Car Dealers Embrace Online Video - Automotive Online Video Marketing Trends

[Terry Varner]

I was going to stay out of this discussion because it seems everyone is helping to push their own agendas; but I have to put in my two cents worth. As Jeff and Alex know, I am presently in the streaming video arena and I am very close in the next week or two of launching a new website dedicated to auto dealers to promote their new and used car videos with many of the features that dealers are looking for.
Video is the future of marketing automobiles, homes and other consumer products. If it wasn’t, internet leaders like Google and others wouldn’t be pouring millions of dollars into developing their programs.
David you state that taking a video is more expensive that taking photos. You couldn’t be more wrong. Taking a walk around video of a vehicle with voice commentary is as easy as taking photos (Tony Weaver can attest to this) and is much more consumer friendly than those computer generated voices associated with 360 degree photos. That is why many consumers hang up on automated answering machines at dealerships and businesses. They want a human voice.
As far as “25% of all U.S. dealers currently use online video marketing.” I have to agree with Jeff and having a little knowledge of this after surveying dealers across the country for the last year (non-scientific survey), that 25% figure is way high and find it would be closer to 5% of dealers use some sort of video, such as embedding their TV commercials’ or some inventory on their own sites by using YouTube. The good news is that dealers are looking for a mechanism to promote videos of their inventories.

 

[David (blog)]

Most of out clients are small dealerships. To save the money, they normally do not use third party for photo taking. Some of my dealers, even prefer to take the photo themselves so they can have quality control under control. That’s why in my last post, I am concern the cost issue. Imagine that small dealer needs to pay a fee for a video that could be a hard sell (maybe big dealer do not care). What I am trying to say in my last post is that there are ways to make this “video” idea affordable for all dealers. Trust me, I am not take side or promote / demote any products. I wish all dealer can have video in their web site, but how to get there from current market condition, the only thing technology can help is to push the envelop, and come up with acceptable and affordable solution for dealers.

I am not against human generated video.  I would like to see we can hit that 25% for “video usage”.

 

[philipzelinger]

Just an FYI on SiSTer Technologies Video Carlot as far as price and product to supplement the questions/comments so far. For $495 per month they AUTOMATICALLY custom produce videos for every vehicle on a dealer's website using the information already posted - such as the pictures and equipment - then they wrap it in an opening and closing branding logo and jingle and push them all individually through RSS fees to all of your current 3rd party sites, post them on your site and throughYou Tube to the serach engines. The real savings is in the time and effort from production to posting that they offer so your staff is free to sell cars - not take and place videos of them!

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I was just speaking with someone about video and photos and said to myself..wonder how long it will be before someone come up with a product that would take photos and somehow merge them together to give you a 3D look? And here it is...sorta. David, thanks for linking us to http://photosynth.net/ I'm going to keep my eyes on this!

On another note..LETS PLEASE not turn this thread into a sales pitch (like it has already has). Mark Robertson was nice enough to take the time to write this post and allow me to publish here on DealerRefresh. This post was to get everyone thinking, provide some feedback on the stats and information provided.

What Type of Videos Do Car Dealers Run?
The Future of Online Video For Car Dealers?
Does Online Video Marketing Drive Sales?

As much as I appreciate some peoples enthusiasm to pitch products for other vendors, that was not the intention for this post. come'on.

If this was a post for "What video service do you use and why do you prefer them?" then it would make sense and I would be alright plugs.

Sorry, If I come off a little pissy but It goes to show you how quickly a valuable post can get over shadowed by one comment.

Lets please get back on track here with what matters.

What Type of Videos Do Car Dealers Run?

The Future of Online Video For Car Dealers?

Does Online Video Marketing Drive Sales?

 

[Stew Pedasso]

Jeff, I don't know you, love your website, been reading it fer years. There's alot of great dialogue here, and I just started wanting to post. I also have some advice for you if you care.

You need to quit ur job and go into government! We need this kind of anti-BS style governance for the people! Getting to the facts and nitty-gritty, godspeed truthseeker!

Seriously tho, I'll take on these video questions if anyone cares to read my babble.

