Jenny Resnick and Kirby Hood from Sinclair Broadcast Group's automotive decision science team walk through how COVID-19 reshaped car buying behavior, dealer operations, and the automotive marketing landscape in the first half of 2020. Drawing on IHS bulk data, Google tools, and a Detroit Trading Company study, they show where sales are rebounding, which consumer segments are now the prime targets, and why maintaining marketing investment during the downturn is critical to long-term market share.
Key Takeaways
- Projected U.S. auto sales are down 27% year over year, with 12.5 to 14.5 million units expected in 2020, but pockets of positive growth exist in Florida, North Carolina, and Louisiana, which are all seeing sales above pre-COVID levels.
- States that deemed dealerships essential (Florida, the Carolinas) maintained or grew closing rates; states that shut them down (New Jersey, Michigan, New York) saw close rates fall, confirming a direct link between operational access and sales outcomes.
- Dealers who moved quickly to digital retailing, including online financing, trade appraisals, and home delivery, avoided major sales declines and in some cases posted record sales days upon reopening.
- Brand awareness has a measurable half-life: research cited by the speakers shows that going off-air for two weeks costs roughly 50% of awareness, and a month of silence eliminates it entirely, making continued marketing investment a business-critical decision, not a discretionary one.
- The buyer profile has shifted toward higher-income, higher-education, ex-urban households and retirees who were not laid off. Nearly two-thirds of car buyers today are brand non-loyal, meaning incentives, dealer experience, and ease of purchase are the primary decision drivers.
- Google My Business activity for automotive is recovering faster than any other industry tracked, and automotive dealer reviews were up 60% in April and May, signaling consumer confidence returning to the category.
Questions & Answers
- Truck sales were mentioned as being up during this time. Is that the only vehicle type seeing growth, and what are the reasons?
- Trucks are the primary category showing year-over-year growth. Ford and Chevrolet discontinued several sedan models, and Nissan's sales had already been trending down. The Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado consistently rank as the top two best-selling vehicles in the U.S. Consumer preference has shifted toward trucks, SUVs, and compact utility vehicles. An additional factor is that Ford and General Motors temporarily halted domestic vehicle production for six to eight weeks to manufacture ventilators, which will reduce available new inventory in the near term. Parts shortages from China are also a constraint.
- How much of dealer revenue comes from consumer versus fleet sales, and has commercial fleet seen the same decline?
- The speakers did not have a precise figure readily available. Fleet is noted as a small portion of overall domestic sales. States with historically heavy fleet activity include Michigan, Kansas, North Carolina, California, and Florida. Fleet sales have likely been impacted by the same production constraints affecting consumer sales, though the growth of delivery services may increase demand for fleet vehicles over time.
- Has any research measured the likelihood of consumers returning to the showroom, does it differ by state, and how can dealers make customers feel safe?
- The speakers did not cite a specific study on return likelihood but shared direct experience. Kirby Hood described her own purchase process in South Carolina, where the dealer offered sanitized vehicles, appointment-only test drives, and home delivery. The Kentucky dealer group that reopened had record sales immediately, suggesting pent-up demand is real. To communicate safety: use local broadcast to announce cleaning protocols, deploy OTT and digital video showing a clean environment, update all photography in Google My Business listings to remove handshake imagery, and replace it with content showing sanitation practices and socially distanced interactions.
- How influential is the in-dealership experience in the purchase decision? Could something inside the dealership itself explain why sales were down in some areas even when advertising was consistent?
- The in-store experience is described as a significant factor. Dealers without a trained Business Development Center, with staff who understand both sales and digital analytics, are more likely to lose leads even when advertising is generating traffic. If advertising metrics are steady but sales are falling, the speakers recommend auditing organic and non-paid traffic sources and reviewing the internal lead management process. The expectation for a streamlined, digital-first buying experience is now set, and dealers who do not adopt full digital retailing will be at a competitive disadvantage.
Session Notes
About the Speakers and Sinclair's Automotive Decision Science Team
Jenny Resnick has been with Sinclair Broadcast Group since 2001 and manages automotive research. Kirby Hood holds a master's in applied data science from Syracuse University and brings more than ten years of marketing management experience. Together they lead what Sinclair calls its decision science function for automotive dealer clients.
Sinclair operates more than 180 television stations across 80-plus markets, along with a range of OTT, digital, and regional sports network properties. The team's goal is to translate market data into actionable guidance that helps car dealers make smarter marketing and business decisions, with the ultimate objective of selling more vehicles.
The COVID-19 Shock to Automotive Sales
When the U.S. went into lockdown in March 2020, many states did not classify automotive dealership sales operations as essential businesses. Service departments remained open, but sales floors closed. The result was a projected 27% year-over-year decline in U.S. auto sales, with total expected unit volume falling to between 12.5 and 14.5 million.
