Moore & Scarry Advertising, one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing automotive advertising agencies, announced new additions to leadership as the organization continues on the path to become the leading advertising agency and digital marketing solution for auto dealers.  Recent internal promotions and new hires strengthen Moore & Scarry’s industry leadership as the agency continues its rapid growth.

Charles Hepplewhite - CFO

Charles Hepplewhite has joined as Chief Financial Officer. Most recently, Charles served as the Director of Finance for Travelocity’s digital advertising sales division. He has nearly a decade of successful corporate financial management experience in advertising, finance and operations. In his new role as CFO, Charles will manage key financial initiatives including forecasting, budgetary management and implementing operational changes to maximize the company’s resources to best serve Moore & Scarry clients.

Charlie commented, “I am excited to join Moore & Scarry and contribute to the continued growth of the organization.  The existing management team is experienced, dedicated and, most importantly, innovative.  Everyone contributes in the free flow of ideas, without heavy layers of management.  This allows Moore & Scarry to act, rather than react.  I look forward to helping the agency and our clients grow.”

Jon Lamb - President

In addition, Jon Lamb has been promoted to President of Moore & Scarry. Most recently, Jon served as Moore & Scarry’s Vice President of Account Service.  Jon will utilize his strong leadership, management skills and industry insight to spearhead Moore & Scarry’s operations. Jon will lead the organization’s management team to ensure the agency operates at maximum efficiency and provides the best environment for all team members.

Jon stated, “Automotive retail sales and marketing is an ever-changing and challenging industry.  It’s exciting to be a part of it.  I’m dedicated to help make Moore & Scarry the leading automotive agency in North America to best serve the needs of our clients.  Our new management structure will increase our internal and external collaboration as we grow and maintain our innovative culture and services.”

Duncan Scarry will move to CEO and will focus on further implementing the agency’s vision for best-in-class marketing services and digital advertising products. Duncan will devote more time to product development and strategic planning.

“Sometimes, the skills that are necessary to start and grow a company aren’t necessarily the same skills necessary to take a large organization to the next level. By recruiting and promoting the best, our management team will be deeper, stronger and better suited to fulfill the needs of our clients effectively and efficiently. This will allow each member of management to utilize their strengths and focus on specific areas of operation. I’m really excited and energized as the agency is really embarking on a new road,” said Duncan Scarry.

About Moore & Scarry Advertising:

Moore & Scarry Advertising is the nation’s third largest automotive advertising agency and North America’s third largest automotive search marketing company. Innovation, bright minds and a lot of hard work have made Moore & Scarry Advertising one of the fastest-growing automotive advertising agencies in the nation.  Moore & Scarry Advertising represents over 400 automobile dealers, including the vast majority of domestic and international manufacturers, dealerships of all types and sizes, including numerous Automotive News Top 125 Dealer Groups. The agency has offices in Fort Myers, Florida; Chicago, Illinois and Denver, Colorado.

Additionally, Moore & Scarry has been recently named a Google Adwords Premier SMB Partner; a designation for Googe’s digital advertising partners that have achieved the highest levels of training, performance and customer service.

About a year and a half ago, we did an Automotive News webinar with Google and Yahoo on how search engines have revolutionized the auto shopping process. One of the key points of that presentation is that search and auto shopping is evolving at such a rapid process, and the way people shop for a car is dynamically changing between the time they purchase the last vehicle and their next one.

With that in mind, we went back and looked at that presentation and updated the facts and figures. Incidentally, it’s changed exponentially since we last made this presentation. Here’s how search is revolutionizing the auto industry:

Search Is Exploding Faster Than You Know It

Estimates put the 2011 monthly search volume at 143 BILLION searches per month. That’s up from a mere 2.7 billion in 2006 – an increase of over 5200% in just six short years. Combine that with JD Power’s report that the average age of a trade-in is 6.2 years, that means that the way a consumer is shopping for a vehicle today, is drastically different than the way they did the last time they purchased.

