>> KYLE: Hi, my name is Kyle Keogh. Along with my colleague and friend, Thomais Zaremba,
I co-lead Google’s partnerships with automotive companies and their agency partners.
I’m here today to share with you what we’ve learned this past year and how all of us as
marketers can prepare for what’s next.
In the auto industry, like many industries, we’ve seen remarkable changes in the past 15 months.
Auto shoppers are shifting what they buy.
Searches for electric vehicles have doubled from January to March of this year.
And 58% of people that are considering a new vehicle in the next 6 months are considering purchasing
or leasing a hybrid or fully electric vehicle.
Auto shoppers are shifting how they buy.
63% of people that bought a new vehicle in the past 6 months decided on the vehicle model before
contacting a dealership for the first time.
And finally, auto shoppers are shifting where they buy.
Almost 60% of dealers say they are investing more into options for completing purchase steps online to
address consumers’ demand for more online capabilities.
Because of these consumer changes, automakers are being forced to reevaluate the way
they’ve always done things.
And although there’s been progress, everything from digital test drives to online purchasing,
there’s still a large gap between what consumers expect and what auto brands are delivering.
To be ready for this moment and whatever comes next, all businesses, auto included, have to embrace
digital transformation.
I’m talking about building an engine of change within your organization that drives profitable
growth now and over time.
When we looked at businesses that did well last year, we saw 3 common ways they used digital to drive growth.
First, being insights led by really understanding changing consumer needs;
second, being agile by acting on insights in real time;
and third, being data driven by investing in privacy-safe measurement.
I’ll dive deeper into what each of these means.
First, being insights led.
People are engaging more on digital through your sites, creating first-party data that marketers
can use throughout the long auto shopper journey.
But data is one thing, and true insight is another.
Given how complex the journey has become, with more channels to discover, purchase,
and experience your vehicles, you can’t discern consumer intent from just the last click.
Let me give you an example.
Using Google Analytics 360, Toyota discovered that their SUV landing page was performing
lower than expected.
It was text heavy and less mobile friendly, which resulted in higher bounce rates compared
to other segment pages on their site.
To fix this, Toyota used segment search to drive consumers to a better-performing page on their site.
The impact was immediate.
The conversion rate increased by 43%, and the CPA decreased by 49%.
Compelling insights and an agile team helped the media team drive an outsized impact
on Toyota’s larger business.
But, while being insights led is the first step, it is not enough on its own to succeed.
You also need to be agile and put those insights into action.
Google’s automation and machine learning tools can help you harness data efficiently, in real time,
to drive results and increase ROI.
For example, last year, Volvo focused on staying agile by using automation to win market
share and increase consideration.
Volvo partnered with Google to create custom videos at scale, using YouTube’s Director Mix tool.
The results surpassed what the team thought was possible.
Volvo’s personalized creative delivered a CPM twice as efficient as generic creative, allowing the brand
to reach 2x the number of people for the XC90 model.
Furthermore, Volvo ended 2020 with sales 2% higher than the previous year,
while the rest of the industry was down 15%.
Finally, you need to do this and also measure the impact of your marketing in a way that
respects consumer privacy.
Cadillac is a leader in this respect.
Cadillac is not only producing an entirely new lineup of vehicles, including EVs,
they’re also reevaluating their marketing approach.
To understand the true ROI of their marketing, both short- and long-term sales impact,
Cadillac leaned into a custom media mix model study.
The study confirmed the channel realignment strategies that were already underway.
This included an increased value that Cadillac places on online video.
As part of the broader go-to-market changes, Cadillac plans to deliver threefold the impressions
across online video partners, including YouTube.
With the right instincts, an agile approach, and authentic commitment to responsible use of data,
we all can be ready for whatever comes next.
Next up, you’ll hear directly from Suzy Deering, Chief Marketing Officer of Ford.
Suzy will share more about how Ford is driving digital transformation by putting data at
the heart of its marketing strategy.
>> THOMAIS: Hello, everyone. I’m Thomais Zaremba, Industry Director for Automotive at Google.
Today, I’m joined by Suzy Deering, CMO of Ford Motor Company.
Ford has embarked on what is the most transformational period in its history, with a focus on
electrification, connectivity, and mobility.
And very recently, Ford and Google entered into a partnership to deliver a superior experience
to Ford customers, putting data at the center of everything they do, including how they’re managing
their customer relationships.
We’re very pleased to have Suzy join us to talk about this today. Welcome, Suzy.
>> SUZY: Thank you! Great to be here.
>> THOMAIS: Let’s start by learning a little bit about who you are, your background,
and what brought you here.
You’ve had a very successful career in various industries,
including telecom and most recently eBay.
Tell us a little bit about that, and then tell us about your decision to enter the automotive industry,
and, most importantly, what brought you to Ford Motor Company.
>> SUZY: Absolutely. I’m a die-hard marketer. I went to college to be in marketing, and I love it.
It’s just continued to be a massive passion for me.
My background has really been in technology, retail, and entertainment.
So, when I left eBay and the opportunity to start to look at other places, one of the things that
was really important to me was purpose.
