Rick Case Honda partnered with Car-mercial.com to produce YouTube TrueView in-stream ads encouraging vehicle trade-ins. After launching the ads, the dealership doubled the number of trade-ins from a competing make from 10 per month to 20 per month. Rick Case Honda was now earning an incremental $50,000+ for online videos that cost $0.20 - $0.30 per view. Monthly unique site visitors also increased by over 18%.
Goals
Drive more site visitors, in order to increase car sales
Increase trade-ins per month to generate more revenue for each profit center
Approach
Used TrueView in-stream ads to convince shoppers to trade-in their existing vehicles for new Hondas
Results
Doubled the number of trade-ins from a competing make, resulting in a 12X return on investment
Increased monthly unique site visitors by over 18%
Found that video advertising converted 4x as much as alternative advertising strategies
Richard Bustillo worked his way up in the dealer world, starting as a salesman who sold 26 cars in his first month, making more in that month than in his previous year. After moving through several dealerships and boosting their performances, Richard was invited to be the General Manager for Rick Case Honda by auto industry pioneers, Rick and Rita Case.
Rick Case Honda has a 600,000 sq. ft. facility that houses 1,500 new Hondas. The facility includes not only a showroom, but also a state-of-the-art collision center, a gas station, a County Clerks Office, and even a barber shop. Yet, Richard still saw opportunities to improve the store. As he put, "Rick Case built this store to be number one, and I wanted to be the GM that brought this back to Rick!"
With Richard's help, Rick Case Honda has generated record breaking sales since 2007, despite the tough economy. Much of this is attributed to an emphasis on cross-functional integration, on valued customer experiences, and on Richard's push for Rick Case Honda to adopt better digital and video marketing strategies.
We’re doing a full digital campaign for service. We’re doing pay per click, banner ads, video – we want to have a whole integrated strategy.
The Power of Digital and YouTube
In 2010, Richard attended the Automotive Leadership Roundtable, where he was exposed to a variety of digital marketing strategies. After returning from the trip, Richard started Rick Case Honda on a paid search strategy, before incorporating online video, reputation management, and social media. The marketing team soon found that video advertising converted four times as much as other advertising strategies.
After his early success, Richard was asked to speak at a number of automotive marketing conferences. He then met AJ LeBlanc, Managing Partner of Car-mercial.com, who told Richard about their unique and scalable video production offerings. Richard had already worked with a handful of video vendors and also produced video in-house, but realized Car-mercial.com's video production capabilities were completely different, and offered an opportunity for growth.
In Fall 2012, Richard and AJ came up with the idea to create YouTube TrueView in-stream ads promoting the distinctive features of Honda to encourage trade-in. That same year, the 2012 Compete Google Automotive Shopping study found that 21% of vehicle shoppers find online video content about vehicle trade-ins useful for their research process.
After launching the TrueView ads, the dealership doubled the number of trade-ins from a competing make from 10 per month to 20 per month. Rick Case Honda was now earning an incremental $50,000+ for online videos that cost $0.20 - $0.30 per view. Monthly unique site visitors had also increased by over 18%. As Richard asserted, "that's targeted video that you can tie back and figure out ROI... You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out!"
Only Scratching the Surface
Despite Richard's continued success with digital, he recognizes that "we're not where we want to be yet — we're still evolving. There's so much we can do and we're only scratching the surface."
Moving forward, Richard and AJ are looking to test more online video ideas, including launching Spanish videos, and finding ways to integrate more video content onto the Rick Case Honda website.
Richard also emphasizes the importance of his website as a critical component in ensuring the success of his online video campaigns. "It is important to make sure your website is user-friendly to make sure that when video pre-roll sends traffic to your site, users engage with your brand and then come to your store. It's all interconnected," he noted.
"You gotta look at it all the way down the road. When you integrate every department... everyone benefits from video pre-roll… If you only look at it from metrics such as views, that's very short-sighted. You have to open your eyes and look at everything, so that you can see the full benefit of what you can accomplish."
