Second Issue of the DEETs!

YouTube: An Increasingly Popular Source of Research For Car Buyers

A far more practical use case than cute cat videos or funny fails? Customers are turning to YouTube test drive videos to inform their car purchases more than ever before, according to Google’s stats.?

Over 75% of auto shoppers say that online video has influences their shopping habits. Think With Google statistics reported that the overall watch time of “test drive” videos on YouTube has increased by more than 65% in the last two years.?

64% of those who watched these types of online videos said that new formats such as 360 degree videos would inform their purchase so much that they could be convinced to buy a car without an in-person test drive.?

40% of shoppers who used online videos for research, said that watching videos was the reason they discovered a vehicle they weren’t aware of or considering. Plus, 60% of these shoppers said that they went to a dealership or a dealer website after watching the video.?

These creator-made videos are honest and unbiased in-depth reviews of the vehicle itself. While 73% of brand-owned videos are under one minute long, 64% of the creator test drive videos being used by consumers to inform their purchases are over 10 minutes long.?

(Source)

Trending

• The first Ford F-150 Lightning in Europe has been delivered to its owner, Dag ?degaard from Norway. The electric version of the American-sized pickup seems a great fit for Dag, as his wife is from Texas and he owns a store selling American grill and barbeque equipment.?
• Dodge is offering to pay consumers $10 per horsepower to buy a new Challenger, Charger or Durango, with the return of Dodge Power Dollars.?
• McKinsey revealed in their recent survey that 39% of customers favored subscription payment models when it came to vehicle connectivity features, compared to 30% who favored one-time payments.?
• Nandia REM, a Singaporean startup, is salvaging aluminum panels for their electric vehicle battery casings from old airplanes. Not a bad idea, since the number of out-of-commission aircraft is predicted to soar (pun intended) to more than 20,000 planes by the end of the decade.?

How Dealerships Can Get the Most Out of Their Marketing & Advertising

The buyer journey is not always linear, which means that dealerships and vendors need to find innovative ways of marketing and reaching customers when it’s time for them to purchase.?

In our recent blog post, we offer some practical tips on how to get the most out of your marketing and advertising, including advice for building customer trust and the best way to contact potential customers.?

You can read the blog post here.?

Interesting Stats at a Glance

• According to the Federal Highway Administration, the states of California, Texas and Florida combine account for 28% of all registered vehicles in the country. (Source)
• The average automotive shopper spends 33% of their research time on a mobile device. (Makes ya wanna check what your website looks like on a phone, hey?) (Source)
• Millennials take longer to decide which car to buy, compared to Baby Boomers. Members of the Millennial generation will an average of 16.9 weeks to think about their purchase, whereas Boomers will make a decision in 15.7 weeks on average. (Source)?
• Despite the popularity of rideshare apps, 77.3% of Americans surveyed by The Zebra still say that owning a car is necessary. (Source)
• The average American spends nearly two weeks of their life sitting at a red light. (I know it feels like longer, doesn’t it?) (Source)

Authenticom Client Of The Month

Sleiman Serhan, Business Leader, Inmar Automotive

Every month, we’ll feature one of our clients and share their thoughts on the automotive data industry.?

This month’s feature is Sleiman Serhan, Business Leader at Inmar Automotive, who shares his thoughts on what’s changed in recent years, why many dealerships have been resistant to data science innovation, and the importance of continuing to learn, innovate, and find ways to stay present.?

Can you tell us a bit about Inmar Automotive and your role there?

This project was created 5-7 years ago as a joint venture between Flow Automotive, a big dealer group in North Carolina, and Inmar Intelligence, an organization with years of experience in the retail and grocery coupon space. Those long coupons you see at Kroger, Albertsons, Publix, Lowe’s Food, etc? That’s Inmar.?

We paved a way into the automotive space, a vertical that had nothing to do with retail and grocery. But we believe there’s a bunch of core competencies in data infrastructure and data science we can leverage both in the retail grocery space and in the auto space.?

The way Inmar sees it is that the consumer is performing a series of transactions over time, whether that’s on a frequent basis when they buy groceries, or once or twice per year to service their car, or once every five years to buy a new car.?

So, I joined initially as a product manager to develop and expand on existing solutions, as we created a B2B advertising technology solution for car dealerships.

What were you doing before this and how did it inform what you do now?

I was in the finance world before, about to take a job at the Central Bank in Lebanon when the Lebanese crisis happened. When the banks collapsed, I left the Central Bank and joined a hedge fund startup in Lebanon.?

I was working remotely with hedge funds in Belgium, Switzerland and France and I loved it. But then, the Beirut explosion happened and I wanted to get out. So, I decided to apply to Duke and come to the US and see what I can do.?

I learned how to develop my product skills, I learned about agile methodology and scrum and how to think about fast iterations to improve on features. It’s this combination of soft skills and hard skills that made me comfortable in my job.?

Tell me a bit about what brought you to working with Authenticom and how it helps you do what you do?

Cars are a big thing in the US and the whole vendor ecosystem is a highly fragmented market and highly competitive too. So, for each function and vertical, there’s a bunch of competitors.?

The technology is more or less the same across all vendors - it’s about the relationships and the vision the company is taking. Once you align on vision and you create that relationship, that’s how you build a partnership organically.???

So, that trust, plus a frictionless experience and alignment on vision, that’s what attracted us to Authenticom. They’re an up-and-coming company compared to the other big data management platforms, so we could flexibly integrate with the leadership, which cemented the relationship.?

What are some of the biggest changes you’ve noticed in the industry in the last few years, and how are they affecting the way you approach things?

