Podcasts

There are a lot of excuses for why a company doesn’t invest in social media. Nathanael Greklek has a counter for every single one of them. As the Chief Digital Branding Leader for Mohawk Auto Group, Nathanael has built an organic social media presence that gets millions of impressions a month. They’re able to track sales back to those impressions, and are a machine of content creation, averaging 500 pieces of content per month.

If there was an Oscar for dealership commercials… Brian Ortega would probably have one. He’s the Creative Director at Valley-Hi Toyota, home to some of the most creative commercials in the industry. The team creates a new story-based 30 second commercial every month, with Brian as one of the star actors. It’s been successful in building Valley-Hi’s brand and ingraining them deep into their community.

The computer on the Starship Enterprise that crew members could talk to. R2-D2. Jarvis. Science fiction has been showing us AI and digital assistants for years. And Josselyn Boudett and the team at Stella Automotive AI are bringing them to life. Stella is a phone answering AI that books service appointments while helping customers get loaners or talk to specific employees. It’s unlike anything on the market today. Josselyn explains how Stella came to be and how digital voice assistants will become more prevalent in the future.

A digital retail perspective. Doug Miller has helped some significant brands make big digital transitions. Ever heard of Ticketmaster? Doug was there when they sold their first ticket online. What about Expedia? They started by faxing orders to hotels. So when it comes to the automotive industry, an industry that Doug started in, he’s confident about the digital/physical hybrid future. He’s the President and Chief Commercial Officer of CARS.com, and we are grateful to be able to spend time with him on Auto Collabs.

Happy Thursday Troublemakers. Today we are talking about the longest permitting process ever and why it needs to change if EV Automakers will be able to keep up. We also talk about the premium price that is about to come with Netflix new ad service, as well as a fact-checked $30k EV battery replacement.

Do you have someone in your organization that touches every department? For DeNooyer Automotive Family, that person is Erin Sparks. As the marketing director, she has a lot on her plate and a lot of tabs open on her computer. But she makes it her responsibility to read reviews, walk the service lane, check in on the BDC team and more. She does all of this to break down barriers and bring the teams together, all as she tells the story of the dealership.

Transportation is freedom. Mike Darrow, President and CEO of TrueCar, recognizes that automotive can often live in the space between supply and demand, where a dealership is looking to purchase cars in order to meet the needs of customers. And TrueCar has a lot of experience in that position. This conversation jumps around a bit, from the chip shortage to serving dealers to serving consumers to tracking the shopping journey to building community. The threads that tie it together are that transportation is freedom, and the car business cares about people.

Welcome to Wednesday as we cover ACV’s recent lawsuit filed against major and minor auction houses, a recent story on NPR covering the so-called ‘stealership’ phenomenon, as well as retailer Nordstrom’s strategy to move product offerings upmarket.

A marketer turned developer now marketing a marketing tool. After working in the industry for several years, Jeff Gonzales saw a need for dealers to quickly be able to do their own marketing and ad campaigns. The tool that he developed, AET Automotive, incorporates all of the compliances that dealers face with their marketing. A punk rock vibe, some crazy stories and some insight into the future of marketing made for a fun interview.

Building a product strategy based on target audience. AutoLeadStar is playing the long game. They are developing products to address the entire industry, not just the needs of one or two dealers. And that means they are focused and innovative. Ilana Shabtay is the Director of Marketing for this Israel-based tech company and she joins the Auto Collabs crew for a thoughtful conversation.

Tuesday offers us a vague and precise picture of our future as we cover some highly audacious EV goals from Elon, a new way to do navigation (you’re gonna love it), as well as some stats on how fast people are watching your YouTube videos.

Sometimes you meet someone for the first time on a Zoom call. This was the experience interviewing Sarah Carter of Upstart Auto Retail. Sarah has 20 years of experience in the industry, and she has a good perspective on the intersection of digital and physical, from the way leads are handled to how other countries are ahead of the US digitally. Plus, Cirillo considers skiing, and Paul learns what push/pull integration is.