What Type of Videos Do Car Dealers Run?

Anything they can with what they have to work with, or what is PERCEIVED to be effective by them to gain more website traffic.

I've seen it ALL here; tv commercials, walkarounds, customer and dealership personnel testimonials, viral video attempts (omg), test drives (yawn), mission statements, service dept walkthrus, owner (ego driven) interviews.

From DIY dealer videos to the automated car videos, it's all about that particular dealers choice of what will work. All because it's just too new to know. It's like the wild west with dealership video right now!

The Future of Online Video For Car Dealers?

Whatever Youtube and Google force feeds down our throats...?!
But let's think about what a video can bring to a car shopper, and work it backwards. As a shopper, I'll first want to see the actual vehicle I'm interested in buying, and I want to be told/sold about the options. At this point in the process I don't care about your dealership, or how great it is yet, just show me the car! If I like it, then I might check out your other cool ego videos to give me a perspective of what kind of dealer I might be buying from.

As for the future for dealers, maybe we'll have video collectors instead of data collectors? The online video hype across all product sectors is truly in it's infancy now, kind of reminds me of the early 90's and the big push for websites and photos.

Does Online Video Marketing Drive Sales?

General dealership videos and related... NO.
Vehicle videos... absolutely! About as much as a single photo, description, and a price of that same vehicle does online - if the right shopper finds it and contacts the dealer.

A vehicle video is just another way to attract a buyer online. Google and other search engines are pushing tagged videos higher (all product segments) in their search rankings which fuels the video marketing efforts and craze, but it's just too new provide a solid confirmation of driving sales. We need a few years of solid data to confirm the true perceived domination of vehicle videos online.

I don't want to be a buzz-kill here on video, and let me clarify, video marketing is going to be the future online medium of choice for all products. Right now, with the current economy, and the shift from traditional into online advertising from all businesses, we're still several years away from video generating substantial sales online.

The main reason being there are still too many ways for a shopper to find products online which provide the basic details needed to purchase.

We'll see another major broad-shift into online video product marketing in maybe 5 years I'm guessing.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Stew, I can't possibly thank you enough or your comments! I "hope" I'm not smart enough for a high position within the government. Ha!!

Truly appreciate your comments and a huge thanks for getting this post back onto track!!

Jeff

 

[Jennifer Schrader (blog)]

Jeff Kershner for President???

 

[John McAdams (blog)]

Jeff,

Another great article!! Kudos for getting the "right" word out in this industry!

Thanks for always shedding light - Video, done correctly, within a set strategy model can create exponential lift, done incorrectly, just a waste of time and resources -

Keep up the great work you are doing here, and have a great holiday!

John

 

[Scott Rainville]

I agree with Stew on a number of points. Inventory video is the most popular and the most easily tracked. Also, the challenges facing online video are not unlike the early adopters of websites and it is way too early to name a winner.

There are very few dealers who do anything other than post TV commercials and used car inventory so I would not say at this early stage you should write off dealership, testimonial or staff interview videos. There is a concentrated push by some dealerships to push as much of the sales process onto the web and video will play a large part in making people comfortable with the process.

With that said, we are as much as a couple of years away from widespread use of video for anything other than used car inventory. I don't have any big statistics to through around but I will end with this...Long before we had video for inventory Acton Toyota was posting videos about their dealership and their online sales process and they were very successful.

 

[Jay Ehret]

It's not about the product, it's about the dealership. People can get cars anywhere, what can they get from your dealership? It’s not about capturing video of each vehicle. That’s trying to sell on your website. Excuse the heresy, but you're not going to sell a car on your website.

The video on your website should be used to engage consumers and get them interested in your dealership, not in your cars. Everyone has cars. What do you have that’s different?

Here's the cheap and easy way to get video on your website: buy a Flip camera. Walk around your dealership and take videos of employees and customers. Put together stories. Then use a free video hosting service like YouTube or Viddler and embed the videos on your site. Set up a YouTube channel for your dealership because your local customers watch YouTube also. The video results can show up in an organic Google search with the write keywords.