a world class product, so I couldn’t ask for more. It’s what I’ve been looking for -- the perfect place to utilize all of my experience and knowledge for the direct benefit of the dealer. It’s just what I know and love.”

Chrysler and Mitsubishi dealers are the focus of pilot program 

Cleveland, OH March 6, 2014:   Carfolks.com, the first integrated marketing and employee retention solution for auto dealers, is introducing their pilot program for both Chrysler and Mitsubishi dealerships in selected markets throughout the United States. 

It’s no secret that the reputation of auto dealers isn’t very high in the mind of auto shoppers. The main cause of this perception is the high turnover rate of employees in local dealerships. Vehicle manufacturers like Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Chrysler have all tried various training and customer experience programs with little long term success.  General Motors even had their dealers attending the Disney Institute in hopes of picking up some Disney magic to invigorate their retail channel. Unfortunately, none of these programs provided the cure for the high turnover rates in auto dealerships.   

The Carfolks solution enhances training programs by making every sales and service employee in a dealership accountable for each customer relationship.  When the employee puts their training skills into practice, happy customers provide positive feedback that builds the network of each employee. The Carfolks mission is to reward dealership’s and their employees for doing things right and to post the social proof on their website. Participating dealers can also push comments to Facebook, Twitter, their websites and various blog sites. These activities put a powerful word-of-mouth program into action and create more opportunities for dealers to get on an auto shoppers consideration list. 

Jeff Sprague, Executive Vice President of Carfolks and a former dealer principal of Chrysler, Nissan and GM franchises in New England said, “The good news is that while most folks in the auto industry do a great job of working with their customers, auto shoppers commonly focus on the negative comments. Unfortunately, happy customers usually don’t go out of their way to post positive comments. The Carfolks solution makes it simple for happy customers to share their experience in about 30 seconds, and these validated reviews are posted instantly on the Carfolks.com website to enhance transparency.”  

While Chrysler and Mitsubishi dealers have excellent quality vehicles they continue to struggle against manufacturers who consistently achieve higher customer satisfaction rankings. By applying the cost effective Carfolks solution to their marketing and reputation initiatives dealers can generate organic word-of-mouth advertising that brings more auto shoppers into their dealerships.  Because the Carfolks program piggy backs on existing advertising placements the dealership sees no increase in their traditional marketing budget.

Carfolks is pleased to be providing our service to auto retailers across the country and like Facebook offers a personal page to sales and service professionals to build their brand and expand their networks. We look forward to providing Chrysler, Mitsubishi, and any other OEMs with our independent validated marketing solutions.

For more information dealers can visit these websites: 

Mitsubishi Dealers:  http://lovetheexperience.com

Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and RAM Dealers can visit http://lovetheexperience.com/chrysler 

About Carfolks.com:

Carfolks is based in Lakewood, Ohio and is the only automotive retailer and sales professional community providing transparency and customer reviews unfiltered by auto dealers. Like Facebook, Carfolks provides a free individual page for every automotive sales person in the United States and Canada to build their professional brand and to help differentiate auto dealers from their competitors.  All new vehicle dealers are listed in the Carfolks directory and consumers can visit Carfolks to post comments about their dealership experience.  
Contact: Mark R. Dubis (216) 712-6712    www.carfolks.com

Unique Vehicle Listings Site Helps Consumers Find the Right Car with the Right History from Dealers

CENTREVILLE, Va. (March 10, 2014) – Carfax has unveiled an innovation in online car shopping that helps consumers find the right car with the right history. At carfax.com, online shoppers now can search for used cars with specific vehicle history details – things like no accidents reported to Carfax, service records, Carfax 1-Owner and more. Used cars for sale from thousands of dealers on the new listings site all come with free Carfax® Vehicle History Reports™. Plus, vehicles are shown based on the history attributes shoppers want, making the shopping process for carfax.com visitors easier and faster.

“I found a great car on Carfax,” said used car shopper Nathan Walker from Washington state. “I called the dealer immediately and he said the car was not listed in their inventory yet because it was still in detail and undergoing inspection. I already knew from the information in the Carfax listing that I wanted to see it. I drove forty miles to the dealership and bought the car.”

Key vehicle history details seen in every vehicle listing help save time while sifting through search results. At carfax.com, visitors begin their search of more than one million used cars by selecting the vehicle history attributes they want. Listings from Carfax Advantage Dealers also include price, photos and a detailed description of the vehicle.

Once potential buyers find the car they want, they easily connect with the dealer directly from the vehicle listing on carfax.com.