- Ford and Chevrolet phased out several sedan models; truck and SUV production is increasing.
- Truck sales are up year over year, partly because manufacturers shifted production priorities.
- A shortage of new inventory is expected in coming weeks as U.S. plants that pivoted to ventilator production (Ford, General Motors) come back online and because vehicle parts sourced from China were disrupted.
- Hertz filed for Chapter 11 and is exiting fleet purchasing, which will push a large volume of used vehicles into the market. Enterprise and others are expected to follow.
- Approximately 30 million leases were ending in 2019 and into 2020, adding further used inventory supply.
Where Online Car Shopping Went During the Pandemic
A Detroit Trading Company study measured new car online shopping activity from May 1 to May 13, 2020, and compared it to pre-COVID baseline activity from March 1 to March 13, 2020. Online shopping activity was defined as vehicle detail page views, payment calculators, and lead submissions.
- Michigan, with nearly 50,000 COVID-19 cases, saw a 25% increase in new online car shopping activity above pre-COVID levels.
- Pennsylvania, approaching 60,000 cases, saw a 45% increase.
- New Jersey, exceeding 140,000 cases, saw a 50% increase.
- The study noted that daily COVID-19 case counts were declining in the hardest-hit states, but infection levels were only one variable influencing consumer behavior.
While online shopping activity rebounded in the Upper Midwest and mid-Atlantic, actual vehicle purchases remained below pre-COVID levels in those regions. Purchase activity was strongest in the Southeast.
- Florida saw a 0.26% increase in vehicle purchases above pre-COVID averages.
- Louisiana saw a 0.27% increase.
- North Carolina saw a 0.84% increase.
- Buyers in those states were completing purchases in an average of 14 days, a significant compression of the traditional research-and-purchase timeline.
Essential vs. Non-Essential: The Policy Effect on Closing Rates
There is a clear correlation between shelter-in-place policy and dealer closing rates. States with strict stay-at-home orders that did not classify dealerships as essential saw sales plummet; states that kept dealerships open maintained relatively stable performance.
- Florida issued a stay-at-home order on April 3, 2020, but classified dealerships as essential. The state showed a 3% increase in sales closing rates comparing pre-COVID to post-COVID periods.
- New Jersey's order closed dealerships. A March 30 clarification permitted remote and online sales only. The state saw a 5% decrease in closing rates as a result.
- Michigan and New York showed similar declines where dealerships were not permitted to operate.
How Dealers Adapted Overnight
Dealers who moved quickly to a fully digital retail model, encompassing online loan applications, trade-in appraisals by photo, warranty and service package selection, and home delivery, largely avoided major sales losses. A dealer group in Kentucky reopened after restrictions eased and reported some of its biggest sales days in the store's history.
- Websites, Google My Business listings, creative assets, and sales processes all required rapid revision.
- Messaging shifted from 'come see us' to communicating remote purchase options, cleaning protocols, and convenience.
- Dealers are replacing handshake imagery in digital listings with imagery that signals safety, using virtual tours, and promoting appointment-only showroom visits.
- The expectation for a streamlined, largely paperless buying experience is now set among consumers and will not revert.
The Changing Buyer Profile: Demographics and Belief-Driven Behavior
With approximately 30 million Americans unemployed, the active car-buying population shifted. The new primary target is the consumer who remained employed: individuals with advanced degrees, higher-income households, ex-urban families, and retirees.
Kirby Hood noted that buyers in the current environment are increasingly belief-driven. They are paying attention to how brands respond to societal issues and are more willing to switch brands or publicly voice dissatisfaction on social media when a brand's stance conflicts with their own values.
Nearly two-thirds of today's car buyers are brand non-loyal. Incentives, deal quality, and the ease of working with a specific dealer are the dominant factors in their purchase decision, which creates both an opportunity and a risk for dealers depending on how well they execute the buying experience.
Why Cutting Marketing During a Downturn Backfires
Those who stop marketing to save money are like those who stop the clock to save time. — Henry Ford, as cited by the speakers
Beth Egan, an associate professor at the Newhouse School, is cited for research showing that brand awareness has a measurable half-life: roughly 50% of awareness is lost every two weeks a brand goes off-air, and after a month awareness is effectively gone. The speakers used a gardening analogy to make the point concrete.
Stopping marketing in a downturn or a crisis is like turning the water off in a drought.
- Research cited by the speakers indicates approximately 80% of consumers expect brands to continue advertising during a crisis because it signals normalcy.
- Automotive is recovering faster in Google My Business activity than any other tracked industry, with views and clicks growing more in April than any other category.
