Comments on: What Car Dealers Can Learn from Obama’s Campaign

By: Andrew Wright

Andrew Wright — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:16:41 +0000

Jose Antonio Vargas breaks down some monumental numbers.

13 million e-mail addresses.

$500 million raised online.

6.5 million donations from 3 million donors with an average donation of $80.

3.2 million Facebook friends (to John McCain’s 600,000).

2 million My.BarackObama.com profiles created.

One million participants in Obama’s cell phone text messaging program — this is less than the 6-8 million rumored but still massive.

400,000 volunteer blog posts written. 200,000 volunteer events created. 35,000 local and affinity groups created by supporters.

Three million volunteer phone calls made in the last four days of the election through the website without supporters having to step into a campaign headquarters.

The campaign had a full time chief technology officer in addition to a new media director. They had a full time analytics team whose job was to do nothing else but monitor site data.

By: T-Chak

T-Chak — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:56:31 +0000

Great article, Jeff! I don’t even sell cars and learned something.

By: Rob D

Rob D — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:35:28 +0000

Dang…..I am tired of that ‘mainstream media’ stuff. When it comes to politics, the hard core people that complain about that stuff mainly watch the news shows on the cable front, or blogs/sites on the net. That was a failed Republican argument, much like Hannity’s swift boat type attacks. It focused on fear, and not on issues. It worked with Kerry, but not Obama, for the reasons you stated in your post…..he captured the new voters with a new political style……they do not agree with the ‘Hannity’ politics. Whether there is substance to back the marketing effort, we will find out

We have to change……..if nobody sees that, they will not survive. The old school way has customers dying everyday, and new customers in the mix who would give up their TV in a heartbeat before they would give up their internet. It grows as each day passes. The ship has left the port….the question is if you are already checked-in, or you are going to be swimming hard after the boat.

By: Chris K

Chris K — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:51:35 +0000

With a $400 million dollar advertising budget, I am sure “Joe’s Car Dealership” could be as famous as “Obama”.

By: Pete

Pete — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:10:54 +0000

The retail automobile business model has to change. It’s a new age in the auto industry and the old school dealer’s should have been closed long ago. The umbilical incentive/holdback money cord back to the factory has kept poorly operated dealers in business for way too long. It’s time…

Good riddens!

“Analysts have said that U.S. carmakers need to cut U.S. dealerships — particularly in crowded city markets — in order to drive more sales through remaining stores and free up funds for advertising and new investment.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE49069R20081001

By: Brian in Etown

Brian in Etown — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:33:52 +0000

Comparing stats on Obama’s site and Mccain’s site shows that Obama had double the visits and steady increase throughout the campaign.

Hmmm… guess we don’t need to wait till they count Ohio’s vote anymore just check the site stats.
Great post Jeff! I actually referenced your article in the Saturday morning sales meeting, it tied in quite nicely with a recent Toyota Signature meeting.

When will Obama be speaking to the DealerRefresh faithful?

By: Jeff Kershner

Jeff Kershner — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:31:38 +0000

Thanks Ian. It was a late night post. Wasn’t sure how it would go over but it was a fun write.

By: Ian Statler

Ian Statler — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:24:01 +0000

Jeff, love this post!!! One of your best “best practice” postings, if you ask me. You always pull out some great stuff.

By: JIM

JIM — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:10:14 +0000

Web 2/0 showed us the power of this marketing technique. I believe he wants to keep a open channel of communication thru his first term. If this happens and the people feel engaged in his process how effective would that energize a base for a second run. Masterful.

By: Ryan G

Ryan G — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:20:04 +0000

Some other big (and probably more impacting) factors to Obama’s appointment would be mainstream media in the tank for him along with moveon.org’s fund raising.

But your second to last paragraph caught my eye,

“What is your dealers message, what is your dealers brand, are you truly engaging with your customers?”

In my experience this is a big mountain for a lot of dealers and I am stunned at the challenge it presents dealers.

A message of good customer service is not enough for today’s market. It’s not unique and customers are numb to the promise. Dealers need to dig a bit under the surface to find their true UVP and make BIGGER promises.

This is a key obstacle today.

Another effective use of the things you suggest would be with Pickens Plan which is using Ning as its website and has built a truly “engaged” audience of nearly 1.5 million people in a few short months. Check it out – http://push.pickensplan.com/. I follow Pickens b\c I support the cause and also to learn from their Web 2.0 marketing techniques.