Automotive Web Marketing Sucks, in General

The Web as we know it is a teenager, but car makers seem to think it’s a baby: cute, with much potential, but inscrutable and insomnia-inducing. One could think of numerous, obvious new applications for automotive marketing, but we don’t see them in practice. Click on a manufacturer’s site to get an instant, confirmed test drive appointment for a car of your ideal configuration? Nope. Can you publicize your satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a dealer on a maker’s site (similar to what yelp.com is enabling for all kinds of services)? No dice. Indeed, most commercial car stuff on the web is conventional, and boring. But recently I’ve heard of some Web-based brand-building that is supposed to be better. Here are three examples from the UK.

Volkswagen has created an online racing game for its new Golf GTI. Players can take to a 30ft by 25ft slot car track and negotiate hairpins, straights and narrow bridges. (They use the UK term “Scalextric” in the game, but you don’t have to worry about this). In other words, it’s a simulation of a racing simulation from the 1950s. If you’re not miserable at it, then be prepared to get a message saying “you’ve registered a lap time of x seconds and you’ve qualified for a chance to win a GTI for 3 months!”

It sounds incredibly lame, but the implementation is quite charming (in an English way). I doubt it works in non-British cultures though, and I am sure it wouldn’t translate into any real-world sales if the VW GTI weren’t so good. Playing slot cars is fun when you’re spending two hours with pals, whooping and drinking; but as a video game, it gets sad after about 15 minutes.

It’s a marketing maxim that men like games but women like stories. In that vein, Renault TV is less about how James May would spend an afternoon and more about trying to make a brand sympathetic to a general (i.e., more female) audience. The French manufacturer says it’s an alternative to advertising. Apparently, it offers “more varied messages, creating deeper audience engagement,” by focusing on people, through features on Renault enthusiasts and celebrity drivers. (Renault enthusiasts? I didn’t know they still existed.)

Launch programs include a BBC star driving his vintage Renault 4 from London to Mongolia, entertainingly telling us how some Kazakhs who helped him en route were “absolute idiots”. Another of several well-produced clips is about a bird sanctuary in the Camargue. (Anti-SUV note of the day: you don’t need one to transport injured flamingos or building beams).

I also enjoyed the report on the the cars that a former Renault head of R&D has collected, featuring as it does delectable Alpines and Spyders. Included, and not to be missed: footage of the legendary F1 Espace, a minivan that did 0-60 in two seconds. Along with a f eature on the R5/LeCar (believe it or not, we Europeans loved that car), it tries to reinforce the brand’s heritage. Conceivably, this sort of entertaining storytelling can strengthen a brand.

However, the “ Autotainment” section, where a PR lady pumps current Renaults, is mostly boring and unbelievable—the kind of advertising nobody wants to watch. So, it almost defeats Renault TV’s premise: to invest in the brand by humanizing it, and not just to push product.

Honda’s “C It Now” (CIN) is a world’s first: a dealership-to-home video technology that “promises to revolutionise car sales.” The idea: buyers in their homes can take a live, detailed tour of a new or used car via a camcorder held by someone at a dealership. A demonstration looks promising, but I’m not convinced this is the future.

What I need from a used-car salesman is his reliable word that a car is as described, or, alternatively, I need a scoring system à la eBay. A video can’t prove to me there is no dog smell, out-of alignment suspension or scratched paint. Also, despite a useful training video, I’m skeptical about the average used-car salesman’s willingness and ability to do a good video presentation.

Honda says a car can now be purchased without the buyer seeing it in the metal, but would you? On the other hand, Honda hints at the real reason why CIN might become popular: “CIN allows people to shop for cars at their leisure, a real bonus for those who don’t want to make the trip to a showroom.” In other words: if you don’t like the looks of that pesky salesman, don’t worry about him getting pushy. Just close your browser.