Traditional Advertising, Please Meet the Digital World How Traditional Advertising is Aligning with Digital, Not Fighting Against It
Traditional Advertising, Please Meet the Digital World How Traditional Advertising is in Partnership with Digital, Not Fighting Against It Simple Beginnings Launch Billion Dollar Industry In the 1950s, as America s post-war boom was moving into high gear, something happened that changed the way car dealers advertised. From the showroom of his Courtesy Chevrolet dealership in Chicago, Jim Moran crafted the first dealership television commercial and launched dealers into a dynamic new advertising medium. From this humble beginning, the seed of traditional advertising that has been the mainstay of retail automotive marketing was planted. For more than 50 years, dealers advertisements in newspapers, radio, TV, and out-of-home messages have tickled the senses of car buyers, convincing them to rush to the dealership and buy their next car. As a result, dealers now have better insight and understanding of which traditional advertising mediums entice consumers today. An estimated $5.3 billion was spent by car dealers on advertising in 2011 alone 1. Year after year, the cost per car for advertising continues to increase, just like dealers appetites for promoting their businesses. Dealer Advertising Transforms As the automotive industry was getting comfortable with its advertising mix of print, TV, and radio, a new player joined the ad spend party. What began as a minor expense a mere blip in the budget for a simple dealership website now has become a substantial part of every dealer s advertising budget. In 1999, traditional advertising consumed 95.2% of the average dealership budget 2. In just ten years, websites have become so crucial to dealerships that this former blip in the budget has grown to consume 22.2% of the budget 2. Now a powerful player in the advertising mix, digital marketing is expected to continue consuming a bigger portion of dealer advertising budgets until digital spend is on par with traditional 2. This rapid growth in digital marketing spend can be attributed to more than just growth from websites alone. In large part, the digital world has been successful because of the way advertisers have integrated traditional advertising into digital spaces. As computer technology has improved and web connectivity has expanded, media companies have figured out how to transform traditional print, voice, and video methods into rich media, distributed digitally through the Internet. For example, TV broadcasters have become Hulu.com content providers, and music producers who once reached out to radio stations now are establishing licenses with online radio stations like Pandora.com. For dealerships, simple websites that once were one-page placeholders for contact information are no longer sufficient. Today s dealership websites are in essence virtual dealerships that replicate many features of brick-and-mortar retailing, everything from precise inventory listings, interactive product information, service appointment scheduling, and other consumerfriendly features. The Blip Has Changed Everything As this migration to digital media continues, two common elements of traditional media remain. First, while the newer, online forms of traditional media may have new names web video, news portals, Internet radio their online content is essentially identical to their traditional counterparts. Take, for example, that listening to the Beach Boys belt out Surfin U.S.A. through your computer speakers today can evoke the same experience as it did when it was on the radio in the 1960s only the medium has changed, not the message. 1
Second, just as with traditional media, digital properties thrive because of the media dollars generated from advertising. As society continues to listen to the radio (in the car or online), dealers are still able to reach potential car buyers with their promotions and marketing. Just now, they re able to reach customers through traditional and digital channels. Furthermore, this Internet blip has shaken up the way a dealer s advertising initiatives are developed, how results are tracked, and how messages are delivered to consumers. The traditional advertising and direct response genres now have expanded to include web, social media, blogs, forums, and mobile. Today s world commands a holistic media plan that includes cross-channel promotions delivered across a variety of formats from print to video, audio, rich media, flash media, and more. Consumers changing media habits also have changed the car buyer s path to purchase. This path has shifted from simply receiving a traditional ad and going to the showroom to meet with a salesperson to meandering through multiple touch points, numerous information sources, independent research, and rich media infotainment online. Dealers can now communicate with potential buyers using any or all of these 20 unique channels: TV Radio Newspaper Out-of-Home Messaging Websites Banner Ads Online Web Video Web TV Facebook/ Social YouTube Newsletters Direct Mail Email Mobile Websites Mobile Video Text Marketing Microsites Guerilla Point of Sale Materials How has your digital footprint expanded in the last 10 years, 5 years? Traditional Meets Digital Tying It All Together Mr. Dealer, may I introduce your traditional advertising plans to the media needs of today s marketplace? Let s talk about your execution across all of these channels. Bridging the gap starts with what automotive retailers have spent more than 60 years perfecting using traditional channels to reach, attract, and retain customers. Dealers today must ask themselves what else they can do with all the traditional advertising content they are producing. And, more importantly, dealers need to ask how they can align these messages to reinforce, not compete with, one another, ultimately driving the retail intent that gets consumers from their living room to the showroom. More than 40% of people get their news online 3. This number climbs to 65% for consumers aged 18-25 3. In light of these statistics, dealers who want to capture consumers attention through classified