“We’ve made sure our inventory is included on carfax.com for years,” said Jeff Best, vice president of used cars for Brown's Car Stores. “It’s an easy way for us to get in front of ready-to-buy shoppers. Consumers trust Carfax, which helps build their trust in the cars we list on Carfax.”

“Millions of online shoppers today click on readily available Carfax Reports to see if the cars they want have a history that meets their needs,” said Dick Raines, president of Carfax. “Now, consumers can know right away by choosing which history details are most important to them at the beginning of their search. Carfax puts the right cars with the right history right in front of you.”

Carfax also recommends a mechanic’s inspection and thorough test drive before buying, in addition to a Carfax Report, to help purchase the right used car with the right Carfax history.

About Carfax (www.carfax.com) 

Carfax is the vehicle history expert for used car buyers, sellers and the automotive industry. Carfax created the Vehicle History Report in 1986 and maintains the largest vehicle history database ever assembled, comprising over 12 billion vehicle records from more than 81,000 sources across North America. A Carfax® Vehicle History Report™, the most trusted resource for vehicle history information, is an essential step in the used car buying process. Get free Carfax® Reports from dealers wherever used cars are sold online or look for Carfax Advantage™ dealers in your area and say ‘Show Me the Carfax’. For used car buying tips or to purchase a Carfax® Report, visit www.carfax.com. Carfax was recently acquired by IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS).

Connect with us on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter @CarfaxReports, read our Blog and Customer Stories, and watch us on YouTube. Friend Car Fox onvFacebook and follow him on Twitter @TheCarFox. Download the ‘Carfax Reports’ mobile app from the App Store^SM and Google Play^SM.

The environment in the customer lounge says a lot about your dealership and management. In fact, dealers spent more money remodeling the lounge to look and feel more like a 'home' space then any other part of the dealership.

With comfortable chairs, coffee service, muted colors and a variety of reading material, the customer lounge area dealers focuses on a welcoming environment to increase CSI and lower customer inhibitions.

And this has translated to the choice of Customer Lounge TV programming offered as a balance of control between the dealer and the customer.

Offering broadcast programming through a cable or satellite box often means giving the control of the remote to auto dealer customers and paying that dreaded bill of several times what you pay at home. Not only will customers see competitors ads, there is no way to balance the control with the desire of many.

Some dealerships have resorted to showing programming tuned to sports or select programming that often is male dominated and restricts the lounge to the dismay of the customers.

Alternative solutions offer edutainment that shows service videos about the car with the attempt to educate customers on brakes, differential and more.

Do you think your customers want to see this?
Do you think this actually helps your sales?

Let's put yourself in some real world examples:

Customer A sits down for routine maintenance and sees a video on differential and leaves to tell his friends what a great experience he had at your store. Do you think this would actually happen? Probably not. Instead the customer would ignore the videos completely and feel like all that you did was try to sell him more stuff when he just wanted to grab some coffee and pass time.

Customer B comes in because her check engine light was on and was thinking about tires when she sees a video about the engine light that contradicts what your service advisor mentioned the issue could be. How does this reflect on your staff and dealership?

The only people that get excited about Service Videos and Animations of Engines and Brakes are the car guys that work in the dealership and the people selling the product. Managers like that there aren't any commercials and it looks cool, but can't see past the fact that customers are turned off and report negatively on experiences with these systems.

How would you feel if you went to the Doctors office and in their lounge they only showed optional procedures, instead of helping you relax before your appointment?

We found a better way.

The Digital Dealership System offers multiple Dealer Lounge TV options.

Wrap Broadcast TV - placing your ads next to live television broadcast just makes sense. Change the channels or keep it on a universal channel. The ticker along the bottom can have alternative news feeds as well as sales, service and accessory specials.
http://www.digitaldealershipsystem.com/broadcast-dealer-tv-solution.html

Create your Own Channel - using a mix of LICENSED content that is updated daily, dealer-added videos, YouTube Videos, dealer commercials, testimonials and much more, dealers can create their own channel of commercial free content and update the system whenever they want. Cut the Cord. Save Money. Control the Customer Lounge TV.
http://www.digitaldealershipsystem.com/apnews/index.html

CMO Council Report Finds Auto Ecosystem Marketers Looking for Better Ways to Integrate Marketing With Sales Generation and Sales Funnel Activities

SAN JOSE, Calif. (March 3, 2014)—The auto industry ecosystem should do more to leverage social media as a platform for driving business leads into sales pipelines, argues a new report by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council. Social media is stimulating extensive auto-related conversations and content that create major opportunities to identify likely buyers and engage them based on their preferences and purchase intent, according to the report, which is entitled "Turning Social Feeds Into Business Leads." 

