Mobile Commerce Daily, April 23, 2010
Ford Dealer Ad Group drives customer acquisition via mobile coupons
Ford Dealer Ad Group added a mobile component to its
television ads, resulting in 2,000 consumers opting-in to
receive coupons for a free oil change in just 16 days.
The TV spot asked consumers in the Louisville, KT, and
Cincinnati areas to text OILCHANGE to the short code 53016 to
get a coupon for a free oil change. Consumers replied with their
ZIP code and were provided with the closest dealer locations to
them.
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FORD DEALER AD GROUP DRIVES HIGHER CUSTOMER ACQUISITION WITH MOBILE
Deploys Industry's First Turn-key Mobile Lead Capture, Redemption, and Management System
April 14, 2010 (NJ) Gold Mobile, a leading provider of automotive mobile lead generation,
and loyalty solutions, in partnership with Seritas, an auto dealer inventory and website provider,
and ePulsetrak, an auto dealer CRM system exceeded expectations for the Southern Cincinnati
Ford Dealer Ad Group with the industry's first turn-key mobile lead capture, redemption, and
management system. The Southern Cincinnati Ford Dealer Ad Group led by their agency Retail
First/Team Detroit, deployed the new mFunnel Lead Generation Program, within a regionally
focused TV advertising campaign and rapidly exceeded the distribution target of 2000 mobile
coupons.
"This was by far our most successful ad campaign in many years", says Kevin Collins,
Chairman of the Southern Cincinnati Dealer Ad Group and owner of Bill Collins Ford, "The
simplicity, immediacy, and tracking of mFunnel led to higher consumer activation and
satisfaction while reducing the cost to administer and manage the entire promotion and
redemption process for the individual dealers."
Gold Mobile, Seritas and ePulsetrak developed the mFunnel, Lead Acquisition Program,
utilizing SMS text and WAP (mobile web) to provide (1) Lead capture (2) Consumer preferences
(via its proprietary interactive mobile dialogue engine) (3) Coupon/Incentive delivery,
redemption, and monitoring (4) Immediate routing to participating individual dealerships (5)
Real-time lead delivery (to assigned salesperson or to call center) (6) Reporting portal for
tracking and administration of incentive redemptions and (7) Ongoing consumer
communications.
"Prior to mFunnel, dealers and dealer ad groups had to piece together multiple disparate
systems for lead generation that resulted in a higher cost per contact and less qualified leads"
noted AJ Wagner, Vice chairman of Gold Mobile and former president of Ford Motor Credit
North America, "Our unique mobile lead generation and management system provides a
significantly higher return-on-investment by streamlining the lead capture and engagement
process enabling dealers to better personalize their existing marketing programs."
Gold Mobile and Seritas mobile automotive marketing programs can be used by any automotive
brand, regional ad group, or individual dealer, is compatible with all websites, CRM and DMS
systems and can easily be added to existing traditional marketing programs. Gold Mobile
automotive marketing solutions are often integrated with their proprietary Social Media and
Digital marketing methodologies used to drive lead volume in traditional advertising campaigns.
ABOUT GOLD MOBILE
Gold Mobile is a leading mobile automotive solutions provider, with a carrier grade, high-
performance mobile platform supported by a suite of mobile applications and development tools.
Its flagship Mobile Command Center allows customers to easily manage mobile marketing,
mobile web and mobile CRM solutions in real-time. The Gold Mobile platform supports carriers
and networks throughout US, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit:
Gold Mobile.
ABOUT SERITAS
Seritas is a full service website development company, specializing in automotive dealer
websites. Dealer customers get real-time sales leads and build their mobile community while car
buying consumers get special promotions and discount coupons sent directly to their cell
phones. Seritas mobile website solutions are changing the face of the automotive industry –
helping to drive revenue for a market in economic distress. See our live demo at
CarTextNow.com
ABOUT e-PULSETrak
e-PULSETrak utilizes one of the industry's only internet-based follow-up systems that allows
companies to log, track and report their sales statistics in real time. e-PULSETrak enables
personnel to utilize their time better, and become more productive as the system does the job of
tracking sales and ensuring customer follow-up. e-PULSETrak can refocus your entire corporate
culture, helping to make customer relations everyone's first priority. e-PULSETrak systems have
been designed to implement time-proven customer contact principles that build customer
loyalty, repeat and referral business. For more information, visit:
e-PULSETrak
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CELL PHONE COUPONS LURE YOUNG SERVICE CUSTOMERS
Amy Wilson Automotive News July 13, 2009
DETROIT -- Ford dealer Chris Rasmussen used to schedule all his service appointments the old-fashioned way: by phone.
But now he is assisted increasingly by the Internet.
For example, students at Buena Vista University in Rasmussen's small town of Storm Lake, Iowa, schedule service appointments using e-mail and cell phones.
Many of them are new customers who found Rasmussen by surfing the Internet
for deals. Service coupons on the dealership's Web site got their attention,
and the site let them send coupons to their cell phones so they didn't
need to make a printout.
"Now I get a lot of the college kids," says Rasmussen, co-owner
and general manager of Rasmussen Ford. "They are so used to the
Internet; they go and look for that stuff. Those students e-mail me
nonstop."
Rasmussen has been offering the cell phone service coupons since February,
soon after he rebuilt his Web site with the help of Seritas, a
Kansas City, Mo., supplier of dealership Web sites. Seritas has teamed
up with Gold Mobile, which provides the technology that enables
dealerships to connect with customers on their phones.
Dealerships can customize the coupons. For instance, a store can offer a $500 discount on a vehicle sticker or $10 off a brake job. When a customer signs up online for the coupon, Rasmussen gets e-mail and text message alerts.
Rasmussen declined to share details on the number of service coupons that have been redeemed and their impact on service department revenue. But he says the technology is making a difference.
Rasmussen features about a half-dozen service coupons on his site, and he can change them immediately if some prove more effective than others. Customers who are less comfortable with mobile technology can print out the coupons and bring them to the dealership.
Depending on the level of use, Seritas and Gold Mobile charge $200 to $400 a month for the service coupons. "How many newspaper ads can you run for $400 -- and I can change these daily if I want," Rasmussen says.
Scott Greger, CEO of Seritas, says about 30 dealerships use the mobile marketing applications, including two that are offering the mobile service coupons.
In late June, Seritas and Gold Mobile began offering a text chat service that allows a dealership representative to communicate with a customer by cell phone on a sales or service inquiry.
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