Ford and GM are now solidly profitable and Ford's credit rating has moved out of the junk category, but the U.S. market shares for both companies declined significantly in 2012. Whether share is calculated by looking at the first two months of this year versus the same time period a year ago or versus all of last year, the results are the same. While these trends are discouraging in and of themselves, they are particularly concerning right now because the European operations of both companies...
Read More »We hear all the time about the troubled U.S. economy. If it isn’t high unemployment, it's the sluggish GDP or a decline in manufacturing or something else. But, there is also frequent mention in the media about the positive trends in the car business. Car and light truck sales are up, the manufacturers are turning in hefty – sometimes record – profits and even adding jobs to keep up with strong demand. There seems to be a disconnect here. How could the car business be doing so well while the...
Read More »The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas served as host to the 3AF (Asian American Advertising Federation) The 2012 Annual Asian Marketing Summit on May 16-17. The goal of the annual summit was to share marketing best practices and celebrate the leaders in Asian marketing.
With Asian Americans representing one out of every 20 new vehicles purchased in the U.S., it's easy to see why automotive market leaders including Toyota, Honda and Nissan were well represented at the conference.
- Nissan-Admerasia...
Facebook has a big day today. I imagine many employees will thoroughly enjoy their happy hour after they leave their offices in Menlo Park and other locations. Mark Zuckerberg...he's going to certainly relish his ringing of the NASDAQ bell in New York. Third largest IPO many analysts say. Crazy.
Auto folks - you're watching, right? Of course you are. New media has been emerging and in the eyes of the business community, and consumer sector, Facebook appears to have something to offer. Debate...
Read More »Digital video is, to put it mildly, a very hot topic in the online and mobile advertising industry. Recently, moves by digital video companies have placed them in direct competition with television. Let me explain. Companies like Hulu and Netflix have created a model to view content previously reserved for larger screens, be they television or theater. YouTube, the largest video viewing service, recently broke their service into channels with original content. Two different models, both focused...
Read More »Everyone wants to figure out what effect the digital landscape is going to have on the mammoth $70B television advertising spend that occurs yearly. Already, we've seen display advertising video ad nets, like Videology, TubeMogul and Adap.TV begin to buy remnant inventory through the Real-Time Bidding (RTB) process, out of exchanges and Demand Side Platforms (DSPs). While each of their business models is different, this is a drop in the bucket compared to the total television/video inventory...
Read More »Last month, I had the opportunity to speak at the Digital Market Strategies Conference, an event hosted by First Class Educators. If you are focused on the retail side of the automotive industry and haven’t attended an event hosted by First Class Educators, I highly recommend it. The staff, venue and speakers are top notch.
I co-presented during the afternoon keynote address with Matt Murray from Dealer.com. Our session focused on the impact of social media on initial vehicle purchase and...
Read More »Last week, I attended Online Marketing and Media Association's (OMMA) two-day Metrics &Research and Data events. The conversations around data and metrics were extremely high level, which is counter-thetical to the typical rhetoric at big conferences. Often, speakers and panels dance the platitude shuffle and never say anything really controversial. This particular set of conferences was completely different.
The first day consisted of the Metrics and Research portion of OMMA's content. Among...
Read More »The Super Bowl always garners gaudy numbers for their ad campaigns.
Now, we're getting prequel ad hype by some automotive brands,
intending to move customers' attention from digital video to the
large screen with teasers and themed commercials. They're utilizing
their own properties and YouTube to increase "watches" and
subsequent anticipation of their ad campaigns.
It seems to be paying off for Acura, with this ad boasting guest spots from Jerry Seinfeld and and Jay Leno competing to be...Read More »
It seems to be paying off for Acura, with this ad boasting guest spots from Jerry Seinfeld and and Jay Leno competing to be...Read More »
For online display advertising of all types, 2011 was a banner (no
pun intended) year. This segment (which includes rich media, banner
ads, online video and sponsorship) was expected to grow to 37% of
the market, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau's mid year
Internet
Advertising Revenue Report. Then in Q3, the industry saw a
spike of 22% overall. So, online advertising is strong. Consumers
are taking advantage of the interactive media access points that
are availed to them through...Read More »
Once again, we're coming up on the end of the year - that time
between Thanksgiving and New Year Year's Eve when everyone seems to
be making their predictions about what's going to be hot or next in
the coming year. Digital marketers are no different and one of my
favorite publications, Mashable, has released a video of
'5 Key
Digital Media and Advertising Trends for
2012.' Usually I hate to say I told you so, but if
you haven't been heeding the contents of this blog then, "I told
you so, and...Read More »
Hopefully you've heard, if you're a marketer or manager of any
brand, that Google+ just launched business pages.