I think the automotive industry has a lot of catching up to do. It’s still lagging behind other industries in terms of having the infrastructure that’s laid out for everything related to data science, and many leaders are sitting on a bunch of data.?

There’s a shift happening and first party data is becoming more and more important. We’re heading into tough economic times and there are a lot of economic headwinds for businesses, with interest rates and inflation.?

It’s an inflection point for the industry as a whole. Then, you add changing consumer behaviors and the fact that people are using digital more as a means of communication. Then, you have COVID and supply chain issues, which disrupted a lot of consumer behavior and loyalty.?

You also see technological changes, such as electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles. Everyone is betting on different things and they’re not necessarily aligned, because there’s so many moving parts.?

There’s also a lot of vaporware in the industry, and AI is not ready to be applied like everyone thinks.?

So, you want to make sure that you partner with the right people and you want to make sure that you're knowledgeable in the right domains - to make the right bet.

You say the automotive industry is specifically behind on a lot of these things. Why do you think that is?

Dealerships are often owned and operated by a family business. Many dealership owners are starting to retire and transfer assets to their offspring. There’s a mentality of doing things the “old-fashioned old school” way. When your business is generating cashflow, there's no need to change anything.

I think the older generation is resistant to change, especially when it comes to technology. For example, my dad isn't as comfortable with the laptop and the phone, and sometimes he asks me to help him.But if you talk to someone who’s in their thirties or forties about data science, then they're excited.?

Plus, there’s also the laws and regulations, and the dynamic between OEMs and dealerships. There's a lot of butting heads and conflicts of interest, and OEMs would usually impose technology on the dealerships.

Today, dealerships are like, “We need to innovate on our own. We need to find that nugget and make a bet. If we don't, either we’ll be run out of business because times are changing or we’ll be acquired by a bigger group.”

Everything is changing fast. Even what I studied four years ago - not that it’s not relevant anymore, but it’s not enough. You’ve got to keep educating yourself.?

So true. Continuously educating yourself is essential for staying ahead of the curve.?

Final question: what do you do for fun??

I play a lot of tennis and I do yoga. I think it’s important to ground yourself more than ever, because we’re always connected to some kind of digital device.?

If your body feels good, your thoughts are going to follow. We’re always so anxious these days. Because of these devices, we’re either in the future or the past - reflecting or projecting. But when you’re doing those activities, you’re living in the moment. And that’s the only thing that matters.?

Thank you, Sleiman!

Snippets

Electric, connected cars will make up 96% of all vehicles on the road by 2030. So, why are consumers still hesitant to adopt the newest connected features and services? This on-demand one hour webinar digs into consumer research to figure out what matters to customers.?

Top tip: Some great insights on how to build a strong company culture in a retail automotive environment in this episode of The Dealer Playbook.

Good news for those frosty mornings: Tesla’s latest update is designed to make it easier to charge your vehicle when it’s below freezing - a complaint many Tesla owners have raised during sub-zero temperatures. (However, there doesn’t seem to be a fix yet for the fact that the stainless steel panels on the Cybertruck are not so stainless after all.)?

Happening now outside Earth’s orbit: The Odysseus lunar lander from Intuitive Machines had a successful launch and is currently on its way to the moon. (Seems bad luck to name it after a Greek hero known for taking much longer than expected to get where he’s going, and facing endless trials and danger along the way… don’t you think?)?

Helpful resource: Get smart strategies for simplifying the car-buying process and improving customer experience from Walser Automotive Group in this Driving Ahead video episode from NADA.?

Self-Driving Car Set On Fire By Angry Crowd

Most human drivers would have avoided the intersection of Jackson Street and Grant Avenue in San Francisco, as it was unusually busy with crowds. After all, it was Chinese New Year in the heart of Chinatown.?

But a self-driving Waymo robotaxi rolled right through, invoking the ire of the revelers and prompting some of them to smash the windows and throw fireworks into the vehicle - setting it ablaze.?

It’s not clear why the vehicle, a Jaguar I-Pace fitted with several cameras and sensors, drove into the crowded event. Fortunately, it was unoccupied and no one was hurt.?

This incident highlights the safety concerns, frustration and hostility local San Franciscans have towards driverless cars, since the city has become somewhat of a testing ground for this technology.?

California’s automobile regulator recently launched an investigation into Waymo after another self-driving car struck and injured a cyclist who was obscured from its sensors by another vehicle.?

In 2023, more than two dozen unions urged US auto safety regulators to open an industry-wide probe into the safety concerns associated with self-driving vehicles, to ensure that the technology is fit to share the road with human drivers and pedestrians.?

(Source) (Source)

Around the Web

______________________________________________________

If you ever need to pretend like you’re in an important meeting, GitLab shares all their Zoom calls on YouTube.?

______________________________________________________

In the small Croatian town of Imotski, local sculptor Roko Drzislav Rebic has created a life-sized stone replica of a Mercedes Benz Minika to pay homage to migrant workers.?

The car became known as a symbol of success for those workers who had made money after fleeing poverty and unemployment.?

______________________________________________________

?????? This is a fun and pointless(?) way to amuse yourself for a few minutes.? ??????

______________________________________________________

“Still searching for parking in Stratford upon Avon ??” tweeted Emma Watson, after her car was towed away and impounded while she was watching The Merchant of Venice.?

She’d parked in front of a gate and trapped other vehicles in a parking lot for nearly four hours. Oops!??

______________________________________________________

An Australian couple were in need of a jump start when they popped the hood of a used car they bought: the engine was hopping with 11 frogs.?

Thanks to some helpful advice from Facebook commenters, they were able to get the amphibians out and return them to a nearby lake.?

(It’s a good thing the frog car wasn’t parked by Emma Watson… or it would have been toad.??)