- Automotive dealer reviews were up 60% in April and May compared to April alone, with overwhelmingly positive sentiment, indicating consumers approve of the changes dealers have made.
- Dealers who maintained ad spend during the shutdown are seeing a measurable boomerang effect in market share compared to competitors who cut.
Tools and Data Sources the Team Uses
- IHS bulk data for industry-level vehicle sales and production trends.
- Google tools, including Google My Business analytics and Google Analytics, as part of a Google Premier Partner relationship.
- Paid subscription data services aggregated to build market-level stories.
- Website traffic analysis to identify which vehicle pages are receiving the most views, informing inventory purchasing and merchandising decisions.
- Inventory aging analysis to flag vehicles approaching the point where carrying costs exceed margins.
Applying the Data: From Insight to Dealer Decision
The team frames their work around a series of questions dealers need answered: Who is the audience that matters? Which marketing channels are working? What is driving website traffic, and is it quality traffic? Which page views and lead sources are attributable to which marketing investments? The answers inform both marketing strategy and internal sales process improvements.
- Vehicle detail page views function as a silent sales force, revealing consumer intent before any direct contact occurs.
- Inventory velocity data helps dealers decide what to put at the front of the lot, what to order from the OEM, and what to seek at auction.
- As Google reduces cookie-based tracking, buyers are becoming more anonymous, making first-party website analytics increasingly important.
- Dealers without a trained Business Development Center (BDC), including staff who understand digital analytics and lead management, risk losing sales even when advertising is performing well.
The Road Ahead
The speakers described the current period as a 'comeback model' that is distinct from standard operating conditions, and noted that the industry may cycle between disrupted and recovery states again in the fall if a second outbreak occurs. Dealers who remain adaptive, continue marketing, and fully embrace digital retailing are best positioned to capture share in a market where 7 to 10 million additional new retail sales are still expected in 2020 and into 2021.
Transcript
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so first of all I just want to say welcome to everybody who's joined in today for this conference I feel like a lot of people have probably been with us already today so you know thank you for sticking with it and I hope that you've enjoyed every presentation that we've had so far today um if you're just now joining it for the first time welcome we have a kind of a set of rules that we like to go through before every presentation just to kind of remind everybody of you know being at the mercy the tag being respectful just a couple things we want to run through before we begin so just a reminder we are at the mercy of the text so if anything happens if the video or audio app cuts out every once in a while you know just bear with us through all this and hopefully hopefully nothing major happens we've been pretty lucky so far so if jinx come look for that one I also just be respectful I think you know being online and not being able to see people face to face and interact face-to-face sometimes makes it easier to you know maybe throw a few jabs or you know say say a few things that maybe aren't super nice super respectful so you know just be nice and everyone is giving their time to give these great presentations today so hopefully we can you know lift them up and give them some respect and compliments through house also definitely use this as a time to network and engage with your peers in the market research community we're using the hashtag QV I see 20/20 on LinkedIn any other social media platforms you might be on and you know use it as a chance to get to know people that you've never met before I feel like everyone's kind of craving social interaction during this time of distance so you know take the take advantage of that and if you see anything or hear anything interesting that maybe you don't get a chance to ask in the comments or questions box through the presentation and you want to reach out to a presenter afterwards I think that's a great way to to do that and you know a lot of people like provide their contact information at the end of their presentations for you you guys to use as well so you know without further ado going to introduce who's speaking today sorry about that so we have Jenny Resnick and Kirby who from the Sinclair Broadcast Group and they will be talking about automotive marketing and the impact of covin 19 on domestic vehicle production and sales it's a long time sounds very interesting though so I'm gonna give the floor to them and let them go on with their presentation so it's awesome hide my screen make sure you can hear me can hear you I think Kirby's muted so yeah let me know when I can share my screen and I'll get going second okay you should be able to now okay there we go should be able to see my screen now okay um hi everybody good afternoon my name is Jenny Resnick I am the research automotive research manager for Sinclair Broadcast Cree thank you for having us today my partner in crime is Kirby hood and she is a data scientist that works with my team today we're going to talk about automotive research from marketing as it relates to the changes that have happened in the wake of koba 19 who we are and they give you a little bit of who we are but we work for the impact that we're seeing the tools were using to help our dealers and then how we're helping dealers make better decisions for their marketing using this data I am again Jenny Resnick I've been with Sinclair Broadcast Group since 2001 so I started with the company a month after 9/11 I've been through with them for 19 years in August and I graduated from the University of Georgia with bachelor's in English I actually have a poetry degree so it's really ironic they ended up doing statistical research because some I did not like math when I was in school Kirby do you want to introduce yourself sure I actually completed my master's a year ago Syracuse University applied data science I have been with Sinclair going on six years and I actually have more than 10 years in marketing management study awesome thank you so together Kirby and I makeup what will be the decision science team for automotive dealers that we work with at Sinclair justing for anybody who doesn't know Sinclair Broadcast groups one of the largest owned and