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Analyzing the result from 10,000 car dealer ads published in Q1 2022, a major publisher of classified ads found that Phyron’s video ads resulted in 50% more views than regular ads. Cars with video ads were also sold 3–5 days faster. Mattias Kellquist, co-founder in charge of business development at Phyron, knows why:

"Car dealers around Europe and in North America have very similar experiences. Video is simply the most effective tool to attract attention and engage buyers online. It is more life-like and more entertaining, and you can get all vital information across before the buyer gets bored. Let’s be honest, most used car ads are not that exciting, are they?”

The very first company in the automotive world to introduce a fully automated video solution was Din Bil, a leading Swedish Volkswagen dealership. Shortly thereafter, late in 2019 Peter Borelius, Head of Business Development said: “By generating and publishing unique videos for every single used car we took a giant leap to be even more visible online, and at the same time making the customer experience more attractive and vibrant.”

In Germany, in 2020, Tiemeyer was one of the first car dealerships to introduce the new solution. “And with overwhelming results”, says Carsten Ziemek, Head of Sales: “By showing videos for all cars, we definitely made a huge leap into the future. And it did not cost us a single extra man-hour!”

In the UK, several major dealers, media, and software partners were fast to adopt the new technology. Scottish dealer John Clark operates car dealerships coast-to-coast. Steven Watters, Head of Digital says: “At the end of October 2021, we had a total of 9860 videos created since we went live. Due to the fact that our Phyron videos are also shared on Auto Trader, the number of unique visitors who played these videos rose by 33% since we went live.”

In the Netherlands, Leon van Davenhorst is Chief Digital Officer at Wensink with more than 40 outlets around the country: “Video is an extremely efficient way to sell a car, and with a fully automated process, every car in our catalog is presented in the same effective way.“

In Norway 2020, Carweb, a major provider of automotive software and marketing owned by the largest media company in the Nordics, Finn.no & Schibsted, successfully introduced the solution to hundreds of dealers. Wiggo E. Ryhjell, CMO at Carweb says: “Video brings the entire buyer experience closer to a deal and has shown to speed up sales and thus cutting capital cost.”

In Finland, Susa Niemela, Chief Digital Officer at Rinta Juopin Autoliike says: We immediately recognized the opportunity to present all cars to all potential buyers in a more effective way. Especially when buyers cannot proceed to a local showroom to see the actual car. A good visual impression was always important to catch the buyers’ attention.” 

Adam Holm, Area Manager of Used Cars at Volvo Cars agrees: “This is the Future. This is what it should look like!”

In Italy, Hungary, USA, Canada, and other countries dealers and partners have similar enlightening stories to tell about Phyron’s automated car videos. To date, they have been viewed online more than 230,000,000 times. It is rapidly becoming The Greatest Car Show on Earth.

Analyzing the result from 10,000 car dealer ads published in Q1 2022, a major publisher of classified ads found that Phyron’s video ads resulted in 50% more views than regular ads.

Car ad pioneers in 13 countries

So, you’re a car dealer? Or you’re working with marketing or sales in a car dealership? Tough job, especially these days:

Consumers are at least as confused about the consequences of the ongoing business transformation as you or I ever were.

How do you catch their attention in the new, increasingly crowded, fast moving media channels? … explain the short- and long-term economics of electrification? … earn anybody’s trust with the uncertain outlooks? And what about new business models?

Now, if you think THAT’S tricky, … what about the poor guys trying to catch YOUR attention and read your mind while all this goes on? Take AI automated video ads for instance. Just reading those four words makes you feel it’s a bit complicated, right? While in fact it could make your life so much easier.

The challenge is rather that there may be SO MANY reasons to consider this fully automated plug-in service:

Eight out of ten buyers prefer video, and video is also favored by the algorithms controlling the search engines.

Video gets more attention, triggers emotional response, and can present the critical buying motives within the first few seconds. Which is so critical online.

One fully automated end-to-end service to create high-quality ads and publish them in your digital showroom, marketplaces, and all social platforms saves time and money.

It hits potential car buyers early, at the top of the ”funnel”.

