In today’s fragmented media landscape, it’s more important than ever for automotive dealers to show up where their audience is, and with creative that leaves a lasting impression.
On the Strategy with Jason podcast, Spectrum Reach’s Tara Rego, Director of Market Growth, reviewed the roadmap for success on data-driven video strategies for auto dealers.
During her discussion with host Jason Harris, she highlighted specific auto strategies, including:
- Why prime time is anytime – focus on reaching the right audience when and where they’re watching.
- Measure outcomes, not impressions – how to connect viewership to action with multiscreen attribution.
- How to create ads with impact, using data-driven best practices for creative execution.
Want to know more? Speak with one our local Account Executives today!
Podcast Transcript
Tara Rego 0:00
Identifying what's working and what's most impactful. How could you possibly know how to validate where your dollars are being spent? It doesn't matter if you spend $1,000 or $10,000 if you're not doing those things to understand, am I reaching the right audience in the right places you're gonna find that?
Jason Harris 0:18
Can I be as a general theme for everything that I know me and Terry, gonna be talking about is speaking to that audience. That is the most impactful and powerful strategy we're talking about here.
Tara Rego 1 0:29
You can have all the impressions in the world if you're not getting outcomes off of them. I mean, it really doesn't matter. People buy from people they like yes, they can't like you if they don't know you, and they can't know you if you're not in front of them. So that's where video really does play a big part in getting people to know you and like you, even if they've never actually been to your store or met you. It's not just about how many eyeballs you're getting, it's about how many people you're actually reaching that are part of that target audience, and how many times you're reaching them and staying in front of them and working towards again, outcomes? This is where it gets really like juicy highest response rates are if women are in the commercials, over with women in my commercial. Yes, 30 sec commercials actually outperform shorter versions of the 15 second or less commercial, quite substantially.
Jason Harris 1:29
Total strategy with Jason podcast, tune in for everything you need to know regarding the automotive industry. Here's your host. Jason Harris, hey, what's going on automotive nation.
Jason Harris here and thank you for joining me on another episode of The Game Changer seminar, where I brought together pretty much everybody and anybody that is a game changer in our industry to come out, talk with me, talk to you, and really share some best practices strategies, and we're going to get into some cool stuff. Today. I have a guest with me, actually, I call her one of my friends. I have Tara with Spectrum Reach. Tara, come on up here. Say hi to everybody. How you doing? Doing? Well, how are you I'm doing great. Hey. For everybody out there that you don't know, Spectrum Reach is a game changer, bringing us back to the big screen, you know? Like, I mean, it's not like it never really went away, but listen, it's gotten smaller over the years, but I'm seeing this push come back to that big screen. And, man, that gets me excited. Like, the creatives cool, you know? I mean, I remember the days of the trunk monkey, the trunk monkey, the trunk monkey. I love trunk monkey. Or the gonna give me one today? The Badger. Oh yes, the Badger. He's one of my favorites as well, you know? And it's now like we're able to connect with people back on that big screen with cool, fun, creative. And you guys are just doing some amazing things. So Tara, for everybody out there, watching, listening right now, who maybe don't know who you are, let's kick it off real quick, which is kind of an origin story, because, you know, I love starting out with the origin stories. How in the world did you get started in the automotiveindustry?
Tara Rego 3:18
So I'll give the short version. I had been in the US Army. I got out of the US Army, and I decided to stay in the Washington area. I was at Fort Lewis, Washington. I stayed in the Washington area, and I was going to school. And I had while I was putting myself through school, I was a cocktail waitress a very nice nightclub in Seattle. And one night, a group of guys did come in, and they were sitting at the table is during a happy hour, and I up sold and I up sold and I up sold. And they they got all of everything they needed. And one lonely gentleman got stuck with the bill, and they had all left, and he was paying the bill, and he looked a little upset. And I asked him, I'm like, Is there something wrong with the bill? He's like, No, but if I had one sales person on my team that was as good as you were tonight, I wouldn't be sweating this bill, and I went to work for him the next day.
Jason Harris 4:06
He was drinking nothing but doubles all night long, right? That's awesome. Well, I'm glad you got into the business, and this is one of those industry that once get it, once it gets into your blood, it is so hard to get it out. And I'm just you're one of the individuals that I just appreciate your passion for this industry. So let's get into it. Okay, I want to talk about TV. Yes, we're talking about TV. I'm gonna, let's just start this. Is TV dead, or is it just misunderstood?
