Streaming video on dealership Web sites is becoming a prerequisite to effective online auto retailing.

Dealers are finding new ways to use Internet video in marketing and other communications. Such online content includes not only footage of new vehicles but promotions for dealership operations.

The share of U.S. Internet users who watch online videos will rise from 72 percent today to 85 percent by 2010, predicts eMarketer, an online media research firm in New York. Popular Web sites such as YouTube and Google Video have accustomed consumers to absorbing marketing messages through streaming video.

Wayne Ussery, director of Internet marketing for the Jim Ellis Dealer Group in Atlanta, said his company has experimented with online video for nine months.

"Our approach is to provide something extra that isn't just skipped over, like on TV," Ussery told Automotive News.

The Ellis group uses a technology vendor to create videos from still photos of vehicles, enhanced with zooming and panning effects. The dealership group is beginning to produce TV-style videos.

Ussery said he also is introducing videos that feature dealership events and information from departments such as service and parts and finance and insurance. Those videos appear on showroom monitors as well as the company's brand-specific Web sites.

Not just TV

But Ussery said he won't display generic spots or run TV commercials online.

"Lots of dealers are simply putting up a video that says, 'Welcome to our dealership,'" he said. "Online, TV commercials for dealerships aren't nearly as effective as something that provides the customer with some real value and helps them buy a car."

Research suggests that consumers who watch online videos seek original content and interactivity that can't be duplicated on TV.

A recent study by CarGurus, an automotive research Web site, concludes that visitors to the site spend much more time looking at videos and photos than they do researching vehicle specifications, reviews and pricing.

Phil Sura, vice president of UnityWorksMedia, a suburban Minneapolis provider of streaming video, says video "gives the dealer a chance to get back into the sales game and create something that's fun."

"The video component allows for flair, personality and differentiation," he says.

Sura's company offers a photo-based video product for $500 to $1,200 a month, depending on a dealership's inventory volume. For a higher cost, UnityWorksMedia produces broadcast-quality videos.

Selling excitement

Like dealers, auto marketers make a distinction between traditional TV spots and online video.

"TV is fundamentally an awareness device," says David Harris, e-business and Internet manager of American Suzuki Motor Corp.

"But on the Web, people want a richer and truly interactive experience. Through video, we can explain complex components, and we can pull product experience right through the screen."

Porsche Cars North America Inc. uses online video on product-specific sites. Porsche typically launches three to six such sites each year. The company is developing a site for the 2008 Cayenne GTS that will enable visitors to post their own videos and audio clips.

"Video allows us to create an emotional connection with our consumers," says David Pryor, Porsche's vice president of marketing. "We want it to be as immersive as possible."

Porsche also places streaming video on sites such as Plum Network, an online cable TV and video-on-demand network. Plum serves such affluent local markets as Aspen, Colo., the Hamptons on New York's Long Island and Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

Last year, Porsche created a group of videos called "The Porsche Performance Series" to launch the 2007 Cayenne Turbo S. The videos included highlights of auto races and marketing events.

"We aren't selling toasters; we are selling exciting products," Pryor says. "It's very hard to communicate that emotion with just text and pictures."