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I prefer your in-house video, yes I would suggest a voice over describing what the viewer is watching. If the voice over is done right it will add a lot of experience value.


The panned photo/videos were created way back in the day (2004) first started with text-to-speech (robot voice). They've evolved since then, caught some traction with dealers in 2008 when we were sending them to Youtube automatically and getting top first page positioning with certain keyword patterns. They did have some SEO benefits overall, but the view-through % weren't there for shopping value. Now they have more integration, human voice-over snippets tied to the equipment (2009), but still not getting any substantive shopping value. It's not providing anything over and above someone looking through photos while reading about the features and equipment.


I remember when Tim Jennings started doing real walkaround videos @ Tom Sparks Buick back in 2008 and knew that was going to be the best method for videos. It's so hard to scale though, has many nuances to work through at first, and is a lot of time/work.


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I think real walkaround videos if done right, provide a great experience and value to the shopper. I like to hear what I'm seeing about the vehicle, quality of the video is important, a nice 60fps video camera @ 720HD+ provides a nice experience. The length should be enough to briefly cover all the features and condition of the particular vehicle, usually 2-4 minutes. Mid-Towne Auto Center has been doing real walkaround videos for awhile now, they have a solid process worked out, here's a few examples:


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What's next with video? Maybe 360 video, here's a good example of the possibilities, best to watch it in 4K if you have a headset: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f50M6H3Y038


How can we apply 360 video to the car business?