Tara Rego 4:32
Wow. I mean, I guess I would say our phones dead, right? I mean, most of us don't have one in our house anymore, but we still carry one and stare at it all day long. TV is the same. It's just being handled and delivered differently than what you might be used to it, right? If we look at it, I think it's something like 43 and a half or, yeah, 43 and a half hours a week people spend watching TV, no matter if it's streaming, traditional, whatever you want to call it 43, and a half hours. That's up six hours from 2020, so we're not TV's not dead. It's actually getting bigger and bigger to the point that the average time someone spends trying to figure out what to watch is 10 and a half minutes. Now in my home, it's much longer. Yeah, my husband, I feel like it's an art form for him to like, make sure he's not missing the best thing he could possibly be watching.
Jason Harris 5:25
Well, my house, it is an absolute disaster trying to figure out what we're ultimately going to watch. But you understand, right? I mean, when I think about when I was a kid, and just how much time that, you know, if we wanted to watch her consume something, we had to go to a theater to watch it, consume something new, and we are just we're watching. I mean, well, over 90% of our consumption now is happening at home on our couch, all right, with a big old bucket of popcorn. And it's cool, but it's definitely a transition, for sure.
Tara Rego 5:57
Yeah, I know I probably watch way too much already. I don't even know how many streaming platforms that I have. I was at an event just last month, and I had people stand up if they had, you know, more than one streaming platform. And then then I said more than three, and we got up to seven, and I still had, you know, three or four people standing so, I mean, yes, it's where viewership is happening.
Jason Harris 6:23
But, I mean, I love it though, you know, it's like, no, maybe a little bit I do miss. I mean, I do, I do miss having that, that bookshelf in the house with every single Disney movie ever created. And, you know, just having to wait for the tape to rewind backwards, you know. But, you know. But now my kids still get to experience all of this. They get to experience how they want to and when they want to do that. Well, let's get into this. Why that's so really good for the dealers out there? You know, if you're not on the big screen, you need to come back to the big screen. And I want to get into so, you know, why does measured it? Measurement? Let's get into the marketing side of it. Right? I want to get to the marketing side. Why does measurement matter more than the media spend?
Tara Rego 7:04
So I don't want to say that it matters more. It works in concert with everything you put together through your marketing strategy, right? It's definitely an important part. But if you're not identifying what's working and what's most impactful. How could you possibly know how to validate where your dollars are being spent? It doesn't matter if you spend $1,000 or $10,000 if you're not doing those things to understand, am I reaching the right audience in the right places? No, 100%
Jason Harris 7:37
I mean, I to your point. You said earlier, right seven different streaming things, and then that's probably the ones we're paying for. We're paying for. I probably watch another four or five that are actually completely free, that I'm not paying for, depending on the sporting event that I want to watch, that may just not be aired in the US or even back to like I love. There's some free ones out that just run classic movies like I'm a classic country western movie fan. I know, if you guys didn't know that now you know, that, now you know, and there's a channel, there's a there's a free streaming channel out there for that, and I absolutely love it. But when I think about like positioning wise, you're so right about this. The positioning is not like, I'll say, when we first started doing commercials for our dealership, right? It's about prime time, right? That's what it's about. Prime Time, all right? It was getting right up there that, that CHANNEL SEVEN NEWS hour, you know, right there where, you know, we were told, from analytics perspective, this is where we're having the most amount of measurement, the most amount of people on there. But now it's flipped. It's now targeting prime time, I guess. Well, isn't prime because, because we're now turning the customer where they're watching right. Let's dive a little deeper into that.
Tara Rego 8:51
Well, in my world, prime time is anytime, right. People are consuming very differently. They're watching very differently. So could be anytime. And at spectrum reach, we do have a solution called multiscreen attribution. And so what we're doing is we're really trying to measure where outcomes actually happen from, not necessarily where all the eyeballs are, right? Everyone say, Well, this is where you can get the most impressions. Well, you can have all the impressions in the world if you're not getting outcomes off of them. I mean, it really doesn't matter. So when we're looking at, you know, if you want to look at day parts, and we're looking at that, we're finding that early morning has just as many outcomes, the same level of outcome, sure, as prime time, right? So people wouldn't necessarily think that we also see that actually, what is it 73% higher than average outcomes is happening what they call the early fringe, which is four to 6pm Okay, that's 73% better than the average. And then it's still a 63% better than average at Prime Access, which is at seven to eight period. So I think that, you know, when I started talking to some advertising agencies, and, you know, they have been buying this, you know, the same way, same day parts, this is, this is the best place to be. This is where all the impressions are. That's not the right thing to be looking for. You should really be looking for, yes, you want reach if it's not developing for outcomes. Why does that matter?