operated broadcast companies in the United States of more than 180 television stations and over 80 markets we own and operate a variety of different OTT and digital operations and own and operate a lot of the regional sports networks that will hopefully be starting up when new sports come in the summer but our goal is to transform typical market research into dealer decision science and what I mean by that is we utilize the scientific methods that we all learned in school and sometimes we do it subconsciously sometimes we do it purposefully but we use data and scientific methods to identify opportunities and issues that are going to help car dealers make smarter decisions and some were cars because ultimately the end of the day that's the number one goal that that any dealer has is some more cars and we have a lab kit that we use we have a variety of tools we work with IHS bulk data we are a google premier partner so we have a collection of Google tools available to us as well as a bunch of other paid for subscription data services that we use to collate stories together to help our marketing consultants and sales managers better have better conversations with the dealers in their communities because the days of these spots and dot's advertising kind of approach are over and now you really need to go at it with the data data heavy approach reading the signals the numbers in between the lines in order to be able to craft stories that are relevant and speak to the consumer base and you know we start with a question we do some research many cases curvier I'll have an odd hypothesis that we want to test out kirby goes to work with data science and testing and data experimentation in different ways when we use our lab kit and all of the data science available to us and tools available to analyze advertising marketing channels in dealership inventory in order to help dealers design better marketing campaigns which generate better campaign results leading to higher quality customer leads and ultimately more sales so the topic of today's talk when I pitched it was you know very very heavily involved in studying the impact of koban 19 on the automotive industry and so when I saw the stomach seminar coming up I was like ooh that'd be a really fun topic to discuss so as we've gone through her being I've done a good bit of research and analysis not just based on the tools that are available to us but of our own client base in order to see what really has happened in the past 12 weeks while the world is upside down and sideways because what effectively happened in March when the country went on lockdown many states did not consider automotive dealerships to be an essential business and they closed sales operations down service operations were considered essential but sales operations were not and considering the amount of impact the automotive sales industry has on the United States revenue and GDP a projected 27 percent decline in year-over-year United States auto sales is going to have a major impact in more places than just in automotive so what we're seeing is that in the past 10 weeks everything is started over pretty much have on little landscape they're projecting sales to be 27 percent lower this year than last year overall I'm expecting between 12 and a half to 14 a half million units to be sold though there are some bright spots and many of you probably noticed that Ford decided to phase out some of their car models as did Chevy other models like CBS and trucks and suv's are increasing the number of units being made so it's not surprising to me to see that truck sales are actually up year to year but they're also six states actually more than that now with positive year to year growth so in some cases we're seeing that sales have not changed but the automotive landscape in general has and what that's caused is a new reality dealers overnight had to change the way that they do business it had to change their websites they had to change than what content had changed their Google my business listings I had to change their creative marketing they had to change the way they do business entirely going from an in-person buying experience to a remote pickup and delivery 100% online retailing situation and and the switch was literally overnight and now we have personally we have many clients who have made this change and they were very quick to act and they were very responsive to the needs of the market but you're going to talk about a little bit more why it's so important that you're responsive to the needs and their sales were not impacted I mean they might have seen a five 10 15 percent dip the first couple weeks after starting this process but people are excited to behold to buy a car online and that's forcing dealers to change the way that they do business unfortunately with the ton of people that are now unemployed the me bio profile has also changed which makes it a new demographic a new marketing model that needs to be applied because people who weren't laid off become the new prime target for automotive and they're gonna be folks with advanced degrees their ex urban upper-class families with or retirees homes with families higher income and Kirby I want you to talk about belief driven buyers a little bit so as the demographics changed the mindset of the demographic has also changed there they're really focused on how those brands not just automotive but brands in general are responsive to this pandemic and they're becoming more driven by how brands take an issue in a stance on the societal issues that we have at play so that being said if the brand or business mom-and-pop business corporate business they take a different stand than what they would like to see they're more apt to actually voice their opinions on social media and to others and they'll actually boycott those brands and and choose and make a whole different mindset switch to something else because they may like something how another brand company is actually handling it so we are seeing that more of the buyers and consumers in the marketplace are more belief driven and how they're handling it thank you yeah but one of the other things that I fail to include in here but almost two-thirds of car dealer car buyers in the market today or what we consider nomads meaning they're not brand loyal they you know there's a small portion of car buyers who are super loyal to their brand some who are marginally loyal but the vast majority will change the type of car they buy depending on what types of incentives they can get what types of deal the dealer has for them and also how much they like the dealer and how easy it is to work with them which is creating an entirely new buying