The Weekly Refresh: Cars.com, Web2Carz.com, AOL and VAST.com, Baby boomers, Dealers ARE tech-savvy

[Lightnup (blog)]

Alex, you are obviously at such a high stratosphere of intelligence and superior knowledge that no matter what I say, even when it's factual, you have the unique ability to ferret out that it must be BS because it comes from someone without your keen sense of what is and what is not BS. It must be tough to be right all the time.

My apologies for even attempting to match wit and wisdom with one as omniscient as you. Why, if I was only as smart as you, I would quit my job tomorrow and stand outside AT headquarters with a sign proclaiming to the world that Alex has decreed that everything coming from anyone associated with AutoTrader.com is BS because he has a beef with the company.

If only I didn't have to feed my family, I could attempt to rise to your level of honor and justice. Instead, I guess I'll just have to remain a highly paid employee of the rapidly growing, number One Automotive website on the planet and just hope I can remember in the future how small our company was back in 2008 before it really took off. Living with the fact that Alex says I have no credibility is just one of the burdens I'll have to bear, but I suspect I'll get over it eventually.

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Lightnup - that's awesome! You finally came up with a decent comeback!

 

[Sharon S]

"...I guess I'll just have to remain a highly paid employee..."

Good luck w/that belief this year! The Emperor has no clothes campaign from ATC. Autotrader doesn't actually need more reps, they need a bigger audience of in market shoppers and less leak thru features that have little or nothing to do with marketing our vehicles! W/out that your income is on the slide unfortunately.

 

[Lightnup (blog)]

Not to worry Sharon. Things are under control.

 

[Joe Pistell]

Let's have a poll, who is Lightnup... Chip Perry or Bill Templeton? Autotrader - page unavailable hahaha. Too much fun!

hmmm... Although I have had email discussions with Chip Perry before (he is engaging), Look at Bill's smile and wild eye. I say it's Bill!http://www.autotraderstatic.com/cms/img/pressroom/management/1_management_24830_lg.jpg?

 

[Lightnup (blog)]

I'll admit I'm biased but, come on, $6 million dollars for those two ads? How disappointing.

Maybe Jeff will start a thread or Poll about the SuperBowl ads.

 

[Ryan]

I'll admit to being biased too, and do it publicly. The cars.com ads were not disappointing for us and I havent heard a complaint yet from the dealers in my area. Too much weight is given to the very subjective science of rating the ads. At the end of the day 95 million viewers laid eyes on the ads and were presented with a great product. Dealers using Cars.com got their advertising vehicle on the largest media stage in the world. That all seems so grandiose, more simply stated, if you are talking about it, doesn't really matter what you are saying, it was successful.

It's also worth noting that this was the "kickoff" for our 200 million dollar marketing campaign for '08. My only disappointment is that we couldn't air all of the spots. There are some great ones in the campaign that are still to come. I believe the marketing build up through first quarter will be very powerful.

I'm going to have to agree with you about one thing Lightnup. I would also like to see a poll dedicated to this topic. But let's raise the stakes a bit.

Was the Cars.com Superbowl campaign a success?

How convinced are you of the failure of these ads? Would you be willing to wager your identity for a 75% majority vote?