Originally, pages were sent out to beta testers who sent invites to
friends and business associates to allow the Google branded social
network to grow organically.There were NO businesses allowed, from the inception. A few months and about 20 million personal page signups later, Google opened up Google+ to businesses, and the digital marketing world couldn't be more abuzz with...Read More »
Audience data has become increasingly important in digital
marketing, including online display, video, mobile and social
media. Data allows advertisers, agencies and web publishers to
optimize ad delivery, evaluate campaign results, improve site
selection and retarget ads to other sites. Data also enhances
the value of media to marketers by delivering their advertising
message to better-qualified prospects.
With the growing reliance on audience data for online advertising, many questions are...Read More »
With the growing reliance on audience data for online advertising, many questions are...Read More »
Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in an automotive
panel at Rentrak's 4th Annual Industry Insights Forum in New
York. Their audience – mostly senior TV network and
affiliate executives, agency media planners, analytics and data
providers – agreed that TV is becoming more metrics-rich than ever
before, which is good news for a mature, entrenched advertising
ecosystem that finds itself in the throes of disruptive
technology.
The concept of "best available screen" is changing the nature...Read More »
The concept of "best available screen" is changing the nature...Read More »
After doing a month and a half North American tour of just about
every imaginable entity within the digital advertising ecosystem,
from mobile advertisers to social media agencies and industry
conferences, I have come up with this conclusion. Every year since
2006 has been "the year of mobile," but 2012 will be the "year of
video." The idea that storytelling is the most important marketing
trait since message clarity; mixed with higher engagement and
consumer immersion; with a touch of...Read More »
If you are in the market for a family vehicle or will be in the
near future, and you don't necessarily need the functionality of a
crossover or minivan, you may want to take a look at the family
sedans now available or coming to your local dealer. During the
next six months, there will be a lot of product activity in this
category, and those family sedans not being redesigned remain
crucial to their respective makes.
Three redesigned midsize family cars are either being launched now or will be in...Read More »
Three redesigned midsize family cars are either being launched now or will be in...Read More »
My post last Friday, "The
Mystery of Steve Jobs' Plateless Car," got a lot of attention
in the blogosphere. There were several intriguing comments, a few
questions and even some answers that came to light from this
conversation, which I thought were worth sharing.
One thing that struck me based on the comments was a perception about who was looking into Steve Jobs car. Just to clarify, Polk did not run any type of look-up about Mr. Jobs or his car from our data sources. The story I told is based...Read More »
One thing that struck me based on the comments was a perception about who was looking into Steve Jobs car. Just to clarify, Polk did not run any type of look-up about Mr. Jobs or his car from our data sources. The story I told is based...Read More »
We were all saddened by the news of Steve Jobs' passing earlier
this week. There is no denying the tremendous positive influence he
had on the technology and products we use every day. There are many
moving tributes to Mr. Jobs in the social media, and I would
encourage you to take some time to explore them.
But for now, I'd like to share something about Steve Jobs that you might not know. It's about his car. Since automotive marketing is what we do here at Polk, I thought it was a relevant...Read More »
But for now, I'd like to share something about Steve Jobs that you might not know. It's about his car. Since automotive marketing is what we do here at Polk, I thought it was a relevant...Read More »
Throughout September, I had the privilege to lead Day 2 of the Polk
Automotive Connections Summit 2011, titled, "Connecting Brands and
Audiences across Multiple Channels." The conference was well
attended and so far, feedback has been very positive. Despite the
diverse audience in three different locations (Long Beach, CA,
Southfield, MI and Park Ridge, NJ), I observed several recurring
themes about the challenges we are facing in today's automotive
digital marketing landscape.
- Technology is...
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