What Little I Know…

It’s been a while since we last blogged about the automotive industry and it’s been that way, because we hadn’t had much positive industry stuff’ to blog about, and when were ‘blogging auto’, we found ourselves speaking of the negatives, time after time. This string of negativity however, seems to be turning a corner and we’re now seeing positive inklings for our advertising and publishing friends. For one, there are a noticeable number of publishers who are now posting positive third quarter sales results and their local auto spend categories have seen an increase third quarter over last. Secondly, GM has announced that they are ready to start to pay “us” back the money we lent them for the bailout saga. So, seeing this recent report from Borrell and Associates, on the expected increase in automotive ad spend in 2010, makes sense and the info is definitely bloggable!

According to Borrell and Associates, it is online ad spend that will see the greatest love from auto ad dollars, specifically things like social media, video and streaming audio.

Borrell also notes additional positives for the auto industry that fuel the positive 2010 outlook:

• Cars sold per dealership are heading up
• Manufacturer co-op spending is turning the corner and will begin to rise
• Independent dealers are finding new sources of revenue
• Large dealers will continue to gain share in the used-car arena
• Online “ad spend” will surpass all media for new-car advertising

All the above means for publishers is that, they will naturally see an increase in ad dollars, but the biggest gain can only be seen if new and innovative ad campaigns are presented to dealers. It is obvious, based on the research, that the money is there to spend and that the willingness to spend exists. Publishers just now need to come up with the products that answer the auto advertisers needs and that stray away from the “online as an add-on” mentality.  Instead, value propositions will have to change to position print branding as the add-on sell.