Sunny (and rainy) Orlando was the destination this time around for Digital Dealer 24 and overall I was pleased with the experience. Depending on which side you sit on, dealer, or what I call “someone selling something”, there are varying ways in which to evaluate the quality of the event.
The automotive industry, and specifically the dealership side of the equation, is a fascinating ecosystem. It is filled with more platforms, more widgets, more dashboards, more — stuff, than any other industry in the US. For every website, there are endless add-ons. For every CRM there are dozens of players and add-ons. It is no wonder dealers are more bombarded than ever. Everyone is selling something.
I will say this, the folks at Digital Dealer do a heck of a job coordinating a great conference. I heard rumblings that attendance was lower than normal. Admittedly, being 2 weeks apart from NADA likely didn’t help matters but regardless of overall numbers, this was not second rate content. I found the speaker lineup to be top notch and every session I attended was at least 75% full.
Here were my top 3 central themes and takeaways.
Yeah, nothing new about the power of that word – except everything. If we played a drinking game where I had to drink every time the word data was used at the conference let’s just say I would not have made it home. Everyone is talking about data. Big data. 1st party data. 3rd party data. Clean data. Powerful data. Data mining. Data security. You get the point. But what does it all mean? As our CEO Robert Donovan stated in his session, all this data talk is finally deployable at the dealership level. The promise of data is now scalable and truly usable by dealerships both big and small. From 1st party CRM and DMS data to powerful in-market 3rd party shopper data, we can now deploy campaigns and automated creative utilizing all this data in meaningful ways.
The other big data topic was around data security and everything happening with Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica situation. I think the whole industry is a bit on edge with what the shakeout will be from this mess. It amazes me how all of this comes as a surprise to people. Did no one think data was being scraped from publicly posted profiles? Hello!
I am a bit cynical about digital retailing. Maybe because I was doing this with a start-up I created way back in 2013. But suddenly, it’s all the rage. The key is that dealerships now know they have to give their customers 2018-like experiences both online and offline. Consumers will not settle for buying on a dealerships terms any longer. If you are making customers sit at the dealership for 5 hours to make a purchase you will not be competing much longer. And if we don’t start giving customers a seamless experience online then someone else will (can you say Amazon?). Cynicism aside I am stoked with all the growth in this area. There are some great platforms in play and we are partnering/testing the best in class like Roadster, Drive it Now, AutoFi, and others. If you are not thinking about providing omnichannel experiences for your customers you need to call me – now! My only complaint on these platforms are the micro-sites. We are spending thousands of dollars to get them to the site and to serve them there (and maybe track). Can we keep them in that environment, please?
So much data. Now, what do we do with it? I think the next 6 to 18 months will usher in a whole new level of digital personalization in the category. Direct mail purists will say they were doing this 20 years ago, and they would be right, but we are just now starting to see the power and deployment of personalized website experiences. From payment terms to car features I think the entire game is changing for how a dealership website can be merchandised. Again, a lot of this is not new. But I think the practical application and management of it is just now becoming viable for dealers.
At DOM360 we are testing and implementing best practices for all of these things. It is an exciting time to be in the category and even if attendance was a bit off I think Digital Dealer remains a great event to learn about best practices and the latest and greatest in automotive.