Feature: May 2009

‘Best Time’ Is Now

National media donate ink and airtime worth millions.

By Mary Anne Shreve

“The media really want to cooperate with the dealers right now,” says Memphis dealer Ben Keras.

NADA’s “buy now” campaign has gotten so much national attention that TV and radio stations are clamoring for new spots to run. So this month the association launches a second phase of ads that highlight, among other reasons to buy a new car, the federal sales tax deduction.

The original messages—called “Best Time to Buy” and urging consumers to visit their local dealerships for the best deals ever—have run thousands of times online, in newspapers, and on TV and radio stations across the country since NADA distributed them late last year. Participants included Allbritton Communications, Comcast, the Los Angeles Times, and Time Warner (see “Joining a Campaign,” below).

NADA has gotten an estimated $53 million in free airtime and print, as the media helped dealers make it the largest, most comprehensive public education campaign in the association’s history.

Classified dealer advertising is at an all-time low, and radio and TV spots also have declined dramatically. The media ran the “Best Time to Buy” ads in hopes that vehicle sales would pick up, generating revenue for dealers, the media, and local communities alike.

GENERATING BLANKET COVERAGE
When Memphis dealers asked their local media to run the messages, they were hoping for a little ink in the paper. Instead, they got a blizzard of coverage.

“It seemed like every time you turned on the TV in January, you were seeing one of those ads,” says Ben Keras of Keras Automotive.

The editorial board of the Memphis Commercial Appeal met with the local dealer association to ask what the paper could do to help, Keras says. Not only did it run the “Best Time to Buy” messages, but it printed an article titled “For Some, It’s a Good Time to Buy a Vehicle” on the front page of the Sunday business section. The story quoted local economists, as well as Keras and other dealers, on how consumers have more leverage to negotiate good deals than at any time in recent history.

All of that publicity generated dealership phone calls and conversations—and an uptick in sales, says Kevin Callahan, a market president for AutoNation’s Memphis stores. “Deal hunters came out, saying, ‘I hear now is the time to buy a car.’ ” Without question, he adds, “we did have customers who came into the marketplace because of those ads.”

‘Buy Now,’ Part II

Round two of NADA’s public-awareness campaign features updated messages with new reasons to buy a car now, such as the recent federal sales tax deduction. In the “No Kidding” ads, cute, gap-toothed kids say things like “We got a new car and Mommy says now we don’t gotta pay taxes” and “We get to buy more video games now ’cuz my dad got this car.” Voiceovers (or text in the print ads) further explain that the moppets’ parents can deduct the sales tax on a new car, and the current good deals may mean lower monthly payments than on the old car—and thus more cash to spend on the family. The ads (in print, electronic, and online formats, and in Spanish-language versions) target the millions of financially stable consumers who need new cars “but are scared to make a move because of all the negative economic indicators,” says Cheril Hendry, owner and CEO of the Irvine, Calif., ad agency Brandtailers, which is producing the campaign for free. Memphis dealer Ben Keras, who was able to get lots of the first-phase ads aired in his market, says he’s on board for phase two. “I definitely recommend that other dealers get involved, because the media really want to cooperate with dealers right now.” (To download the ads, go to nada.org/buynowads.)

BIG MARKETS GIVE BIG BOOST
The Los Angeles Times was one of the first to run NADA’s messages. The ads appeared in the paper’s daily dealer directory from November through January, where they were seen by the Times’ 2.2 million daily readers, says director of automotive advertising Ken Nail.

“We’re partners with the dealer community—if they don’t succeed, we don’t succeed,” says Nail. “You could just feel from dealers that they were needing help, and this seemed like something we could do for them during this bad economic situation.”

The Detroit media also have been generous with their coverage. The Free Press not only ran the messages dozens of times, but also printed a front-page editorial about the importance of the auto industry. “That was a step out of the norm for traditional media to do, to have it on the front page,” says director of automotive advertising Larry Doyle. “And we delivered copies of it, prior to the congressional hearings, to every legislator’s office.”

The local TV stations also stepped up their coverage of the Detroit auto show and ran the buy-now messages to encourage consumers to head straight from the show to their local dealerships, says Rod Alberts, executive vice president, Detroit Auto Dealers Association.

Detroit radio station WJR, a 50,000-watt Clear Channel station with a Midwest-wide reach, has run spots more than 100 times, says sales director Tom O’Brien. “I heard that a sister station in San Francisco was doing the spots, so I asked them to send some over. We put together our version, then sent them out all over to our affiliates.”

GETTING CONSUMERS OFF THE PRICE
NADA director George Gorno of Gorno Automotive Group, Woodhaven, Mich., says messages like the ones that have run on Cars.com and elsewhere give him a good springboard for discussions with the press and public. “When I talk to the media, I bring those issues up and let them know about how now is a good time to buy. We’re using it in our marketing and on our Web site.”

The buy-now messages are reaching “people on the fence, people who are thinking they’ll get more on their trade-in right now, and others who are afraid there might not be inventory later this year,” adds Gorno.

NADA’s ads were “everywhere” in Houston, says at-large director Dale Early, Deerbrook Forest Chrysler/Jeep, Kingwood, Tex., who is also chairman of the NADA Public Affairs Committee. “It was extremely successful in terms of the cooperation we got from the media, and it went well beyond what I initially anticipated.”

Early credits the NADA ads with helping to shift customers’ mind-sets. “A lot of people came in saying, ‘I heard that ad on the radio,’ or ‘I saw that ad in the paper, so I came down.’ Before, they were only hearing about the economic doom and gloom.”

Consumers have adjusted to the new norm of a recession, and those who had postponed car purchases are ready to return to the market, says Cheril Hendry, owner and CEO of the Irvine, Calif., ad agency Brandtailers. Her agency is producing, free of charge, the next generation of ads for NADA’s “Buy Now” campaign (see “‘Buy Now,’ Part II,” above).

Hendry’s creative team was careful to highlight incentives for buying that apply to all consumers—such as the tax break and the ability to lower monthly car payments—versus individual automaker programs. “We’re getting calls from all over the country saying, ‘We’ll run more ads if you give us something new.’ ”

Joining a Campaign

Among the media participants in NADA’s initial “Buy Now” campaign: • Allbritton Communications (all TV stations) • Arizona Republic • Dallas Morning News • Detroit Free Press • Gannett (all newspapers—except USA Today— and TV stations) • Hearst-Argyle (all TV stations) • Los Angeles Times • Philadelphia Daily News • Philadelphia Inquirer • Pittsburgh Post-Gazette • Pittsburgh Tribune-Review • San Francisco Examiner • Several Comcast cable systems • Several Cox cable systems • Several Time Warner cable systems

Mary Anne Shreve is a senior editor of AutoExec