What We Can Learn From Our Favorite Super Bowl Auto Ads

The Super Bowl is always a big time of year for the automotive industry. With millions of viewers tuned in (many of whom watch the commercials as intently as the actual game) it’s a valuable opportunity for companies to show off their brands and their newest vehicles.

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Nissan was one of the big winners after last year’s Super Bowl XLIX. Its emotional “With Dad” spot, which unveiled the company’s new racecar and its new Maxima sedan, was named the Favorite Super Bowl Commercial of 2015 by voters. So which automotive companies had a successful Super Bowl Sunday this year? Here are some of our favorites and what we can learn from them.

Toyota Prius — Getaway Car?

The Toyota Prius might not strike many as being an ideal getaway car, but that’s exactly the kind of thinking Toyota was trying to change with its tongue-in-cheek spot called “The Longest Chase.” After their original getaway car is towed, bank robbers avoid the cops and skip town in a hijacked Prius, earning the admiration of the public along the way.

Toyota’s commercial is bold in that it encourages the audience to view the Prius as something other than a slow, generic hybrid. Getting consumers to completely rethink your product is tricky but can be very profitable. If things are getting a little stale around your dealership, try changing up your image to get consumers to think of you in a different light.

Audi’s Zest for Life

We’ve never been in space, but we can picture how being earthbound after going into orbit could be a bit of a bummer. That’s how the man in Audi’s “Commander” felt before his son showed up with the new R8 sports car. The retired astronaut seems rejuvenated at the mere sight of it, and the sound of the high-revving engine makes the audience feel the thrill. Using David Bowie’s “Starman” made the spot a touching tribute as well.

Audi tugged at some emotional heartstrings with this one. There’s nothing wrong with using basic cars for day-to-day use, but who wouldn’t want to slip into that R8 and let the engine wail after seeing this commercial? When you have a car that hits the fun and luxury buttons more than an everyday car, be sure you’re playing up those angles. Give your customers a reason to believe that kind of car would make life more fun.

Honda Has a New Truck to Love

Honda is looking for people to love its new Ridgeline pickup truck. After giving us a chorus of sheep singing Queen’s hit “Somebody to Love,” we’re definitely interested. In addition to immediately capturing our attention, Honda succeeded in subtly featuring what makes the product unique. Of course a pickup truck can work well in a ranch setting — but speakers in the bed so you can jam out with your livestock? That's one feature that would definitely help the day go by faster.

While Honda didn’t completely focus on the new feature, the singing sheep got our attention and made the truck memorable. When you introduce a new car, or an existing model is updated with a new feature, don’t stick with the same old advertising gimmicks hoping people will notice. Have fun with it! Honda did, and it made us want bed-mounted speakers.

What was your favorite car commercial from the Super Bowl? Let us know in the comments.

Star Wars Branding Partners That Nailed Their Marketing

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, direct marketing was the accepted practice for getting your product or service out there. Apparently that's not what the cool kids are doing. We're sure you've heard there's a new Star Wars movie, but you might be surprised to know that Disney has been taking it relatively easy when it comes to direct marketing for the film.

You might wonder how that's possible, especially since you can't turn on the TV or pull up a website without coming across even a tiny bit of Star Wars-themed marketing. The answer is in the way Disney used branding partners. This arrangement allows Disney to keep Star Wars front and center without spending hundreds of millions of dollars, and it lets the partners benefit from being associated with a global brand.

As we get closer and closer to the theatrical release of the film, we decided to list out some of our favorite Star Wars brand partners from the last few months.

Fiat Chrysler

Image courtesy Automotive News

While many car brands spent November and December marketing their year-end holiday sales events, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) went Star Wars crazy with several TV spots and marketing stunts. It actually started back in September when FCA's Dodge brand sent a fleet of Stormtrooper-themed Chargers to New York City for a cross-promotion with Hot Wheels and Uber.

Star Wars-themed commercials for FCA brands Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler and Fiat started appearing this month, capitalizing on the excitement surrounding the final weeks before the movie's release. Tying a science fiction universe with our Earth-bound vehicles could have been tricky but FCA nailed the cool factor, especially with the performance-focused spots for Dodge and Fiat. Our cars might not be headed for a galaxy far, far away, but that doesn't mean they aren't exciting.