And, I wanted to make sure I went to a company that had purpose at the core and that also wanted
real transformation with great leadership and vision.
And, couldn’t think of a better time to, one, to look at Ford from a purpose-driven company,
absolutely, great leadership with Jim Farley and what he was setting out to make happen.
In addition to that, the auto industry, completely brand new to me.
But guess what? It’s about mobility, and it’s about disruption.
So, it was just a phenomenal fit, and I’m excited to be part of it.
>> THOMAIS: As we look at the landscape right now, there’s no doubt there are massive shifts happening,
inside and outside the automotive industry. And, they’re being driven by consumers.
And, they’ve been accelerated by the pandemic that we’re all living through,
hopefully coming out of right now.
How do you think about the biggest shifts in the consumer landscape, and which are
the most important to Ford?
>> SUZY: We saw a massive transition happen, which should have taken 3 to 5 years, happen in 6 months.
So, even though people were already using online to really research and to buy,
the expectations just accelerated.
Now, they don’t leave their home for groceries; they don’t leave their home for education.
They’re now subscription services.
It became so much more about that connectivity and that seamlessness of really being able
to do everything that you expected.
Postpandemic, guess what? Those expectations aren’t going to go away.
They’re just going to increase.
And it was really fun to also be able to see even our dealers step up and really take notice of that and
watch those transitions and also address it at the same time.
>> THOMAIS: As it relates to the consumer, Jim Farley’s pretty recently said that he’d like
to transition from a conquest model relationship with a consumer to a loyalty model.
So, as the CMO, how do you think about marketing’s role in transitioning consumers from basically
a customer to a member of the Ford family?
>> SUZY: The marketing role is critical to that, to making that happen, because we have to be an
orchestrator of so many different components within the business.
And, Jim’s sight of not just, hey, job one is done when we actually sell the car over to the dealer,
but really starting to transition to that ownership model, is so critical because, again,
back to the expectations of the customer.
The customer expects us to know them.
They do love the relationship that they have, in many cases, with their dealer.
But, it’s now our responsibility, especially from a marketing perspective, to work throughout our
entire organization to create the right ecosystem, to create the right connectivity, to then build
a relationship that is way more about better knowing the customer, so that we can meet the needs
both in the vehicle, out of the vehicle, and before they even think about buying a vehicle from us.
So, it’s a really critical part, and I think it’s really exciting, because it is a major shift
from where, really, OEMs have been in the past and taking that leap forward to where we have
to think differently about ownership and our relationship with both our customer and our dealers.
>> THOMAIS: What role does a partner like Google play in that?
We talked a little bit about the new partnership.
Expand on that a little bit for us.
>> SUZY: Well, the Google relationship has just now expanded and become even much more richer as
far as what opportunities we have.
To ensure that we know our customer and to ensure that we create those right connectivity points
and that seamless experience, we all know at the heart of that comes really important technology and data.
And so, the relationship with Google and the cloud is going to give us so much more opportunity to
really meet the demands that we have.
Whereas I think again about how we take connectivity of the vehicle, and we also take the connectivities
to our customer outside of just the marketing side, we now can create a richer, richer experience
utilizing the partnership that we do with Google.
>> THOMAIS: So, these are all really big changes and really big transformation.
How do you inspire people to follow such a new shift in direction?
>> SUZY: It’s interesting right, because we all talk about transformation as if it’s just a light
switch that you just turn on.
And, the reality is it’s a journey.
And I really believe it starts with very clear-set focus.
And, the focus of, for the first time in Ford’s history, in 118 years, we have clearly
identified and articulated our purpose.
By doing that, we’ve also been able to really lean in with what we call Ford Plus, which is the plan
that Jim had set forth in October when he took the position as CEO.
And, it’s very clear as to where we’re going, what we need to do in order to win.
So, those two things become fundamental for us, just to ensure that we can get alignment
across the organization.
And, we have to ensure that we bring people along with us.
But, at the same time, giving them that clarity, giving them the space to also fail, so that there
can be good strength, in the sense that the transformation’s not going to be easy.
But, we’re going to do it together, and we’re going to look forward, and we’re going to be very
clear as to what the purpose is and make sure that we’re delivering on that.
>> THOMAIS: As you look to lead marketing in that environment, what are the biggest changes
you think need to be made to meet the consumer where they are and also capitalize on all
the tools you have available to you now?
>> SUZY: Well, you talked about the transition of us thinking about ownership.
So just even in that aspect, it means we have to really understand what’s the true lifetime
value of our customer?
What’s the relationship that we’re building with them, and what does that give back to us?
What can be learned from them?
We’ve always watched the metrics of, from a media standpoint, how effective are our channels.
But being way more concentrated on our inputs, not just our outputs, and ensuring that we have
shared goals across the organization will help in, one, just ensuring from a marketing standpoint
that orchestrated role that we have.
That we can really bring people together on behalf of the customer and think about it from more
of that customer-centric approach.
>> THOMAIS: And, finally, let’s close on opportunity. As a seasoned marketer with fresh eyes in an industry,
what do you think are the biggest opportunities for marketers in automotive?