Developed in partnership with hoojook, Inc.—a Silicon Valley social media intelligence company focused on the auto sector—the new report finds auto industry marketers are in various stages of adopting social marketing strategies and practices. Most see social as a potentially powerful medium for understanding and engaging consumers, but they are early in the development of marketing and business metrics, as well as processes that integrate social media data more effectively in the sales funnel.

“Social represents an important marketing frontier for the automotive industry,” said Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO Council. “Senior marketers recognize its capacity to deliver actionable, real-time insights that can help drive overall marketing effectiveness. They also see its value as a dynamic channel for influencing brand preference and purchase. Now they need to take the next step by integrating social more directly into the sales funnel and using it as a new platform for delivering qualified leads.”

There is plenty of evidence demonstrating the potential of social as a marketing channel across manufacturing brands, dealerships and aftermarket products and services. For example:

• Thirty-eight (38) percent of consumers say they will consult social media in making their next car purchase.¹
• Twenty-three (23) percent of car buyers say they use social media to communicate their purchase experience.¹
• Eighty-four (84) percent of automotive shoppers are on Facebook, and 24 percent of them have used Facebook as a resource for making their vehicle purchases.¹
• Forty (40) percent of new car purchases over the next 10 years will be made by millennials.²
• Ninety-four (94) percent of millennial car buyers gather information online.³
• Clicks on Facebook auto ads climbed from 16 percent to 39 percent between October 2012 and April 2013.¹

Based on interviews with senior marketers and executives from auto manufacturers, dealer networks, aftermarket service providers and B2B automotive solutions companies such as Autonation, Costco Auto Program, Nissan, Cadillac, Car MD, KIA, Aspen Marketing Services, Express Oil Change, Mazda, Snap-on, Dealertrack and DME Automotive, the report finds that senior marketers are highly interested in developing and using new systems and processes to leverage social more effectively for lead acquisition and acceleration. However, most say they are only in the very early stages of the process and often express caution about possible brand reputation issues when overtly marketing to individuals on social.

Nonetheless, the report argues that the use of social in combination with natural language processing and big data analytics, along with social’s ability to deliver meaningful content and commentary in context, has the potential to make it a highly effective medium for identifying, segmenting and engaging consumers based on preferences and where they are in the purchase cycle.

“The technology now exists to process and analyze social streams—not only to understand broader consumer attitudes and reputational issues, but also to identify, segment and profile individual consumers based on where they are in the purchase cycle, their preferences and needs, and even psychographic characteristics that influence how they want to engage with brands and service providers,” said Shauli Chaudhuri, CEO of hoojook. “Consumers are using social media to find product recommendations, access dealer reviews, voice complaints, display preference, consider peer opinions, capitalize on coupon offers, and engage in ongoing dialogues with their favorite automotive brands. We believe the auto industry will benefit greatly from data-driven analytics to identify potential customers and social content delivery systems that bring automotive OEMs, dealers, aftermarket service providers and other members of the ecosystem closer to the consumers who are looking to make purchases.”

The full strategic report is available for download today and features valuable insights, including:

• Campaigns focused on cars generate much higher consumer engagement and interest than other social media initiatives, such as charitable causes.
• Reputation management is seen as potentially the most critical aspect of social marketing, with consumer-generated content and commentary having a huge influence on purchasing decisions.
• Marketers view social as most effective when integrated with other channels and marketing approaches; many view social analytics as an invaluable source of insight for other digital and offline marketing efforts.
• Facebook is widely regarded as the most powerful social channel for automotive, but marketers say other channels can be more effective, depending on the need and strategy.

To download the report, please visit http://www.cmocouncil.org/r/social-feeds-into-business-leads

About the CMO Council

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide range of global industries. The CMO Council's 7,000-plus members control more than $350 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include more than 20,000 global executives in more than 110 countries covering multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, India and Africa. The council's strategic interest groups include the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE), LoyaltyLeaders.org, Marketing Supply Chain Institute, Customer Experience Board, Market Sense-Ability Center, Digital Marketing Performance Institute, GeoBranding Center and the Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience (FAME). More information about the CMO Council is available at cmocouncil.com.

About hoojook, Inc.

hoojook’s social analytics and engagement solutions empower automotive organizations to increase revenue, improve brand loyalty and reduce costs.

hoojook’s cloud-based social media intelligence and CRM platform helps the automotive industry generate new leads and manage brands. The hoojook (patent-pending) big data analytics engine transforms the chaos of social chatter into actionable information for the automotive industry. hoojook also has a solution that automates brand and online reputation management for any business or site in the automotive industry. hoojook is headquartered in Silicon Valley, Calif. For more info, please visit www.hoojook.com.