Search Marketing is Bigger Than You Think

Go to a trade show or a seminar and you’ll hear about a lot of different digital marketing outlets from social media to email, mobile phones and more. The simple fact of the matter is that 54% of all digital advertising dollars go to search marketing – close to $19 billion. After that, display advertising (banner ads) makes up the next 32%. Put those together and 86% of all digital marketing is either search marketing or online display. Major marketers are putting their money where customers are.

The Internet is Replacing Newspaper

In 2000, 52% of all dealer advertising dollars were devoted to newspaper – which made it the number one dealer advertising outlet. Today, more dealer advertising dollars go to the Internet than any other single medium (Internet 23.7% newspaper 22%, television 20.10%, radio 16%, direct mail 9.7% and other mediums 9%). If you look at the trends over the last ten years, almost all the mediums stay in line with the exception of newspaper. Newspaper lost about half of it’s share to the Internet.

Customers Select Dealerships Online – Not in Person

It’s a really scary concept to wrap your head around, but the simple fact of the matter is that most consumers select the dealership they’re going to do business with online and they do it with little or no interaction with the dealership. JD Power reports that in 2005 the average customer shopped 4.1 dealerships when purchasing a vehicle and today a customer visits just 1.3. That means, on average, a customer buys from the first dealership they walk into. What does this mean? They’re selecting the dealership they want to do business online. Furthermore, they’re doing it with little to no interaction with the dealership. In the past six years, Internet usage in the auto shopping process is up 16%, while lead submissions are up only 2%.

Google is Destroying the Organic Space

If you take a look at a SERP (search engine results page), you’ll see that the organic results are actually the minority of results. On a typical SERP, you’ll have 1-3 top search ads, several to the right or bottom, a map result and a Google Places listing. In many cases, there will be only a single organic result on a SERP. There’s good reason that Google would want to do this. Google generates 96% of its revenue through advertising – and Google is a business with a market capitalization of close to $200 billion – and the majority of it is generated through those little ads wrapped around search results.

Google is More Important to the Auto Space Than the Market at Large

It’s well known that Google is the dominant search engine in the space – comScore reports that Google garners a 65% share of the search market. However, independent research shows that in regard to traffic to dealership web sites, Google accounts for close to 77% – close to a 20% increase.

Search Marketing Crushes The Competition

While most advertising agencies don’t want to admit it – advertising is an incredibly wasteful effort. Let’s compare: The Superbowl, which is the highest rated program of the year, pulled a 34 rating last year (34% of the population viewed it). Let’s assume there will be 19 million units of inventory sold this year through franchised dealers (12 million new and 7 million used). If you multiple 19 million by 34% and then divide by 12 to get the number of people who will buy a car  a Superbowl commercial reaches – you get an astonishing number of 0.17%. If someone types ‘honda accord’ into a search engine – what’s the likely hood they want to buy a Honda Accord? Let’s say it’s just 50% – compare that to 0.17%. Result: search marketing is incredibly targeted.

All Those Great Features on Your Web Site? They’re Basically Useless.

You spent a lot of time selecting and working on your web site – guess what – it’s useless. People really just go to your site to find inventory. Take this statistic: only 24% of your web site traffic visits a page that’s not your inventory or specials.

So What Do You Do?

Increase your search marketing budget – big time. Our average customer spends $3,200 on search marketing, $21,000 on television or radio and $62,000 overall. If someone were to take $2,100 from their television or radio and move it to search marketing it would do the following: increase a medium that’s 50% targeted by 65%, decrease a medium that’s 0.17% targeted by 10% – and not change your advertising budget a single penny. Make sense?

Want to see the full presentation? It’s live on SlideShare. If you’d like someone from Moore & Scarry to make this presentation at your 20 group or other event, contact us.

Recently, Google announced that it has named Moore & Scarry Advertising as one of their select Google AdWords^TM Premier SMB Partners. The AdWords^TM Premier SMB Partner program is Google’s designation for their digital advertising partners that have achieved the highest levels of training, performance and customer service.

Duncan Scarry, CEO

“We’re incredibly excited about Moore & Scarry Advertising being named an AdWords^TM Premier SMB Partner by Google. I think it’s recognition of the power of our Haystack automotive search marketing platform and the high level of expertise and service our staff provides,” said Duncan Scarry, president of Moore & Scarry Advertising.