Jason Harris 10:25
Outcomes are what you're looking for, and to get those outcomes, we have the audience first, right as the beautiful thing that has evolved on the big screen. That wasn't the case. We had to just focus here's the most amount of viewers we didn't necessarily know. We know at any given moment, 3% of the market was in was in market for a car, right? So 3% of the people watching, potentially, were in market for a car, right? But we had to create a piece of creative that spoke to just literally everybody. And that's not the case anymore. You know, I was just recently talking to a Ford dealership. If you're Ford dealership out there, you'll understand this. The f1 50 is not bought by a singular audience. I mean, there's like, nine different, very specific audiences that are purchasing an f1 50, you know, including families. It's, you know, it's now becoming a truck and now becoming one of the biggest family alternative vehicle out there. I mean, in the past, I never ran a truck ad for a family. Come on, that doesn't make any sense, right? But no, so being able to be audience first really means that, to your point, that Prime Time ain't prime. It's always prime. It's just where your customers at what they're consuming at the moment they're consuming it. And kind of going back to what we're talking about measurement over media spend, I'm not having to have, I mean, don't get me wrong. I definitely think spend needs to be a part of this. Don't, don't get into this. I think you're just gonna have this proverbal checkbox and you say, Oh, I'm gonna put my $3,000 over there. No, no, no. This is, this is, this is an investment, but the reason it shouldn't be an investment is because we're able to target that right customer.
Tara Rego 12:05
That's right, that's right. And that's we should be using data instead of our guts, of what that what that looks like, right? And I think that's where it's really important that we really just follow the data. I say that a lot follow the data. Follow the data, and that's one of the great things that spectrum reach. We are the connection to the actual home. We are the ISP. We have all this data, and we use it for the forces of good, to help people actually be more effective with their targeting and finding the right audience well.
Jason Harris 12:38
And I do know when certain advertisers are not hitting a mark when it comes to the right audience? Right? You know, I had an incident the other day where my son was watching something, and I can't remember necessarily which streaming solution it was, but it was obviously a Kids program. And here comes an ad for hips and erectile dyfunction. And he's like, Hey, Dad, what is Oh, are you kidding me? And I'm like, as an advertiser, what were you thinking? I mean, clearly, you know who the audience of watching this content is. So someone didn't connect the dots.
Tara Rego 13:13
And I don't think I could go down a whole rabbit hole with that. You know, lot of programmatic buying going out there. It's true. Not everyone's doing it in a really great way. That's perfect example. Bottom of the barrel, you end up there not a good place to be.
Jason Harris 13:31
I want to talk a little bit about sports, because you said something earlier, and it really kind of triggered how I'm consuming sports these days. So for a lot of you out there watching, listening, you guys know that I've got into golf a little later in my years now, and I found something that I can start doing pretty much until the day I die. So I'm excited about not, not good at this at all. But I I'm watching the Pro, so I get to go watch so much. So I'm watching my tournament, and it's up on the big screen, and then on my small screen, I'm following the specific individuals that I like to learn more from. So here I am. I get to watch the big screen with the main feed, and then I get to watch the individual player feeds on this device. Now I have never consumed sports this way, but I'm seeing more and more of this kind of, you were talking earlier, multi device, you know, kind of participation or watching happening. And I guess I kind of always, I watch people, you know, watch a football game. They got another football game. Why do sports seem to, I guess, punch above their weight class for dealers, specifically, because I think there's a lot of opportunity with sports and teamwork
Tara Rego 14:43
First, before I get with that you obviously are new to golf. Because if you're passionate, as I am, with golf, and I'm not that great either, I watch the golf. I put my phone underneath where the scorecard is supposed to be, and I watch golf while I'm golfing. So pro tip out in the world and still enjoying content, right, everywhere, prime time, anytime. But why do sports punch above? Well, fan engagement, right? Number one, that's a very engaged audience that's watching, and while they're engaged, they're getting emotional, and they're having all these feelings. And you know that emotion is what video brings, in general. So it's always been the assumption that sports fans, when they see ads in their content, are going to have more of a response rate because emotions are flowing. It was, has always been considered. We used our multiscreen attribution solution to see exactly Is that true, and we were able to find conclusively that, yes, it is. They respond 24% better than not watching the sports.
