Car Dealer Giving Away Free AK-47's

I ran across this video recently which I thought was worth sharing. I've seen a lot of gimmicks used by car dealers to draw a crowd, but never anything like this. There are some good lessons to be learned from this dealer, even though you may not agree with his tactics...



Whether you agree with this dealer or not in his advertising practices, you have to admit one thing: he's got a huge amount of exposure as a result of this. Sure, some people are going to be definitively turned off by this, but when you consider the exposure he's getting from CNN and other national news, local news, YouTube views, syndicated radio shows, and blogs like this, I'm sure there is a significant net gain in the number of potential customers the dealership has been getting. Even if someone isn't a gun owner, seeing news pieces like this often end up in Google searches for the dealership. The dealer even mentioned how much his website traffic (and resulting sales) are up.

Personally I feel this marketing takes things to a different level, but I like how this dealer thinks outside the box. How many YouTube videos or CNN bits have you seen on a particular dealer offering a free gas card?

Max Motors is now upping the ante...instead of AK-47's with a purchase, they're now offering a .50 cal sniper rifle with any Viper purchase. Same sort of promo as the last one, but they wouldn't get any additional press if they simply continued the AK-47 promo, so why not take it up a notch to get more people talking?

I see only one problem with their marketing campaign. They obviously have done a great job at creating attention/interest, but upon examination of their website I think their conversion rate could be a lot higher if the site wasn't so busy. Granted, I don't know what their conversion rates are, but with all the "crap" on their site I'd be willing to bet that a more simple, to the point site would help their sales. Even a micro site for the "Snipers for Vipers" campaign.

Comic Relief from Working in the Auto Industry

I typically try to post informative information for car dealers here, but our days are all filled with people telling us how to do things, how to do things better, and so on. That can get old after a while and we all need the occasional break from the norm. Here is that break for you...

I enjoy looking for the worst-ever car dealer commercials. It's always tough to pick the worst, because once you get below a certain level of professionalism, they're all pretty close. Here are a few links to the worst of the worst:

Big Bob's Used Cars

Eagle Insurance

And a local commercial for me (Auto Connection) that is best summed up by a comment someone posted on YouTube: "I have seen only one car commercial worse than that. This is more low budget than the other one I've seen, but this one lacks the ability to make you want to murder people." The sad thing is that this dealer has upped the ante even more with their most recent commercials.

Sometimes when you wonder if you're doing a good job on marketing, you just have to sit back and be thankful you don't work for another dealership!

Online vs. Television Advertising for Auto Dealers

So these days a lot of auto dealers use online advertising or cable TV ads. Which works better now, and what does the future hold for each? BlogPro Automotive recently posted an article to their blog and Auto Industry Startups posted their own article, both discussing behavioral targeting and how it can be applied to online advertising. I was speaking with someone a couple of days ago about a TV ad for a local dealership and asked if they had seen it. Their response was a reminder that as technology changes, so does the effectiveness of advertising. They told me that they are rarely home during the time this dealer's ads run, so they're always seeing the TV show by watching it on TiVo. As a result, they don't subject themself to the commercials by virtue of a fast-forward button. It really got me thinking....as TiVo and digital video recording becomes even more mainstream, how much will the advertisers be hit with inefficient advertising? Cable advertising, like online, can be very specific - targeting certain neighborhoods or demographics is common. How much data does that little cable box collect anyway? When will it start letting the company know things like my typical viewing habits? When will they start targeting advertising based on those habits - if I always watch comedies but throw on a sappy Lifetime movie on a Friday night will they start showing me anti-depressant ads? It's a joke, but it's also a very real possibility.

Back to my original questions: as DVR becomes more mainstream, how will TV advertising change for car dealers? I'm sure the cable companies give out viewer numbers/reach when trying to sell advertising spots, but how accurate are those numbers when you take the "commercial skippers" into account? At this point I can't imagine internet users leaving a reputable site because of advertisements, but what's down the road? Popup blockers have already impacted online ad conversion rates. The bottom line in our present world of advertising is that online currently offers a high level of targeted advertising. The more targeted, the higher the conversion rates, in theory at least. The targeting is getting to be more and more precise (behavioral targeting being a great example of the next level), and who knows how precise it will get. So is it better to have highly targeted ads to a small group of prospects, or is it better to have a broader reach with lower conversion percentages? This is obviously a debatable issue, since car dealers use both. As someone who isn't paying the advertising bills at a dealership, I say you cover your bases with diversification.

Mercedes-Benz and the Golden Rule of Advertising: Repetition

I'll often leave a television on while I work. Sometimes to listen to the news, and other times just for a little background noise. Lately there has been one commercial that catches my attention EVERY time. Mercedes has been running this one commercial lately about their most recent sales event. They've been running it a LOT. Some young kid playing with his Mercedes pedal car and it asks the viewer how long they've dreamed of owning a MB. At first look I thought the commercial was great....a little nostalgia, a catchy jingle, etc. Now it's starting to be annoying.

The fact that I'm annoyed by a decent commercial is not the point. The point here is that Mercedes has a commercial that I'm sure EVERYONE is familiar with. Why? Because of the repetition level. (Note: No joke, I just heard it for the second time since I started typing this post.) If they only ran it once or twice a day would anyone know about this commercial? Not likely. Would it be effective at driving home the point that there's a sale going on? Nope. Repetition in (most) advertising is necessary to make it effective.

The same is true with advertising your dealership website. Even though we explain the entire concept of websites to clients ahead of time, we've had some dealers who expect thousands of customers to come the day a website is launched. It takes time to build up some areas such as search engine rankings, and the dealers who have the most success use their site as one arm of a comprehensive marketing plan. This means advertising it, and doing so on a regular basis. If you use a full page ad in the local magazine, make sure your website is listed. Using a particular graphic or font to display the URL and keeping it the same each week will help build recognition. One of our dealers does a lot of radio spots, and they end their ads the same way each time - by repeating their website address twice.

So is it worth it to run your ad so frequently that you annoy some guy in Virginia who is involved with advertising? Probably....I am writing about it, aren't I?