advertising must alter their perception of what normal news channels are to include digital sources. However, this can be a simple shift. Most newspapers have created online publications so any classified ad in the print edition is already made digital. Likewise, the dealer s non-classified print ad is transformed into a banner ad that has an additional benefit over print in that the dealer s classified ad or website is only a click away. Can your customers find your newspaper specials anywhere online? Radio spots, another traditional media type that dealers have been perfecting for decades, also translate easily to the web. IHeartRadio.com and Pandora.com are just two online radio players that are rapidly growing in popularity. Using webbased geo-targeting, dealers can take broadcast radio spots and repurpose them for online listeners. With 16% of all radio listeners accessing Pandora regularly, that s an audience of 31 million consumers today and a projected growth rate 2
of 77% annually 4. The numerous iphone and Android digital radio apps now available are a direct response to this growth. Dealers should investigate moving some radio advertising to the Internet as part of any holistic media plan. As an added benefit, unlike traditional radio, online listeners typically listen through the commercial breaks rather than flipping to another station. Finally, there s the 800-pound gorilla in the dealership advertising budget: TV spend. Believe it or not, even these dollars can be repurposed online. Dealers usually spend big money to create memorable messages and produce quality commercials. These commercials, originally created for TV, can quickly and easily be turned into online videos that yield high results for dealers. In addition, online video ads create opportunities to provide the same content in a number of places at once, from Facebook to banner ads, websites, email messages, microsites, mobile deployments, and many more. Want proof? Everyone who surfs the web encounters video; it s not just for those going to YouTube or the emerging Apple TV. Have you visited ESPN.com to see the play of the day video? Then, perhaps you noticed that video is preceded by an online ad. How about the local newspaper s online coverage of a holiday parade? Yes, another ad is shown. Even online replays of TV shows are brimming with video ads. For further evidence, consider that Hulu.com is the 44th most popular website in America and serves 24.2 ads per month to each viewer 5. And, while TV viewers can easily skip a commercial with the flip of the remote, the clever folks at Hulu.com have made it impossible for viewers to fast forward through their ads. Are you using your TV commercials in other spaces online? As with newspaper and radio ads, dealers can use the same techniques they ve honed developing ads for TV to capture the attention of consumers online. While the format may be different, the message and execution should be consistent. More Media, One Message Moving traditional ad productions into the digital realm is a natural extension of what dealers are already doing. To ease the transition, dealers can work directly with the media channels or through a capable cross-media agency to produce digital ad formats, make digital media buys, accurately target audiences, and monitor and report on the success of digital advertising as part of the dealer s larger marketing initiatives. The advertising story across all media channels stays the same, and the necessity to align the messages across mediums is no different today than it was when Jim Moran first aligned his TV ad with his newspaper ads. Consistent messaging across numerous touch points reinforces the call to action and enhances the brand recall. This holds true whether you are selling cars, furniture, or cookies. According to an article in the Journal of Advertising Research, each message played through a different medium reinforces the other. In fact, the article points out, eleven consistent messages produce the best retail intent in consumers while maximizing the retailer s advertising dollars spent 6. Integration and message alignment across all channels, therefore, ultimately produces better results for the dealer s advertising dollars. Did you know a consumer must see your message 11 times to drive retail intent? What becomes the challenge for dealers, then, is effectively managing the work required to develop and deploy their message in a diverse, and ever-growing, set of media outlets. 3
Making a Holistic Approach a Reality Naked Lime Marketing helps dealers create a holistic, integrated advertising strategy that features both traditional and digital media and delivers maximum results. In order to make this a reality, Naked Lime has partnered with Zimmerman Advertising, the largest retail marketing agency and the the 14th largest ad agency in America. Through its partnership with Zimmerman, Naked Lime provides best-in-class advertising production and media services to help dealerships align their messages across all media channels, from traditional to digital. Zimmerman and Naked Lime have perfected the Brandtailing philosophy whereby an advertiser builds their brand over time while achieving sales overnight. To do this, they align promotions across all touch points. About Naked Lime Marketing Naked Lime is your answer to fresh and innovative marketing, advertising, and web services. Naked Lime not only gives your dealership the solutions to compete, but the one-of-a-kind personal touch, expertise, and twist to help you inspire action and customer loyalty at every point in the retail process. Sources: 1. NADA Data 2. Mashable.com 3. Pandora SEC Filings 4. Alexia.com 5. Ad Age: Agency Report Index 6. Journal of Advertising Research Together, our companies understand the expanding media universe and how consumers are adapting to using these expanding channels. As advertising experts, Naked Lime and Zimmerman can help dealers align their message and manage their media opportunities to efficiently and effectively reach consumers with the right message through the right medium at the right time, which ultimately leads to better business results for dealers. 4