Jason Harris 15:58
Well, no, I actually doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, I remember, you know, taking a class early on when I went to school for marketing, right? And they're like, you know, the emotion, regardless of emotion, right? If I can make you laugh, if I can make you sad, I pull up the heart strings a little bit, or, ultimately, if I can piss you off, all right, that emotion does something to the brain in a connection, and it allows us to retain information, and what we're seeing at three, four times x, just because the bodies and then to your point, in a heightened, I guess, kind of, kind of mode, right? So that makes total sense. Now I want to take a little bit about language networks, because I'm when I had my dealership, I was in an ethnic melting pot, all right? I mean, there were nine different languages that spoke in my PMA, right? I mean, so I had staff, I had one staff person that spoke 10 different languages like this. Was a common, common thing. And, you know, I always remember kind of, as a marketer, just how difficult, because at the time, there just wasn't a lot like, unless you were going to, you know that that language newspapers, or there might have been a radio that was dedicated to it, but like, there was just no great place to target different ethnic backgrounds based on their language. Hear you guys come in, and there is some real hidden value here, and I'd love to dive deeper into this.
Tara Rego 17:31
So I think probably the biggest language where you're going to get an impact from would be Spanish. Absolutely, we got a large part of our population that speaks Spanish, and Spanish comes in a lot of different flavors, right? I mean, so there's different ethnicities in Spanish, so there's a lot of different flavors there, but there's lots of Spanish television in our country. We got San Ana Espanol. We got gallery vision. People are watching them, and the people who are watching don't, necessarily, to your point, only speak Spanish. They speak English as well, sometimes only Spanish. But what we have found is that audience, they appreciate good advertising. They sometimes it's an underutilized area, and they're not getting the best advertising. And we too, see a 30% higher response rate in our Spanish speaking audiences on those networks, even if the ad itself isn't even in Spanish, sure. So I think it's an under you know, utilized audience that is a huge part of our population, and it's good response rate. They're loyal customers. They appreciate being, you know, advertised to. And I think the more people start diving in there, and instead of ignoring it completely, or thinking they have to have a Spanish speaking commercial, I think the more success that they'll start to see when they decide to speak to that audience well.
Jason Harris 19:00
And I think this point, guys, you're gonna find that kind of be as a general theme for everything that I know me and Tara are gonna be talking about is speaking to that audience, that that is the most impactful and powerful strategy we're talking about here. Look, for years I've had I've sat down with dealers, and usually in the first kind of meeting, they they always go, Jason, you've been doing marketing for a long time. What's the best marketing strategy? Alright, you got four hours. No, but the one I've always defaulted and kind of come back to, it's the one where the customer feels like they're known by the business, right? You know, there's nothing better when I'm watching something on any one of my devices. And I'm an outdoorsy guy. I love camping. I do a lot of hiking. I have, I have a vehicle that's an overland vehicle, like tan. I just like being uncomfortable outdoors on a very regular basis, right? So, so like, when I see that content come up, I don't put my phone down. I watch, you know, because it's speaking to me as a consumer. It's connecting with me as a consumer. And we have the opportunity to do that. And what a better way to do that, then in the than in the language, right?
Tara Rego 20:14
Yeah, well, and if you think about it, people, and I know this is cliche, everyone always says it, people buy from people they like yes, they can't like you if they don't know you, and they can't know you if you're not in front of them. So that's where video really does play a big part in getting people to know you and like you, even if they've never actually been to your store or met you. It's it's huge that sight, sound and emotion, like when we talked about the sports, we're creating a relationship. So make sure you're saying the right things. Make sure you're talking to the right audience well.