cycle so not only it has the industry change the consumers have changed but the length of time that it takes for a customer to buy a car is changing because of the way buying cars has changed so no longer do people have to go into the dealership walk the lot talk to a salesperson and sit in the F&I department for three hours as they fill out paperwork today dealers are meeting the customers where they are at their homes whether that be through digital retailing or e-commerce platforms that allow a customer to apply for a loan online get approved online complete warranty and find and and service package options online and finalize sound completely in one website session so that the dealer's only function is to provide them at the car and that has changed a lot of things in terms of automotive marketing because all of the television commercials all of the OTT commercials all of the search ads all of the marketing on Facebook all said come see us and now that's 100% different you want to tell us a little bit about how car shopping is changing absolutely so Detroit trading company and their team of data scientists actually just came out with this study made the team so it's really recently new but it's very exciting information and what they did was they measured new car online shopping activities from May 1st 2020 to May 13th 2020 and they compared it to pre coded shopping activities that occurred from March 1st to March 13th and what they actually found is that the look the largest increase in online shopping activities occurred in states where coded 19 infection cases were the highest so on this map that we have shown you can actually see that it's indicated by the dark blue areas so mainly and then work region of the country a Michigan actually had coded 19 infection counts approaching 50,000 and saw an increase of new online car shopping activities at 25 percent above precoded levels when we talk about online shopping activities and car dealerships that's anything from vehicle detail page views to leads to like what is my what would my payment be so calculating a payment any of those pages have been a dealership that are they're very deep dive and they're really interested in purchasing plan they're engaging more Pennsylvania actually had coded infection counts approaching 60,000 and saw forty five percent increase of new our online shopping activities New Jersey while I'm right behind them with they were actually exceeding one hundred and forty thousand cases and saw an increase of 50 percent new car online shopping activities and all that was of course against the precoded levels with that March 1st and March 13th by mine their main point in this study that they did its that pointed out and it's important to note that the daily cabin 19 infection counts they continue to decrease in each of the hardest hit States that's a very positive thing to note but the decrease in infection counts is just one of the variables that is having a noticeable impact on the behaviors of consumers and their shopping habits they also looked at the states that people were purchasing a vehicle we notice that the dark blue is kind of shifted over to the Midwest region of the country and they found that even though online shopping activity is rebounding in the Upper Midwest and mid-atlantic and a little bit the Northeast the purchase of a new vehicle still remains below the precoded levels and that's actually where we see that dark blue indicator so there's more activity shifting to the Midwest but they're still not purchasing where the purchasing is actually happening is in the southeast so that lighter blue area is to that white and we see that Florida Louisiana and North Carolina are all experiencing a 14-day close rates on new vehicle sales so back to you that buying timeline and how people purchased a car previously and took so much longer to research and drive it a lot and visit several dealers they're now only taking on average 14 days that's a huge significant jump from where we were said the process is happening faster and that all has to dealers response Florida is actually seeing an increase of point two six percent of vehicle purchases where the vehicle which is above pre koban 19 sorry I guess I'm tied there first again Louisiana follows closely with an increase of point two seven percent in North Carolina with 0.84% about recoded averages for vehicles being purchased increase again reflects how dealers have pivoted so quickly and it's not just the demographic with a consumer that's changing but the buying process as a whole it's awesome and one of the things I'll note about that is two of the states that are experiencing growth year over year and and growth as compared to before the pandemic Florida and North Carolina are considered or consistently wanted to want to one of the top ten states in terms of total vehicle volume sales so to see Florida and North Carolina sales already outpacing prior when we know that the SAR is projected to go down 27% is it's kind of undoing some of the projections we saw early on so keeping your eye on on the latest information where the cases are dropping restrictions are easing businesses are open opening you're seeing a huge resurgence and people are flooding to stores we have a dealership in Kentucky he reopened their store last week they have had some of their biggest sales days in history of the store and they were very quick to adopt digital retailing and the online shopping experience for their for their customers and of course this this goes back to you that whole stay at home order and what states were strictly shut down in what states were allowed to open up and what and car dealerships either deemed necessary or not there is a correlation that exists between areas where strict shelter and place orders were given and decreased consumer purchase activities so strict stay at home order they're not purchasing right like they're not going out we it's we can pretty much say yes they understand that correlation but for example Florida State home order it was given on April 3rd 2020 and car dealerships were deemed essential so because they were they were deemed essential and car sales and the close rate actually remained somewhat consistent so they actually were showing a three percent increase in their closing rate for sales precoded 19 to post Kevin 18 and are also cinema seeing similar correlations again of like my Carolina Louisiana New Jersey however is another story their stay at home order did not deem that dealerships were essential same thing with their sales and their close rates actually ended up plummeting as a result of this on March 30th there was a clarification of the order and it actually