Moore & Scarry is one of the first companies to be named an AdWords^TM Premier SMB Partner in the automotive space.  Moore & Scarry has held numerous other Google distinctions for their performance including the AdWords^TM Authorized Reseller.

Google selected AdWords^TM Premier SMB Partners based on stringent qualification criteria, including a proven market track record and the ability to deliver an exceptional end-to-end service to advertisers.

Ben Wood | Google

“We are excited to launch the Google AdWords^TM Premier SMB Partner program with hand-picked, highly qualified companies like Moore & Scarry Advertising,” says Ben Wood, head of Google’s Americas channel sales partnerships. “Automotive dealers will not only benefit from Moore & Scarry Advertising’s in-depth training, but from their years of experience in the local market.”

To learn more about the Premier SMB Partner program directly from Google, visit google.com/ads/premiersmbpartner.

About Moore & Scarry Advertising

Moore & Scarry Advertising is the nation’s third largest automotive advertising agency and North America’s third largest automotive search marketing company. Innovation, bright minds and a lot of hard work have made Moore & Scarry Advertising one of the fastest-growing automotive advertising agencies in the nation.  Moore & Scarry Advertising has represented over 400 automobile dealers, including the vast majority of domestic and international manufacturers, dealerships of all types and sizes, including numerous Automotive News Top 125 Dealer Groups. The agency has offices in Fort Myers, Florida; Chicago, Illinois and Denver, Colorado.

About the Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner Program

The recently announced Google AdWords^TM Premier SMB Partner Program (PSP) connects Google’s trusted and experienced AdWords^TM partners with small- and medium-sized businesses that want expert help in creating, managing and optimizing their online advertising campaigns. In addition to in-depth AdWords^TM expertise, PSP partners provide full-service campaign management, detailed reporting, one-on-one customer support, and broad marketing guidance to help advertisers make the most of their campaigns.

Premier SMB Partners meet Google’s highest standards and criteria for qualification, transparency, and customer service, which includes completing extensive Google product and account management training. This ensures they can provide small businesses with the most effective AdWords^TM advertising solutions.

Session #204
Thursday, October, 6, 2011
10:00am – 10:50am

Great on Google

Google is the number one traffic driver to dealer web sites. Find out from an insider how to get great traffic with Google’s most popular services.

Duncan Scarry, a Google insider, shows you how to get the most out of Google’s most popular products and services. You’ll learn how to rapidly increase quality traffic through search engine optimization, search engine marketing, Places optimization, YouTube and other video elements, Adwords Express and much more. Topics covered will range from basics to advanced tactics.

What action items will you take back to your dealership?
1. How to position yourself on Google for maximum results
2. How to avoid the pitfalls of an ever-changing Google landscape
3. Insider Google secrets that will allow you to out-perform the competition

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Innovation, bright minds, and a lot of hard work have made Moore & Scarry Advertising one of the fastest growing automotive advertising agencies in Florida and the single largest advertising agency between Miami and Tampa.

We’re growing fast, we’re pitching often, and we’re looking for smart, hungry individuals who want to transform their talents and advance their careers.

As a Media Traffic Coordinator you will be working closely with a team, assisting in all aspects of television and online production. This is a great job for anyone that is interested in television, media, and web. 

JOB DUTIES:

Preparing for shoots (research contacts, costs, restrictions, and location permits), assisting in many different aspects of video production, managing and updating video archival system, researching, compiling, and presenting preparation for upcoming shoots, arranging and coordinating travel itineraries for all parties, gathering, analyzing, and distributing all production related materials.

REQUIREMENTS:

Must be extremely organized, detail oriented, able to maintain tight schedules and meet deadlines, able to thrive in a multi-tasking job environment where tasks are performed simultaneously and able to communicate effectively with others who need access to production schedules and other pertinent information.  Traffic creative to editors.    

Computer literate in MS Office suite particularly Excel.   

 EDUCATION:

BA or BS Degree is a plus but not required.  Prior production assistant experience is a plus.

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We all know that SEM is an integral part of a successful marketing plan, but it can be challenging to keep up with changes in consumers’ online behavior and the search engines’ changes in compliance and algorithms.  Morgan Automotive Group consistently achieves outstanding results from SEM and Larry keeps his dealerships at the forefront of new trends and innovations.