ALBANY, N.Y. – March 3rd, 2014 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems (http://www.automate.com) announced today that DealerSocket, a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to auto retailers, has completed integration with Auto/Mate's dealership management system (DMS). Dealers using both Auto/Mate and DealerSocket solutions will benefit from improved sales efficiency with real-time, bi-directional updates of customer, vehicle and deal information in both systems.

“Both Auto/Mate and DealerSocket use an open API to integrate with other vendors, keeping integration costs low and providing dealers with more choices," said Mike Esposito, President and CEO of Auto/Mate. "I've always believed that dealers should be able to choose any third-party solution without integration being a factor in that decision."

With integrated systems, prospect information entered into DealerSocket's CRM is instantly and securely updated in Auto/Mate’s DMS, while any changes made in the DMS are immediately updated in the CRM. Real-time integration ensures accurate information in both systems, compared to data exchanges performed via batch deliveries.

“We’re happy to be able to provide our customers with another quality choice when it comes to dealership management system (DMS) vendors," said Nathan Usher, Director of Product Management with DealerSocket.

DealerSocket's innovative CRM and lead-management solutions are designed to increase revenue from sales and service, improve customer satisfaction index (CSI) and boost the dealership’s gross profit. At NADA 2014 both Auto/Mate and DealerSocket were honored with “Highest Rated" dealer satisfaction awards, determined by the thousands of auto dealers who are part of the DrivingSales.com community. Auto/Mate received the “Highest Rated DMS of 2013” award; while DealerSocket received the "Highest Rated Sales CRM of 2013" and the "Top Rated ILM of 2013" awards.

Auto/Mate provides dealers with robust, user-friendly software along with the best customer service in the industry. Auto/Mate's DMS is the ideal solution for single and group franchise dealerships. For more information call Auto/Mate at 877-340-2677.

About DealerSocket

DealerSocket is an industry leading automotive CRM and dealership training provider, serving auto dealers throughout the US and Canada. Founded in 2001 by Jonathan Ord and Brad Perry, DealerSocket is based in San Clemente, California and employs over 300 people, serves over 3,000 dealers in the U.S., Canada and Australia, and supports more than 100,000 active users.

About Auto/Mate

Auto/Mate Dealership Systems is a leading provider of dealership management system (DMS) software to retail automotive dealerships. Its Automotive Management Productivity Suite (AMPS) is a user-friendly, feature-rich DMS in use by more than 1,000 auto dealers nationwide. Auto/Mate received the “Highest Rated DMS of 2012" and the "Highest Rated DMS of 2013" awards in the annual Driving Sales Dealer Satisfaction Awards.

Auto/Mate’s employees have more than 850 years of combined experience working in auto dealerships – the foundation of its “Designed By Car People For Car People^TM” slogan. For more information visit our website, follow us on Twitter @AutoMateDMS and subscribe to our blog at http://blog.automate.com

Lead2Show, Web2Show now includes valuable Carfax information

NEW YORK — February 27, 2014 — Carfax-subscribing dealers can give their prospective buyers access to Carfax Vehicle History Reports within HookLogic products Web2Show and Lead2Show, HookLogic announced today. Dealers now can send links to Carfax Reports within the customer confirmation page and emails. This enhancement helps engage more potential buyers and provide the information they need to buy their next used car with more confidence.

“Carfax and HookLogic are committed to helping dealers turn online shoppers into on-the-lot buyers,” said Larry Gamache, communications director at Carfax. “With HookLogic’s AutoHook, our mutual customers can make sure the vehicle history information used car buyers want to see is readily available to them.”

Research shows that used vehicles turn 15 days faster on average when a Carfax Report is available to prospective buyers.

“AutoHook already drives 30% of prospective leads into the showroom — twice the national average,” said HookLogic Automotive President David Metter. “Giving those leads access to Carfax will make the leads even more qualified. By saving everyone’s time, this partnership will lead to the happiest outcomes.”

About Carfax 

Carfax is the vehicle history expert for used car buyers, sellers and the automotive industry. Carfax created the Vehicle History Report in 1986 and is trusted by dealerships across North America to help acquire, advertise and retail used cars. Carfax is the vehicle history provider of choice for 37 manufacturer Certified programs and is integrated into hundreds of acquisition and inventory management tools, available on popular online automalls and featured on thousands of automotive websites. Carfax® Vehicle History Reports™ are viewed more than 170 million times a year to help people buy with more confidence. Become a Carfax Advantage™ dealer or learn how Carfax can help your dealership win by visiting www.carfaxonline.com. Carfax was recently acquired by IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS).