Duracell and Volkswagen

A little imagination and a couple fresh batteries are all you need to take on the Empire. That's how Duracell appealed to the kid in all of us with their Star Wars-themed holiday commercial that started running in October. In it, a young boy fires up his new Duracell-powered lightsaber for the first time and brings the Star Wars universe to life, leading to an all-out battle against the Empire alongside his sister in the backyard.

This one actually reminded us quite a bit of Volkswagen's "The Force" commercial from 2012. While the imagination is for the kids, the nostalgic appeal for us adults is front and center in both commercials. After all, the kids aren't the ones buying the batteries or the Volkswagens. But that doesn't mean the adults can't have some fun too. Just look at the parents who play along in the Duracell commercial.

All Nippon Airways

This one is a little more global and long term than our other two favorites, but we couldn't leave this epic cross-promotion out. All Nippon Airways (ANA) is the second largest airline in Japan and took its love for Star Wars to a whole new level when it painted one of its Boeing 787-9s to look like everybody's favorite rolling droid, R2-D2. The cross-promotion will actually last several years and will include two more Star Wars-themed planes.

You might not have many opportunities to ride the ANA R2-D2 plane if you're not going to Japan anytime soon, but this campaign turned global thanks to ANA's engagement with fans on social media and the company's own unique landing page. We might not have X-Wings and TIE Fighters in our world, but riding the R2-D2 plane would put a smile on any Star Wars fan's face.

Feeling overwhelmed by the tidal wave of Star Wars content? We can break it up with some holiday excitement. Check out our post "Our Favorite Holiday Marketing Campaigns."

Meet Chase's New Frenemy, Market the Elf

You all remember our furry friend Chase R., right? You met him at NADA 2015 and hopefully kept up with him on Twitter throughout the conference. Well Chase is back — but this time with a frenemy (a friend with whom you have a secret rivalry).

Meet Market, the elf. Some of you may have already seen Market on our Twitter or Facebook pages. He’s a little rascal, so he and Chase have been pranking each other back and forth ever since he came to town. But that hasn’t stopped him from getting his work done.

Market’s main job duties include creating graphics for our newsletters, keeping up with lead management, writing content and keeping our website up-to-date. He’s like an all-in-one marketer; hence the name “Market.”

Some of Market’s favorite things outside of work include:

• Elf culture
• Building gingerbread houses
• Making snow angels
• Smiling (smiling’s his favorite)

You can keep up with Market and Chase’s shenanigans throughout the month on our Twitter or Facebook pages. If you have one of Chase’s furry relatives and an Elf on the Shelf, share your photos with us using the hashtag #ChaseandMarket!

Our Favorite Holiday Marketing Campaigns

Break out the eggnog, cue the sleigh bells and don your favorite tacky sweater — 'tis the season to be inundated with commercials featuring new cars, giant bows and picturesque snow-covered vistas.

OK, we actually like the giant bows, even if they have become a bit cliché in holiday auto marketing. But who can blame these car companies when consumers are hungry for holiday content long before Thanksgiving?

Here are some of our favorite holiday marketing campaigns from recent years, including one with a giant bow (can you tell we like them?).

Honda Targets 80s Nostalgia

Image courtesy YouTube

Everyone had special toys to be excited about on Christmas morning when we were kids. The folks at Honda are no different. The "Happy Honda Days" campaign has been around for several holiday seasons, but they hit a home run in 2014 when they brought 80s toys such as Skeletor, Gumby and G.I. Joe to life to sell us on the amenities in the Honda lineup.

The parallel being drawn is pretty obvious. We loved our childhood toys, and now that we're older it's time to treat ourselves to a more age-appropriate gift, such as a CR-V or a Civic. The campaign not only tugged at our nostalgic heartstrings, it also tied in the holiday element perfectly, helping us remember the joys of a childhood Christmas.

Lexus' Tradition With a Twist

Image courtesy YouTube

The Lexus "December to Remember" campaign has been around since 2000, and over the years it's mostly stuck with a traditional image of a giant red bow on a new car. Lexus brought the bow back in 2014 but injected a bit of Christmas magic into the campaign that made even the adults feel a bit like kids on a Christmas morning.

