How Auto Makers Can Improve Marketing Efforts with Predictive Video

Auto marketers spend billions each year trying to drive sales. However, OEMs face a significant challenge when planning ad campaigns — when it comes to digital, those investments are being made quickly with little to no understanding of the actual sales conversions to which they are connected.

To combat this challenge, OEMs can leverage their own purchase data to inform their marketing efforts. Layering on industry-wide data can help develop a truly data-driven strategy.

OEMs must let the data decide who they should market to and when, giving them the opportunity to ensure they are talking to the right audience at any given time.

The sooner marketers can move away from profiling the consumer, their intended purchase, and potential competitors, the sooner they will be in position to truly allow predictive data analyses to drive their decisions.

It doesn’t matter what was purchased last – it matters what will be purchased next.

This Week on the Mobility Tech & Connectivity Show…

Aired December 2, 2020

2:00 – Live Stream Begins
2:10 – Featured Guest Interview
2:25 – Industry News
2:30 – Panel Discussion Begins
3:00 – Closing remarks and announcements

Part I. Conversation with Jim Johnson from VDX.tv

To talk with us about how OEMs can effectively connect sales data to marketing exposures and leverage a truly data-driven strategy, we have Jim Johnson [LinkedIn] lined up from VDX.tv.

VDX.tv is a global advertising technology company that is transforming the way brands connect with relevant audiences in today’s converging video landscape and has helped brands including BMW and Mazda deliver more consistent and meaningful brand experiences across connected TVs and personal devices.

Jim is Vice President of Account Planning for the company. The role of an Account Planner is to observe the world around them, making inferences on consumer behavior to inform marketing strategy.

In Jim’s role, he works with clients using a consultative, data driven methodology to guide them toward their desired digital advertising outcomes. In addition, Johnson holds regular speaking roles at industry events, and writes thought-leadership pieces for publications including eMarketer, AdWeek, and HuffPost.

Part II. Industry News

UK Approves Covid-19 Vaccine
US & Europe Lifting Bans on Boeing 737 MAX
SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites, delays commercial service
Volkswagen Boosts Investment in Electric and Autonomous Car Technology to $86 Billion
Tesla Launches World’s Largest Supercharger Station
California Proposition 24: New Rules for Consumer Data Privacy

Part III. Video Marketing in Auto Retail Discussion Panel

For our discussion panel this week the theme is Video Marketing in Auto Retail. The purpose of this discussion group is for auto retail and video marketing professionals to explore ideas, technologies, and best practices for video marketing in auto retail.

Joining us this week are Gray Scott from Honda who oversees advertising for a high-volume Honda retailer in the Chicagoland area; Jim Johnson from VDX.tv who was our Featured Guest earlier in the show, and Lewis Forman, Digital Account Director with Neal Advertising.

Sign Up to Be Part of the Discussion and Join the Q&A

Want to be part of the live discussion? YOU CAN!! The live show is facilitated via Zoom and you can be part of the discussion and Q&A by registering with Video Marketing in Auto Retail, one of six different discussion groups in the AutoConversion Auto Retail Marketing Mastermind Program.

> Register here to participate on the Zoom

*There is no cost or obligation to participate when registering and you may unsubscribe at any time.

In the News…

UK Approves Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine, first shots roll out next week

The United Kingdom has become the first Western nation to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, a landmark moment in the coronavirus pandemic that paves the way for the first doses to be rolled out across the country next week.

“Help is on the way,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Wednesday morning, after UK regulators granted emergency authorization for a vaccine made by US pharma giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
A final analysis of the Phase 3 trial of the vaccine shows it was 95% effective in preventing infections, even in older adults, and caused no serious safety concerns, Pfizer said last month.

The announcement means the UK has vaulted past the United States and European Union in the race to approve a vaccine, months into a pandemic that has killed almost 1.5 million people worldwide.

[Learn more…]

FAA Lifts Ban on Boeing 737 MAX

The Federal Aviation Administration has lifted its ban on the Boeing 737 Max, 20 months after the aircraft was grounded worldwide following two crashes that killed 364 people.

Boeing said that the move will allow airlines that are under the FAA’s jurisdiction to take the steps necessary to resume service and the company to begin making deliveries.

The FAA published an Airworthiness Directive specifying design changes that must be made before the aircraft returns to service, issued a Continued Airworthiness Notification to the International Community and published the MAX training requirements. Those actions do not allow the MAX to return immediately to the skies, the FAA said in a statement.

The FAA must approve 737 MAX pilot training program revisions for each U.S. airline operating the MAX and will retain its authority to issue airworthiness certificates and export certificates of airworthiness for all new 737 MAX aircraft manufactured since the FAA issued the grounding order.