Jason Harris 20:51
And I'm so glad you brought that up, because I think, you know, for a lot of people out there watching and listening right now, I think this is going to be one of the biggest changes in your marketing strategy, is, is with the intent now for that marketing to connect right Connect. Connection is key, and we can do that now we have the data that tells us who we're communicating to when we're communicating to them, and what platform we're communicating to them, so that we can create a piece of creative that's going to connect with that individual. Here's the thing, if you're out there watching this thing right now, and you're putting out there nothing but $250 bi weekly ads, I'm gonna tell you funny story, Tara, and I'm sure, look, you're in the automotive industry, so I'm sure this has happened to you. You go to a dinner party, all right, and someone finds out you're in the automotive industry. Oh, let me tell you. Okay, here it comes, you know. And I'm like, yeah, oh, what's, what's horror story? Are you gonna tell me about right now, you know? But here's one thing I found fascinating. I was going to dinner apartment. People wanted to and I love, I love hearing the good, the bad, the ugly experiences. I love, love. Love hearing that. Here's the one thing I found interesting, when I asked them about what vehicle they purchased, not once yet, has anybody said, well, the $250 bi weekly one? Have you? Has anybody ever said that to you? No, right? But for some reason we default now, don't get me wrong, guys, I do believe there's a place in time for this, all right, but that shouldn't be your primary objective. The primary objective should be to connect with, with, with the audience, right?
Tara Rego 22:25
Yeah, I think you have to make sure that they know you. And obviously you're going to want them to know your product as well, so you're going to put the product in there. And price always does tend to be one of the most important things. But it really doesn't have to be the only thing that they're yelling at you about in the commercial, you know, all those commercials where they think they have to yell. So then look at the TV. I think that might have worked like when TV was in its early days. I don't think that works so much now.
Jason Harris 22:52
No. I mean, honestly, when with an ad pops up in my streaming and it's got like, some like McMahon, you know, today, today, today. No, no, no, $1,000 treated motives. I don't know. I just, I don't want to know that person. My brain wants to turn it off, right?
Jason Harris 23:10
But it's funny, because I think as the industry, we do know this all right, we go back to the trunk monkey or the badger. I mean, there wasn't any payments in those these, those were, they evoked an emotion. You got a laugh out of it. Your brain retained that. That was the suburban group. That was Johnson Kia. Decade later. I still remember decades, right? So guys, this is this what we're talking about. These are the opportunities you have now. We talked a little bit about local. And I, love local like I, not only do I love connecting with very specific audience, but I love connect one of the favorite, you know, when we ran, you know, TV commercials, it was all about the local news. All right, and that's because just it seemed always out for a better now, I found recently, you guys put something out that says the exact same. So I'm really kind of cool. Let's get into this. All right. Why does local news outperform national?
Tara Rego 24:04
So I can't speak for all local news or broadcast stations across the country, but I can speak for Spectrum news that's in all of our markets. It's our 24/7 local news that we have. The reason that we outperform is because we have no bias. It's not political. It's just straight to the point. It's what. It's news they can trust. It's about their local community. And, you know, it's straightforward. And I think, you know, a lot of the national news, it gets turned more into opinion than actual. Just the news, just the facts and spectrum. News just does a really great job with that. So we did find that auto advertiser, not just all advertisers, but auto advertisers specifically get a 20% higher rate of return for response rate than across national news or any other news.
Jason Harris 25:11
Well, it is because it's a local audience. Yes, right? So again, you're connecting not only to the audience that you want to connect to, but you're connecting to them locally. And when I think about anything about this case, you're not gonna watch and listening, and you've watched the local news before, you know that is one of the times where I am consuming like it's intentional. I'm intentionally wanting, you know, I want to find out what's going on in my area. In fact, this has been many times when we have that on and I'll be like, turn that up when, oh, that's going on this weekend. Yeah. Oh, hey guys, you want to go do this? That sounds like a lot of fun. Let's go to that songwriters thing that they're doing at the park. You know, that's not too far from us, right? So it makes sense. It makes sense that you're that dealers are seeing a higher lift there, because you're talking about an audience that is very they're capturing. There's a reason why they came here. They want to learn about what's going on in their community in that local way.
Tara Rego 26:07
So again, for I think for years, we always just kind of thought that this was a very expensive, very difficult place to advertise, and we don't. This is not it's not right. I understand people thought it was difficult or complicated. It doesn't have to be. It's only as complicated as people decide to try to make it. Technology has really come a long way. It doesn't take that much money to even create a great ad in itself. With AI now and the capabilities you can create a wonderful ad that does what we talked about, for very little dollars. And it can be super impactful.