allowed those dealerships in New Jersey to open up for a remote or online sales because they had that period of time where they were closed it actually resulted in actually a five percent decrease in the sales closing rate and we're also seeing the same thing happen again in Michigan in New York so it just goes back to this to say you know those states have said if a dealerships are necessary we're seeing that study that study flatlined going on where they're still selling they're not really as impacted as maybe they would have been if they would have been shut down fully so online car shoppers actually are remaining ready to purchase which is huge I hear it all the time for my friends I know personally I'm constantly like ooh what about a new car radio because interest rates are low I must send Jenny several once aleichem's like whoo look at this leg up and it also goes back to I'm not necessarily brand loyal so I am willing to switch depending on maybe what OMS are saying right now as a incentive but people are ready to purchase closing rates are also approaching near normal levels where dealers are permitted to function fully which is huge and the consumers in those areas that are the dealers are still not fully functioning they are finding ways to purchase new vehicles that's whether or not it's home delivery they can send in pictures of their vehicles for appraisals and the dealers have really adopted more digital video marketing strategies and doing whatever it takes to really help consumers purchase that vehicle of their choice so their hard work and rapid response is paying off with increased online shark car shopping activity and stabilize those initiatives unless so one of the reasons that the automotive space has been able to weather this storm so well is because built into the foundation of automotive is is the mentality first put in place by Henry Ford that you know marketing is an essential business item it's not an expense it's an a business line item and he you know he said famously those who stopped marketing to save money are like those who stop the clock to save time and and one thing that I've noticed is that dealers that we work with you know some of them cut their budget sure in states like Michigan where there were a hundred percent shut down but in many places where you know restrictions were lighter they did not come back and in comparison to those in their market that did they have had a boomerang ring effect in terms of market share and and so it's really important and I found the study absolutely and just thrilling when I read it I don't know why I found it thrilling maybe it's because I've been gardening during quarantine but Beth Egan who is a an associate professor at Newhouse School did a study on marketing brand and discovered that your brand has a half-life and every two weeks that you are off air your brand loses about 50 percent of awareness and after a month your awareness is gone so I put this up here the slide it reminded me of my garden I'm building a garden and I'm thinking about you know your business brand is very much like your garden and if you don't water it and provide sunshine to it every day provide it with resources and marketing and a study and flow of new customers what you end up with is you know a wilted garden it you have to continue watering it and cutting budget is like not watering your garden every day and stopping marketing and a downturn or a crisis is like turning water off in a drought so it's really really important that we continue to make an investment in marketing because it's very it relate to where consumers are in the process they're migrating online utilizing and expecting advertisers to continue marketing in order to provide them with a sense of normalcy I read a study that said that 80 some odd percent of consumers expect brands to continue advertising no matter what's going on so because it makes them feel like things are normal and you know one thing that we're seeing as a result of the automotive industries ability to maintain an on-air online presence during this crisis is that they're rebounding much faster than other other industries Google my business is one of the top ways that you can identify organic search trends people about 50% of people enter a website through Google my business versus other sources and views and clicks for GMB are growing more significantly than any other industry in April and then people are digging for info you find that compared to automotives in the red and the other industries are in the green there's a huge dip in activity in March when all of this started really coming to light but you see it's creeping up because people are going to that Google my business and searching for you know dealership hours dealership service department photos incentives especially with all of the zero-percent offers and out there right now and it's just a signal that the markets coming back and is coming back a lot faster than we anticipated additionally you look at reviews or reviews are a huge part of SEO and awareness online and making sure that customers are happy you get negative reviews people are very likely to brand switch and dealer reviews there were 60% more automotive reviews in April and May them in April which means that people are returning to that space of being comfortable and being willing to put themselves out there and and overwhelmingly people are positive on those reviews meaning they like the changes that these feelings are making and as a result we're seeing new trend lines coming out in terms of unexpected dealer lead activity and and we're seeing sales rebounding a new trend lines compared to original forecast models on expected sales and even with the downturn in March another 7 to 10 million new retail sales will be sold in 2020 and into 2021 so there's a huge opportunity right now for advertisers in the automotive space to capitalize on increase out inventory due to more people watching television and more people streaming and decrease competition because other advertisers may not be in a position to maintaining their marketing during at when business is slow down so there's a lot of information and it's only a part of what we really do and what we use this information for is to help our clients and more importantly our marketing consultants help their clients with smarter marketing that's more effective increases sales and and we answer some questions we want you know help them figure out who is the audience that matters to them what marketing channels should they be using what's working what's not where are they getting a website traffic is a quality traffic what age how many page views are their sources driving