It enables radically simplified internal workflows.

You can apply it to a hundred, a thousand or tens of thousands of vehicles at a time …

… and get studio-quality video ads for each one within a few minutes.

There are no capital investments, training programs or long contracts.

The only complexity is in listing the multitude of dealer benefits

The simple truth about automated AI video ads

In consumer advertising, brand and product promises are often based on pure fiction. ”The product” is not primarily its function but the idea of who you are, who your targeted individuials want to be, as part of a special community. All visualized or dramatized for easy recognition in ads, events, retail display, and product packaging. Creativity is used to bring the fiction alive.

In business, “the product” is real and ultimately related to the targeted audience’s bottom line. Here, creativity can be used to define, explain, bring attention to, prove, and confirm the real value of the product, solution, or service and its supplier.

Sure, a b2b brand may also be charged by emotional or fictional ideas, but please handle that insight with discretion. They are PROUD to be rational, responsible, professional ... and PAID to make 100% rational buying decisions. Internally they should always be ready to motivate and defend their buying decisions and preferences in terms of increased revenues, lowered costs, eliminated risk …

Sometimes, an entire industry needs to defend its very existence. In recent decades, environmentalists have, for example, turned against the automotive industry. Beside communicating the progress of ongoing product development, the public may also need to be reminded about the inherent benefits of the fundamental product idea.

Many years ago, I and my art director partner Åke were assigned by a major manufacturer of stainless steel. Steel manufacturing consumes huge amount of electricity, a fact frequently shamed by the environmental movement at the time.

The client’s brief was simple: We can not avoid the electricity issue. It is what it is, so try to redirect  the focus to other environmental aspects. Remind the environmentalists, policy makers, and the general public that steel can be recycled and repurposed again and again, saving truckloads of natural resources. And remember that environmentalists and policymakers are rarely tech savvy, so make it easy to grasp for anybody.

My brilliant AD partner spontaneously came up with a (nearly) final headline summarizing the key benefit. An idea easy to vary with different examples without boring the audience to death. And, importantly, easy to translate into other languages. Because the creativity was in the idea, not in wordplay. As a writer, I simply had to look for interesting examples and fill in the details. A prime example of creative teamwork. And of b2b creativity.

The creativity in Phyron is in the idea of mass-customized ads, combined with enhanced visual quality, and automated ad creation and publishing.

To save you the trouble of looking it up: the headline in the Swedish-language ad above reads ”Here comes your old kitchen sink at 300 kms per hour.”

The creativity in AI automated car advertising is very real

Is your creativity built on fact or fiction?

There are too many funnel models and theories to count. But one thing is certain: The earlier you get noticed by the right buyer for the right reasons … the better odds for a smooth buying journey and a happy end. Ka-ching!

In automotive retail, the funnel typically start in external marketplaces or, increasingly, social media.

”Because, that’s where most potential car buyers spend more time nowadays”, says Gaël Moysan, Phyron’s country manager for France. ”Car buying is both rational and emotional, and many buying journeys start without a conscious decision to buy a car. Often it starts with an everyday conversation among friends, or when they happen to come across something attractive online.”

Gaël Moysan has many years of experience from digital marketing in the automotive industry, and an active interest in neuroscience. In his current role with Phyron he frequently gets involved in dealer discussions about the sales funnel. Gaël Moysan again:

”Neuroscience tells us that memory is selective. To effectively integrate information into the digital customer journey, you have to present it in a clear and structured way. Information that is easy to understand and remember.”

Summary visuals and bullet points can really help to facility decision-making, and these are important aspects of Phyron’s automated AI videos, too.

Today, automotive dealers are asked to invest in all sorts of digital solutions to sell more cars. Gaël Moysan says:

”One problem is that these solutions tend to cost a lot of money. Another is that they are applied too late in the buying process to make a real difference. The decision to buy a certain car has already been made, and the complex, time-consuming solution only adds to the selling costs.”

Alternatively, an automated low-cost service without any capital investment, introduced early, at the very top of the funnel, can help to turn around the entire stock several days faster.