Morgan Automotive Group began working with Moore & Scarry Advertising over five years ago and the agency now provides all Morgan stores with full service marketing, including both traditional and online, and manages all SEM initiatives for the group.

We recently spoke with Larry to get his perspective on SEM and discuss the results Morgan Automotive Group has achieved.

How long have you used search engine marketing for your dealerships?

SEM has been an important part of our marketing strategy for at least six years now, and obviously its importance has grown during that time.  Best practices change as the Internet evolves and you have to be diligent to keep up and stay on top.  Our agency monitors our SEM campaigns on a daily basis and ensures that we continually improve our results and increase the market’s awareness of our dealerships. Further, search engine optimization and search engine marketing shouldn’t exist in isolation.  As a matter of fact, when SEO and SEM are properly integrated together, they can produce significantly more traffic than when the two efforts are managed separately.  Our agency tightly integrates both initiatives for us.

What SEM results have you achieved?

Our dealerships’ Internet departments set the pace of our sales growth at this point, no doubt about it.  Their work, particularly with search engines, drives our business now.  Our agency has really helped us with SEM and we’re getting a greater market share at all of our locations.  Moore & Scarry’s SEM services are second to none.  They are a Google Adwords Authorized Reseller, a Microsoft AdExcellence Company and a Google Adwords Certified Partner.  I don’t know of any other agencies out there with all these highly respected certifications.  They understand both the technical and creative sides of search engine marketing and blend them to generate more traffic, leads and sales for our dealerships.  And their knowledge and certifications keep us compliant in this ever changing landscape.

Can you provide specific data about your SEM results?

“We are outpacing the industry in sales and have been for over a year and a half.  All of our stores have gained market share in the past 12 months.  Driving traffic to your site through SEM and SEO is meaningless if you don’t determine which traffic is engaged and converting.  Our agency provides a comprehensive analytics package that monitors traffic and reports the results in plain English.”

We gained 66,514 website visits from our SEM campaigns in 2010, with over 39,000 goal completions.  Our SEM website visitors average 5.53 page views per visit and spend an average of 4.45 minutes on our site. In addition, 72.2% of our SEM campaign visitors were new to our site.

What do like most about working with your agency?

I’m a big picture guy and I keep up with trends and where the industry is going.  We try to stay ahead of the market and attract shoppers where they spend time online.  A huge part of that is helping them find us on Internet searches.  Our messages are designed based on what shoppers are looking for, and what terms they actually use in searches.

We get quick service and results with our agency; even the president is assessable at virtually all times.  They try new things, work with our people, teach and train on how to use tools, and take a sincere interest in our business.  Our SEM practices are continually evolving and the results just keep getting better and better.  Everything is numbers driven and Moore & Scarry Advertising brings facts to the table when we review how dollars are being spent.  There is no ’set it and forget it.’  They constantly monitor our results, keep abreast of trends and work with us to reap the best rewards.

A study done by Pew found that approximately 85% of adults have smartphones, cell phones, and/or other mobile devices, and of that number 39% have accessed the Internet from their mobile device. In Q4 2010, mobile tablets sold approximately 9.7 million units – a 120% increase over Q3. With these numbers, it’s no wonder more and more car dealerships are optimizing their websites for mobile browsers. Optimizing your site isn’t difficult and many web providers offer this as an additional service.

What this means is that 2011 may finally be the year that mobile “arrives” and makes a major impact on your marketing strategy. According to a recent Search Marketing Now webinar on mobile trends, 49% of smartphone owners have purchased something from their phones in the past six months and mobile commerce is expected to reach $119 billion in sales by 2015. I can hear you already, “This doesn’t pertain to me. People don’t purchase cars from their phone.” And while that may be true, for now, you do SELL cars online. Wait, what?

Here’s my real-life scenario: My husband and I are driving around town looking for the perfect used 2010 Dodge Challenger that I’ve been dying to test drive. I go to the usual place – the Dodge dealership in the area – but they don’t have the trim/color/price I’m looking for. How do I figure out where to go next? I pull out my handy-dandy smartphone and I Google it. There, in the sponsored ads section, are several dealerships that have a 2010 Dodge Challenger in stock. I click on the ads, go to the sites, check out their inventory and go to the dealership that has what I want. Done and done.

