Clever is the New Creative with Erin Richmond

Paul J Daly: 0:00

Michael, can you give us the official weather report for the center of Canada this time of year?

‍Unknown: 0:12

This is Auto Collabs

Michael Cirillo: 0:14

Yes, I can as a matter of fact, I was talking to my old pappy he told me they broke a record now they're not quite where our guest today is located. They're one province to the west still in the prairies, still very cold broke a record for the coldest place on earth sitting at minus 57. No, stop. Minus 57 degrees. Like a combustion

Paul J Daly: 0:40

engine doesn't even start in that temperature. Pretty batteries.

Michael Cirillo: 0:43

You want to know what's crazy about this. People still ask me So what made you want to move to Texas?

Paul J Daly: 0:53

You just sent him a screenshot of the the weather. So whether it's 57 Oh my gosh. Today's guest is Aaron Richmond, and she's from Saskatchewan. Did I say that? Right?

Kyle Mountsier: 1:04

Yeah.

Paul J Daly: 1:05

And that's right in the middle. Correct.

Michael Cirillo: 1:07

It's kind of in the middle, right. It's central central.

Paul J Daly: 1:11

Okay. Okay. And it's called there but that doesn't matter when you're in digital marketing. No, right. He's with us media. And we're hoping to like get her to like open the playbook a little bit to tell us all the digital marketing secrets. And I don't know we'll ask her some will tee up some tricky questions for I'm sure we hope you enjoyed this interview with Ehrenreich.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:35

All right, we're hanging out with Aaron Richmond. Aaron. Thanks for joining us on Auto Collabs today

Erin Richmond: 1:39

thanks for having me.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:40

Awesome. So here's the thing I know you from like a distance and we've been on some calls together. But I don't know you but I know that you started you were in automotive not just on the industry partner side to begin but also on the dealer side. Is that correct? Yeah,

Erin Richmond: 1:55

I've kind of sat on both sides of the table. So take us back.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:59

Why Where did automotive come into the picture for you as a marketer?

Erin Richmond: 2:03

Okay, well, um, I started my career at Enterprise rent a car. But even before that, my dad ran body shop in a dealership growing up and so I have many memories of small child just like running around the parts, you

Paul J Daly: 2:17

know? Okay, then I'm gonna ask you what is one of

Kyle Mountsier: 2:21

the podcasts now Paul's body shop per se

Paul J Daly: 2:26

when you walk into a body shop or smell Bondo

Erin Richmond: 2:30

that's that's nostalgia. Like that is my childhood that smell

Paul J Daly: 2:33

the world right detailing chemicals and Bondo hugging my

Erin Richmond: 2:36

dad when I when he came home from work. Oh, right.

Paul J Daly: 2:39

That's right. Dad smelled like fondos amazing. Yokai always jokes about that whenever it's like reconditioning thing you know, like body shop because I have a background in that and those are just, you can't escape it the second you are anywhere near a body shop or detailing chemicals you automatically go I just feel good.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:58

My wife got the same glass cleaner. That just like weeks ago, do you already use you just smelled it you were like, oh, it's in my nose. Yeah, the blue shot at the house and she was like, clean enough the windows and I was like I don't think we can do this too much to basically in the detailed apartment. Okay, so you have like rich automotive history. Yeah, in your blood. But so good. Take us on the track. So you you started an enterprise rent a car and how did that kind of turn into where you are, you know, that's

Erin Richmond: 3:32

dealership adjacent and then went over to auto trader from enterprise. It was a it was an learning experience. It was hugely valuable. And it created a lot of long lasting relationships for me in the industry. So started with them when they were making their transition from print to digital up here in Canada. Do you know,

Paul J Daly: 3:49

I'm gonna interrupt you right there. Have you ever heard of a man named Eddie Blumenfeld? I don't think so. Actually, Does that ring a bell? Because he actually went to AutoTrader. Ca, he used to work for CHIP Perry and autotrader in the US. And then he got recruited to go work for John Francis, who was trader media Corp. and transition. Okay, I thought this was about to get really good. Okay. So transition from print to digital. Yeah.

Erin Richmond: 4:13

Yeah, I was. I mean, I was a pretty young buck at that point. So that's what I got started in digital marketing. And obviously, you know, tried to help dealerships understand that whole transition from from like, Hey, I'm buying a full page ad in a magazine to Why do you need a website and how do you understand what was even going on there? And how do you measure that? So that really kicked it off? When I left autotrader I went to a local agency and took some of my clients with me as as an agency and consultant. And then through that the one of the dealerships that I've been working with since you know, the beginning asked me if I would come in house so I went to help them and their sister store, help them for a couple years and then being in Saskatchewan, which is a very small place in the

Paul J Daly: 4:59

UK A little chilly this time of year to Well, that's yeah,

Erin Richmond: 5:02

for sure. Today

Kyle Mountsier: 5:06

ironic we're going to NADA this week and it's like I it's going to be cold there and I'm mad about it but in Vegas so fine I've there's a lot of people in our industry that move from like starting in the dealership world becoming marketing team or marketing person or marketing director and move to like the SAS or, you know, services side of the business. There's less, although it's actually happening more than maybe when it was when you transition from the like, SAS or PartnerWorld. to the dealership? Yeah. What was that transition? Like? What, like, because that's a different learning curve than being in the dealership and moving to the other side, I'd love to hear your perspective on people that are because that's happening more and more. And I think more and more people are seeing that as an opportunity and an option, because there's so many more channels for that type of persona to be in the dealership. So I'd love to hear that. Because I think there's probably some people that are going, Hey, maybe that's a thing that I could do. Yeah,

Erin Richmond: 6:11

um, it was, it was a huge learning curve, obviously, um, dealerships are complex. And you know, as much as people like to say, you know, it's a business, it's very much not automotive has its own set of rules, its own set of requirements, its own way of being. So there was definitely a learning curve there. Having, you know, kind of operated adjacent, I had an idea of what to expect, but the personalities, the way the departments work together. It was, it was a great opportunity, especially because marketing kind of, you know, it's not part of fixed ops, and it's not part of sales, it kind of sits beside all of those departments and, and it has the opportunity to tie it all together, right? Like you, as a marketer in the dealership, you have the opportunity to see to help fixed ops and sales, build that funnel on that pipeline and work together and inform the customer experience in the dealership, right, where we're talking about in the digital space versus what we're talking about that's happening in the dealership need to come together and need to be tied together. And so to have the opportunity to do that was like, right up my alley. I was just I'm probably talking faster because it I love it that about it. Yes, yeah. So it was, I loved it. Because having been on the vendor side, you know, you're held at an arm's length sometimes, and you don't get to really affect the change, or the potential that you see in your dealership partners. So coming in house, you all of a sudden, were at the table when you had a seat at that table, and you were able to actually make things happen and help dealerships understand from the inside what marketing could do or what what the reason that they were spending all this money on Google ads, or their website or any of that, you know, those pieces and how it how it really does impact the dealership results.

Paul J Daly: 7:54

I think that one of the main transitions that has happened because of this, the shift is now the marketing. The marketing leaders inside dealerships, all of a sudden aren't just about the marketing in the traditional way we think about it, like create making creative and getting attention on certain vehicles or certain messages. But now it goes right through the front door, what happens in the operations, what happens in the processes that people go through. And so now the marketing, marketing minds are now like merging very closely with the operational minds. And that has to happen if it's going to be right. And it's interesting that your background came through a transitionary period, right? Obviously, in the Body Shop world enterprise world, very operations heavy. And then this transition from autotrader, where you're like, print to digital, which was this like mind blowing thing, but then to go through dealer world and now be in a place where actually marketing in the physical world, like the digital in the physical world are coming together again, after this kind of roundabout way is I'm just verbalizing like how I see that you're like, This is why you're talking faster when you're talking about this because you get to wake up every day now and still be a part of this this melding of the two worlds