Rolf Andersson
Phyron Writer and Editor

Some dealer marketing solutions come far too late

Catch the car buyers with video at the very top of the funnel

In today’s digital business world, some things simply HAVE to work, every time! Around the clock, around the world.

For Phyron AI that means ensuring that even the slightest hickup with the company’s automated online video flow gets fixed in real time. At any given moment they operate hundreds of thousands AI video ads for car dealers in more than 25 countries.

Based in Manila in Southeast Asia, John Benedict and Norwin Santelices are two aces in the company’s global tech deck. They work closely with Phyron’s tech centres in Dubai and Stockholm, supporting partners and customers globally.

”It’s exciting to work with the very latest in advertising technology,” says Norwin who joined the rapidly growing company less than a year ago. The work involves implementation of new and continually upgraded functions and features, as well as any troubleshooting occasionally required. John says:

”I first worked with one of Phyron’s founders in Dubai for several years before moving back to Manila for family reasons. Still working full time for Phyron, the geographical location also facilitates smooth 24/7 availability.”

Ad volumes keep growing fast, and the service is becoming more and more sophisticated. So, a year ago John needed help. Not just any qualifled techie. This kind of work requires a special breed of dedicated, trustworthy people, and luckily John knew exactly whom to call.

”I knew John long before he went abroad and came back, and he had told me a lot about Phyron,” says Norwin. ”So I was thrilled when he called me about this job opportunity. The first few months we worked a lot together, now we mainly keep in touch via the computer screen when required. Even though we live a few city blocks from each other. That’s the most natural and effective way to get the work done.”

The picture was taken at a rare get-together in Stockholm, Sweden. As always, with their laptops safely connected to the world.

Ensuring the slightest hiccup in the automated global video flow gets fixed in real time.

Two cool aces in the tech deck

According to an article in Forbes (and they are pretty smart), ads featuring cats or dogs get more attention.

But if you use a cute dog picture to lure people to read about something else … their attention may not last very long. That kind of deceptiveness could rather turn them off. At the ad agency where I once worked, we referred to that cheap trick as a loose nose. Engaging RELEVANT pictures sell.

If you’re in car sales and marketing, you already know that good car pictures help to sell more cars. And that the real hurdle In used car sales is not any lack of dogs … but the impossibly large numbers involved. If you’ve got hundreds or thousands of new and used cars to sell …

…. where do you find a thousand cute dogs to make a thousand unique used car ads stand out? Imagine the chaos and noise in the photo studio. :o) Sorry, couldn’t resist that, just kidding.

Thousands of dealers use Phyron AI automated online video ad service. Ensuring maximum attention and highlighting all relevant facts for ALL their cars, throughout the buying journey. All the cars and related services. Always-on.

So, what was that thing about dog houses?

The original Morris Mini was launched by British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1959. In the roaring sixties it became an icon for British pop culture, in total synch with duffle coats, free love, Rolling Stones and Beatles music. But ... here it comes:

In Sweden, the Mini was better known as ”Hundkojan” (Swedish for ”The dog house”.), obviously referring to its compact, boxy appearance. The car for young, cool urban drivers. College types, fashion models, creative professionals … the extreme opposite of old American V8s proudly flaunted by greasers at the other end of the socio-cultural spectrum.

I was barely 17, no driving license in sight, when my best buddy Tommy bought his first, very pre-owned cream-coloured Mini with black roof. Speaking of colours, I was green with envy. Today’s all-electric version is superior in every way. But I’ll never forget that cheeky little dog house on wheels.

The picture shows an all-electric Mini Cooper SE. And the hairy gentleman is a Shetland sheepdog, aka Sheltie, named Simba.

In Sweden the original Mini was affectionally known as The Doghouse.

A cheeky little dog house on wheels.

Early in life we learn to attract attention and benefits by shouting out what we want. If nobody listens, we shout out again … only louder!

The all-important art of listening comes later, if it comes at all. And, contrary to old prejudice, the most successful car salespersons tend to be the quiet, listening type. Steering the dialog ahead with their keen ears.