because dealerships website pages are their silent salespeople the people there that salespeople on the website who are meeting the customers who are anonymous now with the information that formerly the person would get when somebody showed up on the lot and then how do we attribute any of this to marketing can we attribute it and how do we show return on investment looking at the trends how does that inform on process you know we look at you know obviously we've talked a little bit about not marking and why the market during the crisis why not but what budget creative changes some of the things that we've seen include just recently just today us an article again that the sappy messaging is if people are done they're done with Co but they don't want to hear about it they want to know what my office offers are how much they can save and how they can get in a car cheaper than they were before which requires that you change everything and quickly need to be very responsive to the market responsive to what's going on in the competition not just external stuff but we look at internal stuff as well do they have a business development center do those people understand how to use Google Analytics and other digital analytics tools in order to better manage inbound leads do they you know are they concerned with what the competition is doing how do we use science data to arm them to win against their competition in the market look at inventory sales patterns a lot of the things that dealers worry about or you know are similar to what we worry about in the advertising space its big-ticket items and they need to sell those big-ticket items 30 days or less or they end up paying Cheramie cost on it so you look at how fast pieces of inventory are meeting what marketing is touching those pieces of inventory and and that informs them on you know what maybe we put all of the new Honda CRVs out at the front of the store and and make sure we have the best most tricked-out model sitting at the door when this particular customer shows up to buy we look at website traffic patterns all of this plays into helping them just make better decisions and look at the audience model you know where we are today is in the comeback model versus standard operating well I don't know if we'll ever get back here we're gonna be here and then we're gonna be here again it's gonna be a different you got a pretty different level of position to each of these parts of the consumer journey as you move through different phases of reopening and and you know as we get into the fall where there's possibility of another another outbreak if that happens and knowing that you can't be in your same standard operating mindset today then you if you want to continue to grow despite the circumstances and ultimately we we just want to add insight to the data we you know by you know with Google removing or turning down or cutting back on cookie based tracking buyers are now more anonymous than they've ever been and it's more important that dealers understand what their website analytics are telling them looking at the top pages view can tell you what types of vehicles people most want to buy what they want to see on the lot what you should buy at auction or order from the OEM what you should look for in trade these are the sort of decisions that these metrics allow a dealer to make and by adding that insight into the data and helping them make smarter decisions both with their business their business processes and their business marketing we end up helping them win long term and when we retain those customers and and become true partners with them so ultimately better data and better decision making leads to better marketing more customer traffic more leads more transactions a deeper absorption rate into the service department and that ends where I'm at if there's questions I don't know how do we see if there's questions so there is a question I'm Ginny you actually I'm one of the slides the beginning with IHS pulp data you mentioned that truck sales were up during this time is that the only car type that's been up and what are their reasons for it um yes so trucks truck models are up they've been up on year but the reason one of the main reasons there's four discontinued several of their sedan models Chevy discontinued some of their spanned models Nissan sales of them trending down last few years and the most the number one and number two most bought vehicle in the United States so the Ford f-150 and the Chevy Silverado and it bounces back and forth no matter which market you're in so because the the manufacturers have ceased production on some of those things and because consumers are more interested in trucks now they want trucks SUVs it's and compact utility vehicles most often and the other part of the equation that I didn't touch on is the production so a lot of us vehicle all of us vehicle parts most of them are manufactured in China and over the course of the past few weeks man manufacturers have started to reopen their production plants so one of the other parts of the equation is in the coming weeks we'll see a decline in available new inventory because manufacturers are not able to get new inventory and new parts to build inventory from China matter and the other piece of it is Ford is at Ford and General Motors that started making the ventilators and that so they had to cease production in the domestic side as well for six or eight weeks in order to build Benna leaders so there's a lot of a lot of factors at play most of it is based on I think manufacturers decision to cease production of some of the smaller sedan models we will see a flood of used car news cars coming in to the market for two reasons one there are what 30 million leases ending in 2019 so all of those leases have to be renewed and then also just announced yesterday Hertz car rental is getting out of the car sales business also filed chapter 11 will no longer be purchasing inventory of course for their fleets are reducing the inventory they purchased and will be selling off a lot of their fleet inventory in the used car market so same is going to happen with enterprise and a couple others so it's going to be a very interesting next few months for the automotive industry still not done um shaking the tree yet it's know we have another question its how much of dealer revenue how much of the dealer's revenue is consumer versus fleet and it has commercial / fleet being the same decline I'd have to look into that answer in order to give you the right answer but I do know based on reading the numbers fleet is a small portion of overall domestic sales and there's some states specifically Michigan oddly Kansas North Carolina