>> SUZY: Well, I think it’s staring us straight in the face right now, which is electrification.
It’s not just a new vehicle, it’s not just new connectivity.
It’s a completely new model.
It’s going to be so disruptive, and it’s so needed.
It’s going to be better for our environment, it’s going to be better for businesses,
it’s going to create a very different relationship as we just have spoken about as far as connectivity.
So, that entire system that we’re going to be able to create and just reimagine what our business model
looks like is exciting. And I think that, again, if you talk to anybody in the auto industry
or any of our suppliers, they’re looking at that as being the biggest, biggest effort sitting
in front of us right now.
>> THOMAIS: Wonderful. Well, thank you Suzy. I’m sad our time today was so short.
But, I think that was really a great conversation, and I appreciate all that Ford is doing, and we’re
so excited to continue to be great partners.
>> SUZY: Well, thank you. We so appreciate our relationship,
and thanks for having me today.
>> THOMAIS: Up next, you’re all going to hear from Miran Maric, the US Chief Marketing Officer
of Asbury Automotive Group, who will give his perspective on the future of the automotive industry.
Thank you.
[What’s the biggest shift facing the industry today?]
>> MIRAN: It really comes down to a couple of different components.
First of all, electrification.
As we know, whether it’s Tesla, whether it’s Rivian, whether it’s a lot of our OEM partners that are really
getting very aggressive in the space, we know the demands for EV vehicles will continue to skyrocket.
Same thing on the market share side of the equation.
I think it transcends COVID or anything else, and I think the consumer demand is there.
We’re actually quite excited about it from our perspective, though, because our OEM partners
are investing the time, money, and energy really into the space.
And it affords us the ability to be able to retail those vehicles.
Will selling cars online be the future, and is it here to stay? 100%, yes.
Here at Asbury, we feel that by 2025, 2026, it could be almost 50% of car sales that are out
there in the used car space.
And, of course, in the new car space as SAR continues to grow.
I think the car industry and the retail model as a whole hasn’t really evolved in a very long time,
since the old horse-trading-day business.
Consumers don’t want to spend 3 and a half hours, 4 hours, inside of a dealership.
They like the test drive, they like taking a look at that car and the buying setup, but not
necessarily the negotiation, not necessarily the finance process.
It’s about evolving that process, giving our people at the store level the ability to really
be ambassadors and take it to the next level for the consumer there.
[What is the future of the dealership?]
Personally, I think it’s very bright.
But, it needs some evolution, and it needs some guidance.
Right now, as it stands, there is 300 million plus vehicles on the road.
They’re all combustible engine vehicles that need servicing.
And, the difference between whether is it’s on the sales side or the service side, the ability
to really evolve and really meet the consumer there, where you’re taking human capital mixed
with technology, and then you’re really doing a better job of not only servicing the vehicles
inside the service department, but ultimately bringing a better online sales transactional model.
There’s not been much evolution outside of the normal CRM culture that’s been out there,
so I think the future is very, very bright in that regard.
But, you will see consolidation.
And, more importantly though, I think you’re going to see that the human element is absolutely needed.
If you look at any business that went online to brick and mortar or brick and mortar to online,
the people component is absolutely needed in that regard though.
But, I think we’ve got to give our folks the ability to really transact faster and become more efficient
with their time, and that way, getting a little bit more throughput.
[Where do you find inspiration outside of auto?]
We exclusively looked outside of auto when we were thinking about the way that the evolution of
the industry and what an online product really needed to look like from a transactional perspective.
Quicken Loans, Rocket Mortgage.
We looked at them, because they really have taken the mortgage industry by storm and really provided
a much better guest experience.
The second pieces would be a company like lendingtree.com.
lendingtree.com though was very innovative and still is today.
We took that segment there and that inspiration, and really our loan marketplace was the result of that.
And then lastly, of course, Carvana.
They brought forward a lot of nice thought in the space about how you could do a transaction fully online.
They’re providing a guest experience for the consumer that’s fast, quick, and transparent.
So, when we built Clicklane, really for us it was more so about evolving that process, taking
maybe where they left off and then providing the consumer a lot more transparency and
the ability to do more online.
[How will marketing in auto shift to meet the new realities?]
It’s a topic all dealers and all OEMs should really be asking themselves.
It’s going to become more transactional, it’s going to become more digital, and it’s to become more in
the moment, where you’re utilizing rich data to really contact and connect with the consumer
in multi, multichannels.
From a company perspective, we were able to reallocate many years ago from a very heavy
traditional model, very heavy traditional spend, to a more digital spend, really meeting
the consumer where they’re at.
And, it drove our efficiencies way, way, way through the roof, and our costs
per sale really plummeted there.
So, from an efficiency perspective, you’re going to see a huge shift toward the digital space
in meeting the consumer where they’re at.
And, you might maybe think twice about doing that big TV campaign when you see a cost per view or cost per
completed view and not really in a different space.
The other point is really becoming more transactional in what we’re doing, so product listing ads,
really getting the consumer what they want really quickly and efficiently.