”There’s a reason why we are born with two ears and only one mouth”, says Phyron’s UK Account Manager Shaun Bosley. ”That’s something every sales mentor would have told any now successful sales director.”

On the marketing side, the art of listening is often materialized in marketing research. Which is more tricky than most people realize. So, to save time and money, some take the fast and easy way out, with instant, generic or home-made varieties of web surveys. But ... beware of D.i.Y.

Here are some of the things professional researchers do better: qualified sampling; minimizing statistical errors; refusing results based on low response rates; resisting the temptation to squeeze too-detailed info from small numbers, and more. Lots more.

This ”inbound” stream of sales and marketing communication is every bit as important as the ”outbound” campaigns. And please don’t fool yourself by mistaking oversimplified results from ill-considered web polls for reality.

Here at Phyron we have keen ears for car dealers’ needs. With thousands of dealers ... and hundreds of thousands live car ads running 24/7 on dealer websites, in marketplaces and social channels in 25+ countries … we keep listening and learning 24/7.

The inbound stream of communication is at least as important as sales talk and ads.

Car dealers are better listeners

Some time ago, a wave of sudden insight swept across the world of corporate identity and branding. Turning the focus from purpose, reason-to-be, selfless contribution to society to … living up to all those big words. From Why to How.

Which is sometimes easier said than done. A recent McKinsey survey reports that fully 42 percent of employees in a sample of 1,000 US companies failed to see any real, measurable footprint of their company’s lofty brand promises. 42 percent!

Company stories are for real. And people tend to be enlighted and energized by being part of a good, meaningful story. Connecting today’s business challenges with past achievements, and a vision for the future.

In large corporations the stories are usually about outstanding inventors, scientists, engineers or leaders. How they changed their chosen slice of the universe for the better. Maybe your story is about transformation, survival, or beating the odds in a new digital business environment?

I have worked with several industrial companies founded by inspired entrepreneurs as way back as the late 1800s. They certainly have stories to tell. The world’s oldest, still active corporation, Stora, started in Falun, Sweden as a copper-mining venture in 1288 AD! Over the centuries it evolved into forestry-based industries. Still alive and kicking.

Real people add life to company stories. I have personally got to know some (slightly younger) medtech companies founded on the research of outstanding medical doctors. Dr Gunnar Johansson (In vitro allergy testing) … Dr Carl-Gunnar Engström (the modern ventilator) … Dr Lars Leksell (the Gamma knife) …

Bright guys, fantastic innovations. great stories. Sadly, stories that gradually erode and fade away in the never-ending flow of mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships.

Over time even the largest, most admired companies give way to new business realities, new ventures, new heros, new stories.

By documenting and sharing your company’s story, it becomes more interesting and relatable. But don’t just wait for your great grandchildren to read or hear about it. Use it to differentiate and energize your marketing and sales dialogs now.

The Phyron AI story evolved in Sweden with a creative film & fx pioneer sharing ideas about the future with a bunch of likeminded online media, online sales, and international marketing entrepreneurs.

What’s behind your business proposition? Use your company story to enlighten and energize your customers and employees

Don’t save your company story for your grandkids

How do you build a winning dealer brand when you don’t even know what tomorrow’s consumers will ask for? What qualities and benefits they will value the most? Especially now, with AI as an unprecedented enabler and accelerator. 

In automotive marketing the ultimate future shock, truly autonomous vehicles and systems, is still way beyond the horizon of regular marketing planning. Meanwhile, strategic marketing rather means navigating consumers’ potential attraction towards annual upgradings and novelties in safety … performance … style .. new functions and features … fuel economy … sustainability … And, not least, dealer services. 

Predicting the future was never easy. Dr. Alvin Toffler became world famous with books like The future shock (1970) and The third wave (1980). The former predicted the very accelleration of Change. The latter summarized human/social evolution as three major waves of change. 

First wave: Formerly nomadic people, hunters and gatherers, settled in one place to farm the land. 

Second wave: They left the increasingly mechanized and motorized farms to work in factories, moking things (including the farmers’ tractors) more efficiently 

Third wave: The post-industrial, digital age. Digitalizing just about everything (including fully-automated tractor factories). 

Since then, several other futurists have published less iconic articles, books, and alternative ideas about a Fourth wave, defining the world we live in today. Around the millennium shift, their focus was often on the ”why”, What are we trying to achieve? Will the world’s business owners and CEOs move their focus from the company’s own bottom-line towards the greater good? Yeah, right … before THAT happens, both pigs and cars will fly. Will many marketing managers try to ride on the wave? Sure. 

Now, a suggested alternative Fourth wave is about AI changing everything. Which, somehow, doesn’t feel quite right, either. AI can do a lot of things, but hardly make sense of a complex unknown future. Or … am I missing something here? 

Phyron AI is about here and now. If you’re a used car dealer advertising hundreds or thousands of vehicles at a time … the future is already here.

Rolf Andersson
Phyron Writer and Editor

Never mind the distant future. Automated AI video ads is all about here and now.

When pigs and cars can fly 

My brand new car was a total lemon. The dealer was worse.

The experience has not only coloured my perception of that car brand for half a century. A major European car brand. I have not bought a single car associated with that same COUNTRY! again. Yes, I know it's kind of silly, with virtually all cars being the result of multinational cooperation. But that's car buying for you: Emotions run deep!

It would be unfair to mention WHICH country, or which brand. Because, statistically, you can not draw any conclusion from a single car or a single buyer's experience. And because lots of things must have improved over these 50 years.

But fact remains that I have made at least a dozen car buying decisions affected by that single experience since then. What’s more, over the years I have shared my bad feelings regarding that brand with numerous friends and relatives. Without holding back any details about the dealership involved, like I do here..

HEY, STOP WHINING! WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THE BL--DY CAR???

As an ignorant, inexperienced first-time buyer I had played it safe and bought a brand new car from an established local dealer. But within the first week i experienced some strange noise and vibrations from the engine.

So, I brought the car straight back to the dealer. Once. Twice. Three times ... before I gave up and demanded to cancel the purchase and get a full return of my money.

I ever got any reasonable explanation beyond "very strange, this is the first time ..." But I vividly remember the service manager saying something about ”iron filings in the motor oil”. (!) And that they couldn’t give me a full refund ”because, after all I had already had the car for nearly two months”.

Of course I should have brought my case to a higher authority but … I was 22, fed up with the whole thing, and desperate to get a decent, working car. So I accepted a sour deal (lemons, right?), found another dealer, bought a used car of a different brand, manufactured in a different country. And traded it in for a newer model a few years later, from the same dealer.

I still don’t know exactly where those iron fillings in the motor oil came from. But I do know that, in spite of their behavior, the dealership in question survived several years more … until they didn’t.

I’m still around, so I kind of won in the end.

I know it's crazy but I never bought a car made in that COUNTRY again!

The lemon car dealer

What would you do if someone told you that you cannot drive again? Any car? Ever?

You and I have at least two things in common:

You like cars, right? What will YOU do when, one day in the hopefully distant future, you can’t … or shouldn’t drive a car anymore? I mean … any car … ever again?

It just happened to me. And I must admit that it’s a bummer. But, in my case it’s almost OK. I already have a self-driving car (just keep on reading). And I got my driver’s license way back in the summer of ‘64, nearly 60 years ago. I have arguably had my fair share of highway highs.

At 18, I couldn’t afford a car of my own but I grabbed every opportunity to borrow my dear father’s Volvo. With or without his permission. No babe trap for sure, but I vividly remember the instant adrenalin rushes. Since then I have driven all sorts of cars within financial reach, on all sorts of roads. Some more memorable than others.

Fighting the world’s worst traffic with my old, battered, and rusty Ford Escort in Manila ... ”If they know you don’t give a sh-t, even the cab drivers will keep the distance.” …

Driving the coolest little Suzuki soft-top convertible along the notorious Divorce Highway — the road to Hana on Maui. Me and my wife enduring 52 miles of horrible hairpin curves and one-lane bridges. We’re still married, thank you for asking ...

The vintage Mustang cab rides from San Bernardino to Knott’s Berry Farm on the the Pacific coast. Short trip but … a cool cab in southern California … say no more. And, in stark contrast, the Voyagers bringing the entire family to far-out places like Key West and Cape cod ...

The serial collision near Valencia, with 40 bottles of Rioja neatly stacked in the trunk of our compact Golf GTI. They all survived, but the car that crashed into us had to be towed away. Sturdy little fellow, that GTI ...

Getting an honorable speeding ticket testing the limits of my wife’s old Porsche 944 on the German Autobahn. ”Sie fahren sehr schnell”, said the smiling autobahnpolizei officer. … This happened on the way back from a memorable week on the narrow, winding roads of Tuscany ...

And an endless memory lane in other Volvos, Saabs, Mercs, KIAs, Hondas, Beamers … Nothing fancy, but a fair collection of adventures on wheels. 60 years.

Anyway: My eye doctor and I finally agreed that it’s time to quit. So now I get around in a self-driving family car named Liz. Sorry, my loving wife didn’t quite appreciate that lame joke either: “You’re spending far too much time around those car-crazy guys at Phyron”, she said. "Now, give me the keys, please."

What would you do if someone told you that you cannot drive again? Any car? Ever?

Goodbye, beloved steering wheel.

Even the simplest words have multiple meanings. From your targeted consumer’s point-of-view TIME can be how long it takes to spot your ad … to be intrigued, attracted, engaged enough to learn more about it … slowly, click by click, or through an instantly engaging, and informative AI video presentation. Getting all the answers, falling in love, imagining the road feel, feeling the urge.

From the dealer’s point-of-view TIME can be the number of days a used car remains unseen, undiscovered, unloved … each day representing unrevenues (I just made up that word) and some very real costs. Capital cost, space, insurance, maintaining the good looks …

TIMING is all about coordination and precision. But you don’t KNOW exactly when that precisely right consumer gets the idea to look for a car ad online. Or simply happens to come across it, and being caught in the stride by the high-quality image. You don’t know so the precisely right time is ... ALWAYS.

One more thing: How many hours (or days?) would you need to create the perfect ad for one car in your catalog? I mean, really good, highlighting the most attractive features for that specific car? Including the services that make it an even better deal? And the reasons why they should buy it from YOU?

If a dealer wants to make the best deal EVERY TIME there is one simple strategy …

Include every single car in stock in all your online activities

Present every single one with a top notch video presentation

Use AI to ensure better image quality and a smooth presentation

Apply the same high standards in external marketplaces and the most powerful social media as on your own website

Keep up the good work around the clock, every day.

Faster to market ... always-on … top notch video presentations … in the most powerful media may sound like an impossibly expensive dream.

It isn’t. You will most likely SAVE both time and money by letting Phyron do all the work. Some would say it’s about time!

How many hours would you need to create the perfect car ad?

Are you getting in shape for the autumn? It’s about time!

Johann Hari is an award-winning Swiss-British journalist and author. In his recent book Stolen focus, Johann Hari makes the case that we are all suffering from a societal  attention focus. 

He digs deeply into the reasons why so many of us are losing the ability to concentrate. Focus long enough to read a real book, or focus on a single task at work. Long enough to achieve anything significant.

He points out social media, or rather the powerful commercial mechanisms behind them, as a main cause. But not by any means the only one. 

Did you know that we, on average, sleep a full hour less at night than we did in the 1940? Or that even our choice of bread at breakfast affects our ability to fall asleep at night? 

Personally I found the scientifically based advice to stay away from any digital screens for two hours before bedtime more difficult to swallow. My ever-present, all-purpose, night-and-day iPad … oh no! 

Scattering your limited marketing resources on too many small activities may also fuel a stressful, unfocused, and potentially sleep-depriving life. Focusing on ONE strategy to sell more cars and services, lower your marketing and selling costs AND enhance your dealer brand should help. 

Time to get a better grip on your sales and marketing activities? All your cars in stock; all digital platforms and channels. Let Phyron make your workdays easier and more focused on better results; you may even sleep a bit better at night.

Why not focus on ONE concept for increased reach, better impact, and a stronger dealer brand?