[Learn More…]

SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites, says tests ongoing but delays commercial service

SpaceX will continue beta testing its satellite-based broadband service Starlink into next year, the company said late on November 24, indicating commercial service would not likely be offered in 2020 as previously planned.

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX, Elon Musk’s private space exploration company, has launched nearly 900 Starlink satellites to orbit since 2019 with the goal of offering high-speed Internet to rural locations globally.

Musk has said the Starlink service will be a crucial source of funding for his broader plans, like developing the super heavy-lift Starship rocket to fly paying customers to the moon and eventually trying to colonize Mars.

“At our current pace, we expect to expand our beta in a notable way very early next year, in the late January-February timeframe,” SpaceX engineer Kate Tice said

[Learn more…]

Volkswagen Boosts Investment in Electric and Autonomous Car Technology to $86 Billion

Volkswagen has raised its planned investment on digital and electric vehicle technologies to 73 billion euros ($86 billion) over the next five years as it seeks to hold onto its crown as the world’s largest carmaker in a new green era. Under a plan presented on Friday, Volkswagen said it would allocate nearly half its investment budget of 150 billion euros on e-mobility, hybrid cars, a seamless, software-based vehicle operating system and self-driving technologies.

In last year’s plan, the German car and truck maker, which owns brands including VW, Audi, Porsche, Seat and Skoda, had earmarked 60 billion euros for electric and self-driving vehicles out of the 150 billion budget.

A global clampdown on emissions, partly triggered by VW’s diesel pollution scandal in 2015, has forced carmakers to accelerate the development of low-emission technology, even for their low-margin mainstream models.

“The transformation of the company and its brands as well as the strategic focus on the core mobility areas will be consistently implemented,” Volkswagen’s supervisory board Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said.

Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois said while the overall investment budget had remained unchanged, VW’s priorities had seen a “meaningful re-allocation to software and digitisation and a continued priority on Germany”.

[Learn more…]

Tesla Launches World’s Largest Supercharger Station

Tesla has been expanding its supercharger network at a rapid pace and now the world’s most valuable automaker has unveiled the world’s largest supercharger station in Firebaugh, California. This supercharger station has been in development for a couple of months and it will have 56 supercharging stalls. In China, Tesla already has stations with 50 stalls, 56 is a new record.

This is going to make the supercharger station significantly larger than the average station Tesla has in the US. The station is located between the Bay Area and Los Angeles which is obvious as Elon Musk himself stays in Los Angeles and Tesla’s original market was predominated by people in Silicon Valley and Hollywood. These two also represent the two largest markets for the electric car maker.

Tesla has also built solar canopies, a restaurant and convenience store at the location which makes the charging pitstop a little more engaging. The solar canopies are meant to provide shade to the vehicles while also helping power the supercharger station.

This comes after the company has launched a new self-driving beta which improves the autonomous capabilities of its cars. It also comes at a time where the company has unveiled new models of the Model 3 and Model Y which have a greater range.

[Learn more…]

California Proposition 24: New Rules for Consumer Data Privacy

San Francisco real estate developer Alastair Mactaggart began advocating for consumer privacy a few years ago, after a Google engineer he met at a dinner party told him Americans would be shocked by how much the company knows about us.

Mactaggart successfully pushed the Legislature to pass a landmark data privacy law in 2018. Now he says it needs some changes, so he drove the effort to put Prop. 24 on the ballot.

What would Proposition 24 do?

Changes to California’s data privacy law

Letting you tell businesses to limit the use of sensitive data, such as your exact location, health information, race and religion
Prohibiting businesses from holding onto your data for longer than necessary
Allowing the government to fine companies up to $7,500 for violating children’s privacy rights
Creating a new state agency to enforce the privacy law, investigate violations and assess penalties

Supporters Say:

The existing privacy law doesn’t have enough teeth. Updates in Prop. 24 would create a system to enforce the privacy law and triple fines on companies that violate kids’ privacy.
They would give consumers more control over their most personal data, allow you to shield your precise location from tracking, and give you more ability to sue companies if your email and password are stolen or hacked.
Passing this proposition will make it harder for lobbyists to change privacy laws in the Legislature.

Opponents Say:

California’s data privacy law is very new — it just went into effect this year — so we should see how it plays out before changing it. Some of the updates in Prop. 24 would hurt consumers — delaying a rule that allows workers to find out what information employers collect about them, making it easier for businesses to charge you more if you don’t let them sell your data, and allowing tech companies to grab your data when you leave California.
This proposition is the pet project of one man, and lacks backing from a broad coalition of privacy advocates. In fact, some of them oppose it. (Tech companies are surprisingly quiet about this measure; the Internet Association and California Chamber of Commerce criticized it in a legislative hearing but have no formal position on it.)

In November 2020, Proposition 24 passed. The final vote was: