Kicking Off ASOTU CON Week w Special Guest Greg Uland VP Marketing for Reynolds and Reynolds

Unknown: 0:30We've done it.

‍Paul J Daly: 0:31

We've made it to the week it is Monday, May 13. The scarf is that coming off the neck for the next four or five days, it's a soda con, we're gonna give you a little preview with VP of marketing from Reynolds. regulan. People

Unknown: 0:44

really want to know who isn't who I guess I can already know. Mendes

Kyle Mountsier: 0:50

the jealous and I know I get it like this afternoon I know I'm getting on a plane this afternoon with the fam exam where the scarf, jealousy level is extreme right now is it? It's

Paul J Daly: 1:02

a fixture, it's officially a fixture on my neck. We're going to be heading down. The dailies are loading up the family wagon, it's not that far of a drive for us check ins not till three. I mean, it's probably got five, maybe five and a half done a Baltimore from Syracuse. But that's it, man. We're about to see the scars on hundreds of people's necks, it's going to be the best

Kyle Mountsier: 1:21

on loaded. I like i i actually don't get nervous about the actual event going like going off really, really well. Because I know our team has just prepared for months, and we're ready, right? There will be things what I get this like little thing in my stomach all about is like, who am I not going to be able to hug that I know is there that I'm just gonna miss Right? Like I just don't want that feeling Sarah,

Paul J Daly: 1:52

my wife Sarah asked me last week, she said, What are you nervous about? I was like, not nervous about getting on stage not nervous about any of the panels we're doing. I'm not nervous that people are going to have a good time. I know that's going to happen. And the team is like locked and loaded. Logistically, I'm not nervous. She's like, but there's one thing I'm nervous about. I'm just the first person's name I forget or don't offer. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare situation for me. And because like, we just meet so many people in so many different contexts. And like, I just want I'm with somebody, I'm all there. And so like we could have had a deep conversation and I might not remember their name. So if that's you, and we may just know that it's just because I've crammed too much in the one side, not you.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:41

It's us. We're working on it. That's the one thing that like fatal flaws we both have, but we'll get there. And for everybody, if you're wondering like, I'm Kyle, that there might you know if that comes into question.

Paul J Daly: 2:59

Oh, we get that too. All the love. I can't wait to show everybody what we're working on. But today we have a very special guest. Obviously, we've been thanking them for the last two months, our presenting collaborators, Reynolds and Reynolds Gugu. We have Vice President of Marketing Greg Nuland on with us today, Greg, you've been such an amazing partner and helping us set the table for a soda Con this year. It's just appropriate that you help us kick this week off. We

Greg Uland: 3:23

make it easy. I mean, you guys are the masters that this is like a third time around. It's old hat now, and there's no way you're not going to forget anybody's name. Don't even worry. I know you're gonna be steady, you're gonna have your wife drive down, you're gonna have your little binder with pictures and names of every attendee

Unknown: 3:38

killer idea. That's gonna

Greg Uland: 3:40

be you'll be fine. Oh, man, I

Paul J Daly: 3:43

love for everybody. When you get in. I

Greg Uland: 3:46

will be there Wednesday. So Wednesday morning, I'll be in wish wish I could have been there tomorrow. You know, that's a thing. So it'll be an amazing Wednesday. Can't can't wait. I mean, it's gonna be a great, great show. I know all the work you guys have put in to make it a great show. Kyle and I were talking earlier about just the number of people that are be there. I mean, huge, huge growth for you guys, which is great to see very excited for you.

Paul J Daly: 4:09

It's gonna be it's gonna feel even full. We've changed the configuration even so we were talking about it like it is going to be buzzing from start to finish. So it's going to be good. We've, you know, one of the things I've loved about our developing partnership is like when you meet somebody in person and you go over their house like we came and visited HQ is actually before he even decided to be the presenting collaborator. And I feel like we've we visited your home. And when you visit somebody's home, you get to meet and you get a lot of the nuance that you don't get from a distance, especially with a large company. And you know, we just got to begin to see the heart that you had for your community even there because it was the night you had the hockey game. Yeah, right. Yeah, actually, I have my where's my scarf. It's right here somewhere. I got

Kyle Mountsier: 4:56

mine. There we go. You guys. If you're listening, you can't see it, but They like Reynolds does scarf. Scarf game strong there it is.

Paul J Daly: 5:05

Real. This is a strong scarf game. And so you had these because you had a hockey game that benefited charity. Talk about that for a second because I got to go to it and it was a riot.

Greg Uland: 5:16

Yeah. So we do that at the Kettering Rec Center, which Kettering is the town that the Reynolds headquarters is in here in Dayton. And all the proceeds of the hockey games, we raise a bunch of money for that. And all the proceeds of the hockey game, go to the Kettering Parks Foundation, which ensures that families regardless of economic status, that everybody in the community has access to caring Parks and Rec and their arts program. So it's a great cause, and our associate foundation puts it on. So it's all associate run, it's all volunteer run. And we have a great time with it. Last year was our ninth year so we do it every year. You know, the players get a little slower. Don't tell them every year, every year, every year the little less strong. But it's

Paul J Daly: 5:58

not the trash talk probably goes up like disproportionately right? I can't skate like I used to have a boy, can I talk some snack?

Greg Uland: 6:05

That's right. But no, it's a ton of fun. And I glad you guys could come and check it out. It really is. It's one of those things that we enjoy every year and and look forward to every year.

Paul J Daly: 6:14

It really embodied the more than cars mentality that we've been like really trying to cultivate and grow. And you all had a very unique opportunity at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where you have secured some screentime during the races. And you decided to partner with us to get more than cars like basically it's a it's a commercial to build the brand of the retail auto industry. Let's face it, that's that's what it is. It's brand building at large. Why did you want to do that, because that's something you brought to us, you're like, hey, we have this, we think it's important to do this. Well,

Greg Uland: 6:48

except macro brand building that we talked about before. Right. And that's that's your idea and your words, and I love it. Because at the end of the day, we were part of such a great industry and Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a great venue. So many people go to these races, this this past weekend was the first race of May, the Sunsail Grand Prix. And so there's, you know, hundreds 1000s people in there. And it's all people that are going to buy a car at some point or have bought a car at some point, they certainly service vehicles. So the opportunity to get in front of those folks and promote the great work that you've done with more than cars. And you know, all the other work that you're continuing to do with more than cars getting that presence out there. As far as you know that the positive stories in automotive and really reshaping that perception and in the public's eye of how great dealers are and how great this industry is. It's a it's an extremely powerful platform to be able to distribute that message. So a lot of people saw it. Hopefully, you'll see a lot of new new views on the Yes, more than cars. And that will keep keep that train rolling. I want to get to that point where where the scale tips and you won't be able to slow it down. Does

Paul J Daly: 7:54

anybody have like, I want to see a video of it on the screens? Like we have to figure out how to get that because we're not going to be able to be at the races?

Greg Uland: 8:02

Absolutely I can I can, I can probably get some the amazing no

Kyle Mountsier: 8:05

win. Like obviously this like first of all, thank you for that it's been a big deal. I think the industry will like we're hoping that the industry can see that as an effort to support the entire industry. But you know, Reynolds is just because of your scale and the participation in so much of the industry, you're always paying attention to like what are the trends, what's happening. And one of the things that we love to do for a soda con our team hates us for it. But it's more important to Paul and I as we actually like hold as long as we possibly can up into the event to get the topics as close to the event as possible. So we're not like planning a topic in September of last year, that's not going to be relevant for this week. Um, you know, you guys have a couple of pieces of our participation within the event. What right now are you all seeing is Reynolds are you seeing in the industry that's kind of top of mind that you're expecting to hear a lot this week as we're at the conference.

Greg Uland: 9:13

I mean, there's there's a lot of pieces to that puzzle. This week. It was interesting had a couple of dealers in and we were talking with him but one of them was it was a Lamborghini store so not not applicable, you know, across the broad spectrum, a little different business model they have so nothing maybe to share anecdotally from from that group just because of the nature of their business. But one of the things over the last couple of weeks that you know, all the public companies had their their quarterly earnings calls over the last couple of weeks. And one of the things I found interesting was was they each spoke about their use car business and their strategies there as a bigger part of what they're going to see 2020 for Sonic specifically spent a decent amount of time on eco Park and what that means and how they're treating that business and how important it is to them. So I think we're going to see that continue. See that trend continue in the US vehicle space and how important it is throughout 2020 Foreign in 2025, it's going to continue to be a vital part of, of the business. There's just more control there. So that'll be an interesting one to watch for sure. Yeah, everybody's kind

Kyle Mountsier: 10:09

of over the last year has been infatuated with data, especially because and, and I always pair like data with AI because AI is completely driven by data. And so whether it be a CDP conversation or an AI conversation, or, or who has my data conversation, it's all centered around like, what's the data that's being utilized to drive results or action or intent with technology? We've got a mainstage panel that AGM a gallon of auto vision AI is going to be a part of talking specifically about the used car market and and what data is actually being used. Now that maybe wasn't we didn't have access to six, seven years ago, to make decisions. Can you talk a little bit about what you guys are doing to actually provide the industry with the opportunity to look at the used car operation a little bit differently?

Greg Uland: 11:03

Yeah, for sure. Well, first, Have you guys met AJ, have you talked to him?

Kyle Mountsier: 11:06

I have gotten the joy of he's smart cat.

Greg Uland: 11:12

He's just a bright guy. He was working on some stuff. It was literally at NADA. He's He's coding some AI stuff into auto vision. And he's like, Hey, let me show you this. Let me show you this leaves you feedback on it. I'm just, I'm watching this and like, holy cow, that is some speed right there. Right. That's the reaction. We dealers, it's like, I'll just write it. But no, with with what we're doing there, what he has been driving a lot of is, you know, it's all about cleanliness of the data, getting that that first party data where it's not going off of, you know, two or three layers from the transaction, and then also, making sure that it's fast, right, speed is so important in these vehicle space. So how do you get the clean data up to the first party data? And then how do you make sure that it's that it's up to date, you know, to right now, not yesterday, not two days ago, not three days ago, but right now, and being able to take that information. And then once you have that clean data, you can obviously create to your point the the AI tools to make some predictions, and to really hone in on, on where to price a vehicle. You know, even even, I guess, a little bit more customer facing things around, you know, what words to use in your description, and how to craft those things when it comes to merchandising, so there's a lot of pieces to the puzzle. But at the end of the day, counter your point, it's about it is about that data, it's about speed, and it's about clarity.

Paul J Daly: 12:37

You know, there's going to be a lot of data conversations this week, a lot of marketing conversations, a lot of use car conversations, a lot of operational conversations. I feel like this is one of the few places where people that, you know, you talked about AJ being like, you know, freak of nature, when it comes to being able to like take an idea code, I feel like there's going to be this combination of people from all these different disciplines. And I've always felt, and we've always believed that a soda like we really can move forward with an element of of like empathy, understanding, actually what it takes to like, do it build an AI product, or what it actually takes to price you used car properly, or what it actually takes to move service retention up. And it's almost like this level of empathy that can grow when everybody is in the same place. So my encouragement to people this week, if you're at a soda con, is to absolutely go to something that you wouldn't usually go to, if you're not a data person, go to at least one data session. So you can connect like a face here a little bit of perspective, and then you can integrate it back with yourself, which is, I mean, it's one of the one of the reasons we do this to be a holistic event. But your your conversation or what you're just saying about AJ but Aj is mainstage. Right, Kyle? Yep. Yeah, this is amazing. Everybody gets that. There you go. I've just if you're not a data person, then you get one for free. If you are a data person, you got to pick another one. You got to pick another one. Okay, thanks

Kyle Mountsier: 14:04

so much for joining us, man. Oh, what were you gonna say?

Greg Uland: 14:07

I'm just gonna say it's a great strategy. And you know, everybody wants to get the most out of these events. Everybody's taking time away from the store. And it's a commitment and everybody's excited as they should be. But you do want to get takeaways and that's a really good really good hack of, you know, pick, pick something out that you wouldn't usually go to it and your horizons, expand the people that you're going to talk to, got to do

Kyle Mountsier: 14:26

it. Well, like so much for joining us, man. It's been fun. I'm going to

Paul J Daly: 14:30

end the show with you on it. We're gonna see you on Wednesday, but we're gonna see a lot of you who are listening to this. Maybe tonight, definitely tomorrow if you're coming to a soda con, but if you're not, stay tuned on LinkedIn. We're gonna be posting a lot of stuff. We'll see you this week.

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