and California and Florida all have heavy fleet sales in order to tell you whether the fleet sales have been impacted I would imagine yes they have because they're the same problem with some production and whatnot but you do have a ton of business is now entering a delivery market so that they there will be an increase in need for fleet vehicles because of the change in in the way people are getting products and services now all right so have we done seen any research that measures the likelihood to come back into the showroom does it differ by state and how can dealers make customers feel safe about coming back I'll actually start on this one just in the past couple weeks because I have actually been looking at trading in my firm they have been absolutely super helpful they've reached out to me and you know we've sent photos back and forth so it isn't a little bit different process right now to start but they also will set appointment times for me to come in just to test drive the vehicle and it's just me there at the dealer and they completely said you know everything will be sanitized and all of that so it it does make me feel safe to step into its showroom I'm especially in the South Carolina area that I'm in but they are taking those measures of making sure that the cars are sanitized even if you're dealing service on your vehicle they are they are offering complimentary sanitation of the vehicle before and after you have an oil change or anything and that that technician does have to get in the vehicle and drive it around to the day a lot of easy UV lights and okay so right yeah so we are seeing that I know just personal experience it is it is feeling safe like I wouldn't I wouldn't hesitate to go into the right now they've also offered to bring the vehicle to me to test-drive okay you know it's more fun let me get out of the house I'll come see you you're making sure that it's safe okay that's exactly right I've seen the sentiment reiterated multiple times this week in different industry articles I've read and podcast I've listened to people are just ready to get out of the house we work with a large dealer group in Kentucky and they reopen their doors last weekend and it had record sales they had people coming in they were busy but at the same time the six weeks prior to that reopening they'd been marketing the fact that they're cleaning every advertisement every ad that went out on television they launched a broadcast campaign to make sure the local community was fully aware that that they were taking steps so in order to make customers or people in your market feel safe really need to lay playing with you know use your local media you need to promote and market on local broadcast because that's where most people are turning to you for news and information utilize OTT digital video tactics to tell that same message so imagery a clean and safe environment and all of your digital listing properties on Google my business change all of the photography that you have for your store and take out anything where you show people shaking hands and replace our imagery of you know elbow bumping or you know virtual tours make sure that we're you know you're broadcasting the fact that you're doing absolutely everything according to standards and there's no reason people can be should be scared to come in the door just letting the community know is the biggest thing and letting them know that you're there to take care of the community is what matters absolutely we have another one any idea how influential the actual dealership experience is in the decision making process mine was trying to make sense of life sales were down in select areas when advertising deals etc we're similar and though there might be something in the dealership itself and that's an attraction we need to mean yeah so it does the actual dealership experiences a huge part of the decision-making process it so right now if you're if a dealership does not have what's called a Business Development Center a BB C with a staff of people who are sales people with strong sales skills but also who understand digital marketing and how to mine digital data in order to connect the dots between them and what's going on you know what they want to look at so you have to set certain processes in place and I know you know if you have a BDC in place you get an inbound lead what is the next step that they take with that lead do they send an email do they make a phone call in elaborating more in depth on what the internal sales process and training looks like it's not just advertising because we can get you to the door but we can't sell the car for you so if advertising is still going and it's steady and sales are falling there's couple things you you know obviously look at your organic on non pink traffic sources look at referral traffic but the experience inside the store is everything and what people are seeing now with cutting the number of hours you have to sit with the F&I manager from four or three to you know being able to do 100% online the expectation is already there and there's no way dealers are getting out of it they're going to be forced now to adopt a fully digital retailing experience and if they don't do it soon they're gonna get pushed pushed out by others that do I hope that answers that question we'll see I don't think that we have any other questions I hope that this presentation was informative it's our first one for keeping I see so we don't know if we did good or not I think that was great you have a couple people saying you know thank you in the chat right now so personally I found it very informative I even wrote down what other things that you got said early on not marking during a downturn is like turning off water to your her drought I like that one so I like I like the analogies that that study was making toward you know gardening as well so I have not been doing my own gardening but still found it very interesting and very relatable so awesome thank you Oh excellent I guess we can get people 50 minute break before that's one lesson yet maybe everyone can go grab a little bite to eat or something before the final presentation at 6:00 thank you guys both so much for joining and presenting today and uh if anybody has any further questions I'm sure you guys can reach out to them on LinkedIn or any other platform I don't know if you guys have had your email in the last few I don't think you guys did but no I don't think I did either I just had a smiley face yeah that's totally fine so find them on LinkedIn use our hashtag keep interacting with each other keep communicating and yeah thank you guys so much thank you appreciate it have a good one thank you yes