Erin Richmond: 9:13

Yeah, it's it's honestly like Nothing gets me more excited to like help a dealership pull that all together and be able to do it at the scale that we're doing it here at Expedia, you know at the individual dealership level Yeah, I can impact change but when I get to work with hundreds of dealerships across the US and Canada, I get to see you know, what's working what's not working and really provide consultation and advice and best practices and figure out you know, each market and and how to help them in the best possible way. It's it's so much fun.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:46

So what are you seeing flex right now then what is what are some of the moves that you're seeing of the best dealerships because we're in a like, really interesting time when we're talking about like marketing or customer acquisition And our customer attention where we've just been through this, like anything goes, they'll come in anyway. And I'm getting a ton of questions just personally like via text. Where would you go? What would you do here? How would you adjust that, like everybody is keyed up for we have to adjust, we have to change. Is it change? Or is it stay the course? Or what's what are you seeing work right now?

Erin Richmond: 10:23

I mean, I think, you know, given what we've gone through in the auto industry for the last almost four years now, I think change is just a given right? You have to continue to adapt to whatever is being thrown at you. There's no, there's no normal here for us right now. But what I'm seeing is like, what's working is dealerships who are consistent and focusing, again, on that customer experience. I like I don't want to sound one note, but that at the end of the day is what drives your results. So how are you in the dealership and in your digital marketing, informing the customer experience, educating your customers, giving them what they need to make that purchase decision, as long as you're doing that, and your sales team is doing that, and you have a process across all departments to make that happen? You're going to be successful. And, you know, we've got we're we're facing a lot of situations that I'm sure Kyle, you're seeing this as well, where, you know, dealerships are uncertain, because inventory is starting to pile up. And that's making them nervous, because that hasn't been the case. But I would go back to focus on best practice process and customer. And that's not that's never going to let you down.

Paul J Daly: 11:28

We're most people getting tripped up right now. Like if you were to say the one or two things that keep coming up where you're like, alright, I saw that one coming.

Erin Richmond: 11:38

Well, we're seeing we're seeing a lot of people pulling back on on advertising spend because things are slowing down and sitting, what types of ad spend? Digital's specifically, you know, we need to cut budgets, because we're just not moving inventory. Well, okay, that's that's understandable, budgets are tight. But the longer you sit on that inventory, the more expensive that it's going to be on your floor plan. And you're going to impact that shopping journey in 3545 60 days, you still need that, that that traffic coming in those those eyes on your inventory, and and you need to be building your brand and making sure that you're top of mind for those people when they are ready to purchase. It might be that they're holding off on interest rates or they're shopping other competitors. But that's even more reason to be putting putting an investment into your brand and your marketing.

Kyle Mountsier: 12:25

It's tough because it's a chicken egg scenario, right? It's like, oh, we're not selling many cars cut back on advertising. Yes. However, the way you sell cars is by advertising. Right. And I think that that's that's a scary proposition, because especially as people turn the New Year and start to see these downturns in the market, increase inventory, they make gut reactionary decisions. And March is a big month. But 60 day shopping journeys are a real thing. And when you're talking about digital, like display, or OTT or ad networks, like they inform shopping journeys not on by now, they're by just a little bit later. Because the shopping journey, even though like the lead journey to sale is this three to seven days, the shopping journey to sale is 60 to 90 days, just saw the you know that people are still spending 13 plus hours shopping for a car in combined hours. So I am interested to see like, how is March for the auto industry, when everybody or at least a lot of the players have cut back in, in ad spend. Yeah, yeah, no, there's just a statement. There's not really

Paul J Daly: 13:41

let me let me drill down on the on the ad cuts a little bit or at least the ad strategy. Because obviously a lot of ads Vince specific trying to move vehicles that have been slow to move or, you know, we need to get out of, but you also mentioned brand advertising, and obviously a longer tail on your brand advertising. But there's been a ton of conversations now that everybody has inventory. Why should someone buy it from you? What's your perspective on like, what a good ad mix is? And how much dealers should be talking about brand? How much should they you know, have an allocation allocating toward brand allocating toward Vince specific? How do you approach that?

Erin Richmond: 14:16

So I mean, the good thing about brand is that you can build it at a pretty cost effective with a pretty cost effective budget right? You don't need to spend 1000s of dollars pushing a YouTube video or campaign or you know display as you can. You can use a combination of organic and paid to build your brand and you should there should be you know, customer experience, dealership personalities, etc going into your brand and that should all be we're not all but that should be that should be organically posted and shared as well. With with the paid side of things. I always encourage dealerships to put some thought into to your point, Paul, like what makes it What makes it different to shop at your dealership? Why? What's the customer experience? And why should someone consider you especially as we're starting to look at, like, at these situations where people have inventory again? So you know, there, they can go down the road? A year ago they couldn't, but now they can. So how are you making sure, a that what you're talking about in terms of your brand online, again, matches that customer experience when they come in the store, because if they get a whiff of like, this is not this is not meeting up, they can just leave and go somewhere else. But how do you match

Kyle Mountsier: 15:32

a brutal one? That's like when you're marketing one thing and it doesn't match in the in the like, that'll just destroy worse,

Paul J Daly: 15:39

it's worse, way worse.

Erin Richmond: 15:40

It's awful. But there's so many opportunities for dealerships to build their brand, online ever them to interact with the customer before they even get into the store. Right? And so, like, you know, keeping on top of your reviews, posting organically, and then yeah, put a little bit of budget towards that messaging, whether that's in a video or whether that's in a display campaign. Talk about why you're awesome. Like you, you own the business, you're running the show. Why Why? Why do you kick ass sorry? Like, what? What are you? What do you what's making you stand apart from everyone else? And do it you should be bragging about yourself in those situations. That's the reason that they're going to come to you so put, you know, it depends on the market. I'm always hesitant to like give a budget prescription. Sure,

Paul J Daly: 16:25

of course, what a reasonable amount and percentage wise, Give us a percentage. What

Erin Richmond: 16:28

do you think? Yeah, like maybe 15 20% I would say of your budget towards your brand, right? Just put it out there. brag about yourself? What makes you You're great. If it's your team, it's the experience, you know, talk about it. Get it?

Paul J Daly: 16:41

Do you think do you see like a significant difference when people invest in better creative like do you see that playing out way different on the outside?

Erin Richmond: 16:50

You don't have to spend a ton on creative I don't think like we're in a world where you know we're tick tock is consuming all the people's time and the more the more real and legit your your appearances on channels like that. The better it's going to be right

Paul J Daly: 17:07

right the more polished it looks the more people are like I'm being sold to Yeah, we're

Erin Richmond: 17:11

in a we're in a place where you can you can present yourself with a limited polish and still and still be successful. So take advantage of that. Yeah, club

Paul J Daly: 17:20

we say sometimes clever as the new creative. Yeah, that's so especially on tic tac, especially on tic tac for is the new creative. Yeah. So why

Kyle Mountsier: 17:29

haven't you told me that?

Paul J Daly: 17:30

I just been sitting on that one, just because I have a LinkedIn post that needs to go out now. Aaron, what's the best way for people to stay connected with you?

Erin Richmond: 17:39

Um, LinkedIn is fantastic. Yeah, I'm I'm not on there. As much as you guys. I don't have the daily insights going but part of our

Paul J Daly: 17:48

job on LinkedIn. But yeah, that's definitely

Erin Richmond: 17:51

one of the best ways. All right, well, Erin Richmond,

Paul J Daly: 17:54

thank you so much for joining us today. We look forward to spend some more time with you soon. Thanks for joining us on Auto Collabs

Erin Richmond: 18:00

thanks, you guys. And thanks.

Paul J Daly: 18:05

Okay, I didn't know the conversation was gonna go into body shops. You kind of call it the second someone brings up body shops. He's like, Okay, we need to pause this conversation. So Paul, and this guest can talk about the smell of Bondo and detailing chemicals and how it's the best thing ever if I could like put it in the Cologne. I would

Michael Cirillo: 18:27

just that smell a grease.

Kyle Mountsier: 18:29

No, it's not grease. No, it's Ondo. It's a totally different smell.

Paul J Daly: 18:33

We need to educate you, Michael, do we though? But do we. But when you understand the industry from that perspective, like you've gone all the way to the front,

Kyle Mountsier: 18:46

everything changes. And here's the thing like, we, the three of us. We love brand marketing, we know that it pencils, we know that it works. And I don't think I've ever talked to someone in paid media that's been like, yeah, shouldn't spend any money on brand doesn't work. You know, I think there's variables on like how much people put toward that type of marketing. You know, what your intention is, what your goal is, what the inputs and outputs that you might have toward your marketing. But it's clear that, that that idea that creative and content and pushing brand out in every single channel is just anybody's game right now. And all you have to do is start is the way to go. Like just get something out there that talks about who you are, because it will pour fuel on fire of every other Ajin

Michael Cirillo: 19:42

that's like one of the biggest Yeah, man now I'm Oh, yeah, I mean, Mount mount, pull

Paul J Daly: 19:48

string, the Gotcha. Well, you see, because

Michael Cirillo: 19:51

this is the thing, right? Like I was just talking to my pal. I don't know if you guys have met Rand Fishkin or not he used to own a company called

Kyle Mountsier: 19:58

Ask if we met your Pap, I thought Slappy, he's got Rand Fishkin

Michael Cirillo: 20:03

pappy, he's got enough air time was Yeah. and I were just having a conversation kind of along the lines of this, which is like, here's why marketing attribution is dead. And and he listed all of these reasons why it's so inaccurate and why we shouldn't hang our hat on it. And then he started talking about things like this like brand. Why? Why don't people invest a little bit more into their brand? And he's like, because it's harder to it's sometimes harder to measure. It's harder to track and you said, Kyle, like, we know how it pencils because we've been doing it for so long, more than a quarter. Yes. But that is therein lies the biggest challenge that I think dealerships face in a 2024 world and beyond is what don't people know that you do? Because everybody knows you. So everyone knows you sell cars, everybody knows you service cars, but what don't they? No, that's

Paul J Daly: 20:54

a great flip. Because usually it's like, what do other people know that I don't? Like actually, what doesn't? Everyone else know that? I actually do. Yep, exactly. That's a superpower.

Kyle Mountsier: 21:05

That like someone write that down and press stop on this podcast? Because there's no there that you should be asking that of every communication channel that you have. Like that's a great question, but

Paul J Daly: 21:19

it's the hardest. I

Michael Cirillo: 21:21

think the challenge that Nathan put that on repeat, right on post

Paul J Daly: 21:26

social picture of Michael looking into the distance with a knowing glance, do you know that other people don't

Michael Cirillo: 21:33

but you know, it ties into fixed opposite ties into it ties into every facet of the dealership, right, like I think, okay, but do they? Even if they know what you do? Do they then know the process of what you do and how you do it? And you know, like, there's just so much I that? Yes, exactly.

Kyle Mountsier: 21:50

As long question. Yeah. Great. Conversation on brand. We get excited about it. Hope you enjoyed it. We're there in Richmond. On behalf of myself, Michael Cirillo, and Paul J. Daly. Have a good day. Thanks for joining us on Auto Collabs.

Unknown: 22:03

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Paul J Daly: 22:34

Welcome to Annika Are we recording

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