Jason Harris 26:49
There's been some ones out there. I just kind of scared. Like, okay, that was pretty good. Like, I got a good laugh out of it. And that is, that's the biggest opportunity, right? Like, because this, this is not that difficult. It is an easy thing to do, but hey, it does require some strategy, and you need to maintain that objective of connecting with your audience and creating fun, creative to your point, creative, I think also was at some point kind of a gatekeeper, kind of like a hard hurdle. I think for people, it's not the case anymore. There are some amazing DIY solutions now online there. There's even some great agencies here that are that are doing some amazing creative you know, for that. So please definitely, do I want to get into one thing? I want to make sure I'm not gonna get on my, my soapbox for this, because I know if, if you're out there watching, listening right now, you know, I've talked about channel marketing for a while, and one of my biggest pet peeves is this kind of, like, proverbal box, like, checkbox, like, I just got to check the boxes. I'm just gonna check that I'm doing that. I'm just gonna check off that I'm doing Instagram. I'm just like, well, I'm doing it. Well, you just check the box. That's, you know, and and it still is. So I had the opportunity recently, and I was doing an audit for a relatively large dealer group out in California, if you know who you are, say hi. And I was just amazed that fun, really, the channel strategy hadn't changed. And over a decade. I mean, almost literally as far back as I could get analytics was about as far back that they continuing to execute this. There's some danger that goes with just, you know, playing it safe and just, I guess, using the usual networks or just checking off the boxes. And I kind of, I want to go down that route.
Tara Rego 28:41
It's not just about how many eyeballs you're getting. It's about how many people you're actually reaching that are part of that target audience, and how many times you're reaching them and staying in front of them and working towards again, outcomes, you know, making sure that those aren't just wasted. You know, impressions, great, you got all those impressions. Are any of those your audience? Maybe, maybe some of them. Maybe you only get them once, instead of being able to reach them several times. So I think when we think about the channels, we need to stop, because what we're really thinking about is the audience. Why do I care what they're watching as long as I'm getting in front of them?
Jason Harris 30:19
Yeah, no, we do. We need to get away from checking out these preferable boxes, right and making sure that I'm on this network and this network and this network and this network, right, and we really need to go to the customer first. And regardless, it's funny, because when I think of so, my son is really big into soccer, and there are certain soccer teams, you know, Brazil team that he really likes to follow. There's there's a Spain team that he really does something. And so we end up watching soccer in a language that I don't speak but, but it's being played in my house, right? Look, and the consumption is quite large. So I'm telling you guys as a marketer for marketer, marketer, right? If you're just going off of the little network checkbox, you just missed one that's played in my house for almost three hours a day, because I'm not targeting, because that's what happens when you guys target the channel and not the individual. I think that'd be funny if people saw my household map of what we consume.
Tara Rego 31:23
I think everyone's household map is different now, right? And one of the things I truly love about what I do and where I work right now is we started this off as TV, right? TV has changed. It's evolved. Is what has happened. And when I look at what spectrum range or cable companies, people always say, we're a cable company. That's one of our services. We have many services. We're also an internet company, which gives us a lot of data and a lot of knowledge, so we have a lot of things. But way they started, if you go back, is they went out, they collected a whole bunch of channels and put them in one place, right, and made it advertise. Well, nothing's changed. The devices and the way that it maybe is delivered has changed. We're out there collecting streaming services now, so you can advertise on any of them that are ad supported. To be there, we're the largest aggregator of video inventory between regular, traditional, for people who are still watching that way, and then across all the streaming as well. I mean, we effectively are cutting our own cord when people have a smart TV. So like I started, you know, phones are still here. They're just different
Jason Harris 32:35
Well, and that's what I've always loved to be with the customers at even though to your point where you cut at your own core, you're like, No, look. You guys are gonna be the blockbuster. You're not gonna fall in love. You're gonna realize that no customers are elsewhere. We need to be there as well. I always appreciate that. Alright, so my next question for you, and we talked a little bit about creative, like, I just get a giggle out of it sometimes, you know, I was like, on my way in, actually, today, I came by and billboard. And by the way, I'm not gonna say, like, I'm a big proponent for billboards, but I will say I passed by this one, like it had the right message, just the right creative on it. And it's just like, I'm like, I looked right and I'm like, Okay, do want to get mentioned it a little bit, but I want to get a little deeper down that rabbit hole of like, what creative elements ultimately move the needle? And this is the one thing that I love about you guys, because not only are we seeing what moves the needle from an audience perspective, but you guys are also being see creatively what moves the needle. What moves the needle? What if you guys have seen?
Tara Rego 33:44
So beauty again, of having all this data, we run 1000s and 1000s of campaigns every single month. Many are in auto, right over 1000 a month in Auto, and we're able to look at all these different elements. We decided, what are we going to look at so we can advise our clients what works and doesn't work. So we found some interesting propensities. This would be obvious, but some people might need to hear it. Put your website on, put your website in your ad. 68% higher response rate when you do imagine that please do another thing that's really interesting for automotive ads specifically. And I don't know how I feel about all of this, but it is what it is, 75% better response rate than some MALE VOICEOVER or a women's voiceover. However, this is where it gets really like juicy. Highest response rates are in women are in the commercials.
Tara Rego 34:55
And people love to have children, but children actually show to have one of the smallest response rates for automotive advertising. So, I mean, these are just little interesting things to keep in your mind, like when you're looking to have your commercial space, you know, knowing those things and those data points are important.
Jason Harris 35:15
Well, it's all about optimization, right? And I will say, as an industry, you know, we understand the concept of optimizing funnel things. If you guys are all out there watching, listening right now, and you've been in the business for a while, you remember the Eat price button every you remember that, right? It's about a decade ago. You know, every dealer in the world had this green little button on their website, and it was green. That was the like, and it did, I mean, it did it fundamentally, increase, and that's what I think I appreciate, because you're not only just looking at how we optimize the audience, but also how we optimize that creative.
Tara Rego 35:50
I just checked my notes, I knew I was missing a point. Yes, celebrities. Ah, let's talk about celebrities in your commercial. A lot of people think that's going to bring a lot of weight. Sure, in automotive commercials, it does absolutely nothing. What? Nothing. It doesn't bring any higher responses. It doesn't bring lower responses. It's just net zero. So it's very expensive to have those celebrities. But I don't think, other than maybe from a vanity play, it really is going to do anything to drive out cuts.
Jason Harris 36:24
I mean, I don't think I ever bought a car because Morgan Freeman told me I should or the rock, or whoever is up there, the Lincoln commercial.
Jason Harris 36:36
I didn't know it was a commercial. Do you remember that first time I saw that, it was just like, I know, I think it's kind of him, like talking to somebody, you know, it's just only in the last five seconds. No, it makes sense, though. I mean, I think for you guys, after watching this thing right now, it's like, the celebrities, right? And secondary celebrities should be the experience that I'm hopefully going to so if you're really going to highlight something, you're going to make it this celebrity style highlight in your creative All right? Obviously, it's the vehicle, and I think some it's the experience, right? That's the one thing I've always resonated when I see political creative out there, is that they've taken some portion of that time to really tell me, hey, when you come here, this is what you're going to expect. This is what you're going to experience. And I tell you, as someone who's recently just bought a truck, all right, when I went and that is what I experienced, all right? It was putting those two together and having that connection. Book, wow. This is not just a marketing you know, bought a message, right? This. This was actually the experience that I got, and was awesome.
Tara Rego 37:58
That just made me think of one of my favorite ads. It's a sales woman who has a cut out of, like, I don't know what's that really big breast. It's really big. Yeah, okay, so the cut out of a tuba, and she's going around and trying to put it in all the different vehicles, like, all the different vehicles. And then what happens is, you see this woman and her son with the old tuba show up and they put it in the car. So showing that experience of right? This is what we're going to do. We're going to find what's the right vehicle for you, the right fit. I love that commercial. Every time I see it, I just laugh because it's, it's adorable. It hits all the points.