Auto is BIG. You never know where a conversation with Darren Doane will go, but it will keep you thinking long afterwards. Darren is a director, first of music videos and now of documentaries. He’s been around many types of business and sees things from outside of the automotive industry. And he is impressed with how big auto is. That makes it able to try things in a way that other industries can’t. Today’s conversation talks about scrap metal, Newsies and yes, how Michael Cirillo is Seth Rogen’s doppelganger.

We’re set to take off this Monday with some investigative journalism around Carvana’s claims, Google gets very helpful in their recent search update, and the US is going back to the moon (ish) today.

Unboxing, ride alongs and cars in the community. There’s a sort of punk rock aura around Jeff Revilla. His first business was a skate shop where he was buying ad words on Overture. Then he joined Smail Auto Group, where he monetized their Youtube channels and got their videos seen all over the internet. All of this while not looking like every other car dealer out there.

Steven Apicella is a man on a mission. He’s out to influence the automotive industry and specifically the way that F&I has worked in the past. You can hear the passion in his voice, how much he cares for both the dealer and the customer. His company, Strategic DX - Your Dealer Experience, consolidates and tracks your third-party offerings in a way that keeps the customer connected to the dealership. Steven talks about his experience coming up in the automotive world and what sparks him to create

Lot’s of fun this Friday as we breakdown California’s 2035 EV rules, Fed Chair, Jerome Powell’s incoming speech from Jackson Hole, WY, as well as the Tesla stock split and Space X’s T-Mobile tag team.

We can’t tell you what’s going to happen in the future. But Michael Johnson has a sneak peek. Part of this is because he lives in Australia, several hours ahead of us in the US. The other part is that dealers in Australia have been experiencing things that are relatively new or not even on the horizon for those of us in North America. Inventory issues and the agency model are normal in Australia, and Michael shares his insight from the industry partner side.

Chad Graves knows marketing. He began in the marketing department of a dealership group before leaving with members of that team to start Reunion Marketing. Now, Reunion works with dealers to lift the gates of transparency, break down the silos, and formulate an entire dealership strategy. Paul J Daly, Kyle Mountsier and Michael Cirillo find out that Chad knows that to look for from the moment he steps foot into a dealership, and also has a good handle of what SEO is and how it works.

We have some work to do this Thursday as we cover the FTC declining of the deadline for public comment on proposed legislation. We also cover the barrage of negative dealer coverage on YouTube. We’re also going to take a look at EV adoption data.

Some people always bring the sermon. Tim Cox is one of them. He is the co-founder of CarNow, and has so many thoughts for the automotive industry. But what’s special about Tim is that he is genuine all the time and you can hear his heart when he is speaking. Kyle Mountsier and Paul J Daly spend time talking about the history of CarNow, how someone on the team has to be right, integrity, and some things that are coming in 2023 that dealers need to be ready for.

Everything’s bigger in Texas. Including Classic Chevrolet’s buy center in an 80x30ft tent. Eric Hall is the Internet Director for Classic Chevrolet, and he talks about staying on top as one of the largest volume dealers in the nation, the challenges and success of looking at a buy center in a different way, and what he sees for retail automotive in the next 6 months.

Your background informs your now. That’s what Colby Joyner has experienced, going from the auto industry to the Air Force, to being an air traffic controller, to a massage therapist and then back into the auto industry both on the dealer and partner sides. It’s allowed him to see things in a different light and helped him as he organizes and automates processes.

A 50 year veteran. Tommy Gibbs has been selling cars longer than Paul, Kyle or Michael have been alive. What made him such an effective operator and what makes him a great consultant now is his emphasis on the basics. You might not get the latest flashy trick play from Tommy, but it will be effective if you work at it and get good at it. Plus, there are plenty of football analogies along the way.

Today we take a quick-shot look across the EV space as we talk about the heavy lift following the recent Climate Bill, the Sony Honda collab destined to change the in-car experience, and get into the details of the latest Tesla update.