The campaign's TV spots featured awe-struck children (and sometimes adults) as one of the parents explained how Santa Claus delivered a brand new Lexus from the North Pole to the family's driveway. From a Polar Express-like railway to a teleportation device, old St. Nick has some impressive tricks up his sleeves. Of course we know that's not how the cars get there, but it's easy to get caught up in the magic of the season — or maybe we're just excited about the new cars.

Mercedes Asks 'Naughty or Nice?'

Image courtesy YouTube

The Mercedes-Benz Winter Event is another recurring holiday campaign, but they especially got our attention in 2012 when they wanted to know if their customers had been naughty or nice. The multi-channel campaign was highlighted by a TV spot that showed Santa inspecting a row of white cars and a row of red cars. Of course the white cars were designated for the nice list while the red cars were going to the naughty list.

The naughty-or-nice theme continued on the campaign's digital side as customers could send e-cards with white or red cars to friends and family depending on whether they'd been naughty or nice. The holiday element was nicely executed, and this year's version of the campaign even features Santa ditching the traditional sleigh for something a bit more modern.

What are your favorite holiday marketing campaigns? Let us know in the comments.

How to Scare Away Your Customers on Halloween

Zombies in the service department, ghosts haunting the lot, skeletons on the sales floor — these spooky scenarios are no match for what you could be doing to give your customers a scare this Halloween. If losing out on leads doesn't frighten you, here are some tips for sending your customers screaming in the other direction (straight to your competitors).

Ignore Missed and After-Hours Calls

Nothing is more frightening to a customer than a salesperson who doesn't answer the phone or call them back. Some customers are so determined to give you their business that they'll call multiple times. But if you want to give them a real scare, just keep ignoring them.

To pull this one off, avoid using a call tracking program that alerts you to missed or after-hours calls. Reaching out to customers is the last thing you'd want to do if your goal is to send them to your competitor.

Send Your Customers to a Black Hole

Want to really get your customers' hearts racing? Have their calls routed to a phone number that rings and rings and rings and never gets answered. Better yet, have them bounced from department to department while they're trying to get a time-sensitive issue resolved. Your customers will be terrified of dealing with a real human being if they ever reach one.

Steer clear of a call tracking program that aids call completion lest your customers actually reach the person or department they want to talk to. Using a service that can automatically route customers from an interactive menu would keep your customers happy, which is the last thing you want if you're aiming for screams.

Listen to Call Recordings? Don't Do It!

Improving customer service? Who needs to bother with that? Don't concern yourself with evaluating your employees' calls if you want to send shivers down your customers' spines. Prospects will steer clear if they have a bad experience during a phone call.

To make sure your employees keep sending customers elsewhere, don't use a call tracking program that records calls. Your customer service would improve thanks to training opportunities uncovered by listening to recorded calls — and you might even uncover a few lost leads in the process. Since you're trying to scare your customers and not keep them, you should definitely avoid listening to calls.

A few car companies didn't get the memo about scaring off potential clients. Read our post to see how they drew in lead after lead.

Go Deep and Score the Game Winner With Your Marketing

When it comes to automotive marketing, football is king. Some of the best campaigns got their 30 seconds of fame in the Super Bowl spotlight, while Hyundai's coup to snag the NFL automotive sponsorship made big headlines in June. With even preseason games bringing in 11 million viewers, it's easy to see why the automotive industry loves football.

We love football too (especially our hometown Houston Texans), and we're pretty excited that the season is finally underway. While Texans linebacker J.J. Watt can probably teach us a thing or two about marketing — seriously, the guy is everywhere these days — we wanted to take a look at what we could learn about dealership marketing from the game as a whole.

Have a Smart Strategy

Football is a strategic game. Coaches spend years developing offensive plays that can exploit all kinds of defenses, and the players have to execute them at a high level to be successful. On running plays, everybody from a lineman to a receiver has a blocking assignment, and just one missed block can turn a big play into loss of yards. Passing plays are similar in that three to five receivers are running designated routes, trying to find gaps in the defense.