I found what I was looking for and the dealership got the sale. Seems fairly simple, right? It is! Utilizing Google’s technology, not only can we can send mobile searchers to your mobile-optimized website, but mobile searchers can call you directly from their Google search using a click-to-call feature. By assigning call-tracking telephone numbers to these campaigns, we are then able to track the statistics of these calls (number of received calls, number of missed calls, average call duration, and total call duration for example). We can also track the number of searchers using mobile devices to access your site.

Mobile marketing has been teetering on the verge of breaking out and changing the way we interact with our target audiences. The time has come to embrace this paradigm shift. Is your marketing plan ready for this new mobile frontier?

April light vehicle sales were up 18% over the prior year.  While almost every manufacturer increased sales, the change in each maker’s market share shows the early effects of the earthquake.  In a time when Japanese makers are usually dominant due to climbing gas prices, Japanese automakers lost 3.4 share points while Detroit’s Big Three won 1.5 points and Korean makers Hyundai & Kia earned 1.9 points.[AutoNews] 

The biggest production impact for Japanese and North American automakers now appears to be the automotive chip market.  One company, Renesas Electronics Corp. controls 41 percent of the global automotive chip market, and the company’s Naka (Japan) plant built 25 percent of its chips.  This chip production now needs to be shifted to its other global plants.  Renesas originally anticipated completion of repairs to its Naka plant by July, but as of the end of April it had bumped the date up to mid-June. 

According to Automotive News, a modern vehicle uses from 30 to over 100 microchips that are essential in such components as parking brakes, engine control units, entertainment systems, stability control and power steering. They are highly complex and often use-specific, which means they can’t be re-sourced easily.[AutoNews]   

Renesas’ rival Freescale Semiconductor Inc., the world’s second largest maker of automotive computer chips, had announced plans to close its only plant in Japan in December.  Damage caused by the March earthquake caused Freescale to scrap plans to postpone closure until December, and the company has since added capacity earlier than planned at its Chandler, Arizona plant and other alternative manufacturing sites.

Another issue that will affect both Japanese and North American automakers is a product mix that is anticipated to limit consumer choices for months.  Certain paint colors, trim levels and option packages will not be available.  It is predicted that these shortages may restrict supply for months.[AutoNews]

What will be the impact and course of action for retailers during the summer selling season-traditionally the best sales time of the year?  For one thing, incentives are going to be scarce.  According to Edmunds.com, April incentives for automotive manufacturers in the U.S. were the lowest they have been since 2005.  GM’s average was the highest at $3,016 while Toyota’s was the lowest at $1,687.[Edmunds]

As inventory and incentive pressures mount, dealers will be forced to shift an even greater focus toward used vehicles in the coming months.  While new car supply will be scarce (for some more than others) and ultimately drive up new car margins, the higher margins alone will not be enough to weather the storm.  Some of the largest public companies are already bracing for new car shortages by putting greater attention to used vehicles.  Lower new car inventories force dealers and public companies alike to get aggressive in finding used inventory.   They also realize that purchasing units will be at a greater cost.  Since trade-ins supply a large part of a dealer’s used inventory, with the anticipated decline in new car sales, some dealers have already begun promoting campaigns to buy directly from consumers who advertise the sale of their used vehicles.  Additionally, older and higher mileage units that would traditionally be wholesaled by dealers will be given greater retail consideration.[AutoNews]

In conclusion, even though the earthquake did not happen here in the U.S., its effects are closing in everyday.  Sales have been strong for all brands up to now but a shift is predicted to occur starting in May.  Japanese brands and their dealers will be the most impacted, but due to the global nature of each OEM’s supply chain, all brands will feel the pinch to some degree.  Some OEMs may even be forced to re-evaluate their supply chain practices.  Prepare to become an even more aggressive used car dealer to best weather the supply storm.  The good news, however, is that even with these challenges; 2011 is still predicted to be a far better year than last.