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Dealers Superimposing their Pictures in Front of the Dealership

Pictures tell a story
Here's an old post from Uncle Joe's Makeover Diary. This isn't rocket science, SOMEONE must have done this already.

Pictures tell a thousand words.


Idea: Use your vehicle photographs of the car getting TLC in your clean up department.
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It'll require some staging, but actions shots will help a shopper SEE your efforts

Probably more impact on used cars.
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Think of it as a shot that'll help your shopper see the value of your operations.
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This is a great video presentation from EverGreen Ford of Seattle.

Although they're pitching their detailing services, it would be a cool used car prep video on the VDP.
 
Agreed! I'm a fan of the old school VDP image layout that Txdirect / vroom is using. The Desktop and mobile UX is identical. I'd love to see an engagement study of image layouts on VDPs.
Right now I'm actually working at making our photo popup look similar to that layout (you scroll down and see all the photos but the CTA box over on the right hand side is sticky).

I would love to eventually test switching one store's VDP layout over to the Texas Direct style, I am a big fan of it.

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Why not display specific car features, like Sunroof, LED (Xenon) lights, leather, miles etc, instead of the ego driven thing ;-) (also that ego driven thing (stars) obscures the wheel)

That would be a great A/B click-thru test, but my marketing/ merchanding gut tells me that Jeff's overlay leads with his best punch and it's a TOP differentiator.

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Uncle Joe Rule #45221
"Shoppers don't want to buy online, they want to visit a dealer that will give hem the most productive experience".

Actionable take away: DEALERS NEED TO BE SELLING THE VISIT MORE THAN THE VIN!

Bonus #2: A classified's shopper that connects with the implied safety of "Dealer of the Year" will scan a down the SRP and that DriveMB overlay will cause them to stop and give MORE weight to MB of Hagerstown -and- a visit to MB of Hagerstown.
 
Right now I'm actually working at making our photo popup look similar to that layout (you scroll down and see all the photos but the CTA box over on the right hand side is sticky).

I would love to eventually test switching one store's VDP layout over to the Texas Direct style, I am a big fan of it.

View attachment 3435
It has been about 7 years since I was actually working in a dealership. You have quality pictures. I'm still a fan of filling the frame with the vehicle. It may not look natural or aesthetically pleasant but I want the front and rear bumpers, especially on the first car, to nearly touch the margins. My concern is how small the picture might look on a search results page while looking at AutoTrader or Cars.com on a tablet or phone. My daughters and son-in-laws only use tablets and iPhones while their computers gather dust. You have to get someone to click on your vehicle at the SRP before you worry about VDP. Yes, I believe size matters. What does AutoTrader premium cost these days?
 
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It has been about 7 years since I was actually working in a dealership. You have quality pictures. I'm still a fan of filling the frame with the vehicle. It may not look natural or aesthetically pleasant but I want the front and rear bumpers, especially on the first car, to nearly touch the margins. My concern is how small the picture might look on a search results page while looking at AutoTrader or Cars.com on a tablet or phone. My daughters and son-in-laws only use tablets and iPhones while their computers gather dust. You have to get someone to click on your vehicle at the SRP before you worry about VDP. Yes, I believe size matters. What does AutoTrader premium cost these days?
I completely agree and we have a photo manual that demonstrates the proper order, angle, location, zoom level, etc of each photo because I understand how important it is to properly merchandise each and every vehicle.

Unfortunately when you have 46 locations across the US, 10,000 vehicles in-stock, and 60+ different entry level people photographing vehicles, it's almost impossible to have 100% perfect photos without centralizing the process or having a full-time person in charge of being a nitpicky photo nazi.

And to answer your question about AutoTrader, far too much :)
 
In full disclosure, I work with AutouplinkUSA in Alabama and one of the services we provide is image enhancement. I usually give a big disclaimer that it doesn't always look perfect and can look fake. However, If you do your best up front to get a quality photo of the dealership or background positioned naturally where a car would be parked in front, it can look pretty good. I see a lot of others out there that look like the car is flying in front of the store. I prefer a nice natural background if possible but for dealers where they don't have good options for shooting with a nice natural background or want to avoid the clutter that would be in the background, it can be a decent option.

As for larger photos, at AutoUpLinkUSA we just started exporting photos in 1600x1200 for current customers and they look crisp and clean on websites that expand photos past the standard 640x480. The first website I moved to this was a Potratz site but I see some Dealer Inspire sites that are doing it as well. Until recently everything was resized to 640x480 on all the major websites and 3rd parties so there wasn't a need for it.
 
In full disclosure, I work with AutouplinkUSA in Alabama and one of the services we provide is image enhancement. I usually give a big disclaimer that it doesn't always look perfect and can look fake. However, If you do your best up front to get a quality photo of the dealership or background positioned naturally where a car would be parked in front, it can look pretty good. I see a lot of others out there that look like the car is flying in front of the store. I prefer a nice natural background if possible but for dealers where they don't have good options for shooting with a nice natural background or want to avoid the clutter that would be in the background, it can be a decent option.

Thanks for jumping into the conversation David. You've got some balls coming in here :lol:

I visited your website and couldn't find any examples of your "superimposing" product. I assume you would classify that under your "Image Customization Interface." Anyway, can you provide some examples of what you consider a good effort?
 
Outside the box. No boundaries. Photos give dealers a chance to tell a story, a chance to differentiate themselves with ZERO ad spend

I'm digging the post-it notes @JoePistell

Outside the box? Check!
No boundaries? Check!
Telling a story? Check!
Different? Check!
Cost? 0.000000000000000001 : Cha Ching!!!
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On a side note- Anyone reading this sentence, I bet you read every post-it note on that picture didn't ya! LOL