Just like football, good marketing boils down to having a smart strategy. Gaining a new client is like scoring a touchdown, and your competitors are like the defense trying to block it. You need to come up with a strategy that finds gaps in the defense, such as an under-served segment that can be targeted, or closes some of your own gaps, such as getting your campaign seen by the right people. Find the right strategy, and you'll be the Vince Lombardi of marketing.

Evaluate Your Performance

A football coach's work doesn't end after a game or practice is over. Every week there are still hours of film from games — theirs and their opponents' — and practices to pore over and evaluate. Coaches watch film to find the strengths and weaknesses of both their team and the opposing teams. Watching film is a crucial part of building a sound strategy and being prepared for any given game.

You need to evaluate your marketing campaigns in much the same way that coaches evaluate their teams by reviewing what works and what doesn't. While you're not exactly filming every customer's reaction to a marketing campaign, you can find the value of a marketing campaign with the help of a call tracking program. Using dynamic toll-free and local numbers for your marketing campaigns and tracking the resulting calls allows you to see where you're having the most success.

Be Flexible

Omaha! Omaha! If you're a football fan, you know Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning isn't just a fan of really good steaks. Manning's ability to read the defense before the snap and call an audible to change the play is well known. The reason he shouts "Omaha" varies depending on the game or the situation, but it usually means something is changing. Manning's flexibility when it comes to play calls has helped him become one of the most successful quarterbacks in NFL history.

Much like how Manning's pre-snap routine has helped him become a winner, being flexible with your marketing can help you put up impressive statistics as well. There will be times where a well-planned campaign just isn't getting the job done. That's when it's time to tweak your strategy to cover the gaps in your marketing that you didn't expect when you launched the campaign. Don't be afraid of change.

Indoor sports are still a few months away, but if you're already excited about the upcoming NBA season, take a moment to review last year's amazing championship and read our post "What the NBA Finals Can Teach Us About Marketing."

When Sticking to the Script Can Do More Harm Than Good

You know (or should know) the stats by now. It takes 12 positive customer service experiences to make up for one negative experience. Your probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70 percent versus the 5-20 percent chance of selling to a new prospect. Most buying experiences (70 percent, to be exact) are based on how the customer feels they’re being treated.

These stats have been ingrained in your head, so you’ve trained your staff on exactly what to say to provide top-notch customer service over the phone. But is that really the best approach? No two customers are the same, so should your staff follow the same script with every call? Here are a few mistakes your staff could be making while following your phone scripts.

They Talk Too Fast

If your staff is too focused on saying everything in the script, they may speak so fast that callers don’t understand them. And if you’re evaluating your staff’s calls (as you should be), it might get tricky if your employees sound like auctioneers.

Encourage your employees to take the time to enunciate each word so your customers can understand what the salesperson is saying. What’s the point in training your staff what to say if your customers have to process their words in hyper speed to understand them?

They Don’t Listen

Strictly adhering to a script can sometimes mean your staff isn’t really listening to what your customers are saying. Consider the following example:

Sally Salesperson: Thanks for calling ABC Motors. This is Sally. How can I help you?
Chris Customer: Hi, my name is Chris, and I’m looking for a red four-door pickup.
Sally: Yes, sir. I’d be happy to assist you. Can I please have your name and the type of vehicle you're interested in?

Not only is it frustrating for customers to have to repeat things, but it can also unnecessarily lengthen the amount of time it takes for your staff to address each caller’s request.

Advise your representatives to make a conscious effort to listen to pertinent details the customer gives them. Suggest that they take note of those details so the caller doesn’t have to repeat them.

They Interrupt

Sometimes customers have complicated questions or issues that need extensive explanations, and other times they just like to talk. Either way, it’s never appropriate for the salesperson to interrupt them. But if your representatives are constantly focused on the next line in the script, common courtesy can take a backseat to saying what they’ve been trained to say.

Make sure your salespeople pay attention when customers are talking and only speak when the customer pauses. Your customers should always come before a checklist of things to say.

Do you allow your staff to ad-lib when speaking to customers? Have you had success with using a phone script? Let us know in the comments!