About HookLogic

HookLogic, the global leader in commerce search advertising, enables marketers to influence in-market shoppers and Win the Moment of Truth™ on the world’s leading retail, travel, and automotive sites. Network partners and advertisers including Expedia, Target, AutoTrader.com Chrysler, Intel, Newegg and Rakuten Shopping use HookLogic to increase sales and monetize site traffic with industry-leading solutions such as Retail Search Exchange, TravelAds, and AutoHook. Backed by Bain Capital Ventures and Intel Capital, HookLogic is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Ann Arbor, Atlanta, and London, UK. For more information on the Retail Search Exchange, please visit www.retailsearchexchange.com.

Steve Pace, veteran of leading innovative digital marketing companies, including Dealer.com, Dealix, ResponseLogix, AutoWeb and Autobytel, to lead dealer sales initiatives for rapidly growing company

San Francisco, CA – February 25, 2014 – LotLinx, the first syndicated advertising network for automotive retailing that delivers deep-linking to VDPs on dealership websites, today announced that it has named digital automotive sales expert and veteran, Steve Pace, its Chief Revenue Officer.  Pace, who has an eleven-year track record of leading sales for some of the industry’s most innovative and successful digital marketing companies, will head up dealer sales for LotLinx which launched in October 2013, and already provides its marketing platform to over 350 dealers. 

“We are very pleased to welcome another leader in the digital automotive industry to the LotLinx team. From his experience at the inception of the automotive Internet at AutoWeb, to his leadership delivering digital marketing to dealers and revenue to the bottom line at Dealer.com, Steve brings great insight and understanding into what is, and isn’t, working for dealers in today’s digital universe,” said LotLinx Founder Len Short. “Simply put, he completely understands our mission to deliver low-funnel, ready-to-buy customers to dealers -- and his experience will ensure that our customers are well-served as our company grows.”

LotLinx’s mission is to tear down the third-party wall between auto dealers and their customers by replacing lead forms on third-party sites with direct links that send consumers to a vehicle’s detail page (VDP) on the dealer’s website. LotLinx already powers 135+ automotive search sites, reaching over 85% of all auto shoppers. In multiple tracking tests across hundreds of dealerships, LotLinx consistently outperforms all other paid traffic programs, generating more visits, more views, more leads and more sales.

“LotLinx is the logical next level of the automotive Internet and I am very excited to join its deep bench of automotive digital marketing innovators,” said Pace. “One of the most important things I have learned in over 10 years working with dealers in digital marketing is that they want straight talk from their vendors, along with straight, qualified, valuable traffic -- with no intermediary or interference.  LotLinx delivers that – and for much less than traditional marketing partners. I am looking forward to growing revenue not only for LotLinx, but for its network of progressive dealers.”

Pace brings a track record of increasing company sales revenue and successfully leading account teams managing thousands of dealerships to LotLinx. Most recently, he served as Executive Director of Account Sales at Dealer.com (recently acquired by DealerTrack for $1 billion), where he drove strategies and tactics for a team of 100 account managers servicing 7,000 + client dealers. Previously, he was VP of Sales for ResponseLogix and VP of Sales for Dealix Corporation where he helped increase new car lead revenues from $14 million to $66 million. Pace started his digital automotive sales career at online pioneer AutoWeb.com, helping to build the company – and its sales force - into one of the powerhouses of the dot-com revolution, and then overseeing the integration of sales teams when the company was acquired by Autobytel.

About LotLinx

LotLinx is the first syndicated advertising network for automotive retailing to deliver deep-linking to VDPs (Vehicle Detail Pages) and connects over 6.5 million consumers searching vehicle inventory online every month directly to the dealership websites where that inventory resides. Founded by a team of veteran automotive and digital innovators, the company's mission is to tear down the third-party wall between dealers and their customers, and provide a more positive and efficient experience for dealerships and consumers alike. LotLinx's patent-pending technology replaces lead forms on third-party sites with direct links that transport consumers searching for inventory directly to the dealer's VDP, all at a higher conversion rate and fraction of the cost of other online options. LotLinx is based in San Francisco, CA.

Media Contacts
Melanie Webber, mWEBB Communications, (424) 603-4340 / melanie@mwebbcom.com
Cassandra Cavanah, mWEBB Communications, (818) 397-4630 / cassandra@mwebbcom.com