Jason Harris 38:36
Well, it makes the experience that celebrity moment, right? Like that's I don't want to just come there and meet the celebrity. I would know I want that that's the celebrity experience I want to have that. I think that's very, very cool. I love that you bring that creatively, right? Because I have seen this kind of, this blending right at one point time creatively, it was obvious what was created for the big screen, and what was created for these tiny scraps, right? Like, it's just so, like, talking about, like, the world of tick tock, okay, you know, it was, it's obvious when there was kind of, like a tick tock commercial, and then there was something that creatively was made. I have seen the two worlds blend. And, you know, I think I see more tick tock style ads come through. Then I think I saw kind of older, more polished, and I love it. I personally love it. I love it. Kind of get kind of your thoughts. It's like, does this kind of, does that add length? You know, still matter? Does that tick tock style work like so
Tara Rego 39:40
I think ad length, yes, it matters. If you have a bad ad, probably the shorter it is, the better. If it's a 15 second bad ads, yeah, having good creative is first and paramount in all of it. But we have found that 30 sec commercials actually outperform shorter versions of the 15 second or less commercial place substantially by having something like 38% they outperform. And that makes sense, because, again, you're building a relationship, you're telling a story, and you're building that experience for the client that's harder to do a shorter amount of time.
Jason Harris 40:18
And it's funny, because I struggle with it? Because, you know, I come from that generation where I do, like, a little build up story. Now I do watch, like my kids, who will eventually grow up, will be the next generation, and they want it like, if you're not grabbing my attention that first three seconds, they've already moved on, it's I have a struggle with sometimes I try to watch a movie with them. And you remember, like movies for us, like 80s and so on, like there was a build up to that story, right? You know? And no, not so much. Like if something's not exploding, or there are planets not getting destroyed, or in the first I'm out, I'm done. But regardless how you feel about that or not. That is the truth of the matter that you know we do. We have a shorter period of time to get in front of them. But to your point, as if you just got to put out a 10 second crappy ad, it's still gonna be a 10 second crap. Yeah, I don't care if it just because you hit the 10 second mark, it's not gonna change anything, right?
Tara Rego 41:16
It has to be good creative if you can tell the right story in 15 seconds, by all means. But we do see higher response rates on the 30 sec ads. I mean, I think they both have value. I think one really, you're building that awareness and that brand, and that connection is true, and then maybe a shorter one is that reminder. But you know what a reminder doesn't force someone to respond either? No. And in fact, I know we're getting towards the tone of our time, but I'm really glad that really glad that you said that, because I think for everybody else watching, listening, this is really key too. It's not one piece of creative All right. I love the fact that we're able to put out a maybe a longer piece as kind of lean in piece and have smaller teaser pieces that kind of go along with that. And you can get creative in this ability so all be part of the same thing and to be a reminder of the bigger thing that they've already seen.
Jason Harris 42:02
So when they see three seconds, it makes them think of the 30 seconds, yes, yes. And that's a great, phenomenal strategy out there. Okay, look, I know we're gonna turn to tell other time. So my last question is like, what is the what's the number one question a dealer should ask their agency like tomorrow?
Tara Rego
How they're deciding how the campaigns are built, where they're being targeted and where they're being ran. I think not enough dealers are asking those questions of the agency, if it's their gut and their 30 years of experience, obviously that's not the right answer. They better be saying they're following the data and be able to say where that data is coming from.
Jason Harris 42:55
No, I like this, and I think for everybody out there, watching, listening, this is definitely something that you guys need to go deploy immediately, because too often I get called up to do a quick audit, and I'm just finding just these proverbal check boxes. And that is not a strategy. Proverbal check box is not a strategy. Maybe at one point, that's what we were kind of told by the networks that we should be doing, check, check, check, check. That's not enough. What Tara has just kind of laid out for you guys is an actual strategy. And I think there's nothing wrong for you to have a real conversation with your agency and push back a little bit and question, what is that data strategy? What is that creative strategy? All right? And where are you ultimately running? Where are you executing this? These are all very important strategies. It's your money at the other day you need to be asked these questions. Tara, thank you so much. It's been a lot of fun.
Tara Rego 43:48
Thank you for having me. Guys.
Jason Harris
Real quick. Big round of applause for Tara.
Tara Rego
Thank you, guys.
Jason Harris 43:56
Hey for everybody out there watching, listening right now. You are a game changer. You're a game changer because you have watched this hang out here just for a little bit. Me and Tara gonna jump on and we're gonna do a quick Q A. Thank you guys. We appreciate you.
Thanks for tuning in to the strategy with Jason podcast with your host, Jason Harris, remember to like, comment and subscribe. Happy podcasting.
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