MARKETING
Greer takes top sales post at Automotive News |
Autobytel posts $2 million loss in Q1
Internet marketing services company Autobytel Inc. today reported a first-quarter net loss of $2.0 million compared with net income of $7.7 million in the first quarter last year after an expected drop in revenue. Revenue fell slightly to $20.7 million in the first quarter of 2008, compared with $21.9 million in the same period last year. [REG] 12:44 pm U.S. ET | May 8
Giving way to eBayI've always been skeptical about buying vehicles online, especially used vehicles. How trusting would you have to be to do that? And how many trusting people are around anymore? The answer may surprise you Edward Lapham is the executive editor of Automotive News. [SUB] 4:27 pm U.S. ET | May 6 |
AutoTrader.com makes big pitch to bump up new-vehicle salesA new advertising campaign by AutoTrader.com emphasizes new-vehicle sales at the automotive Web site. AutoTrader is devoting a “significant portion” of its $100 million annual marketing budget to the campaign, said CEO Chip Perry. The campaign encompasses TV and radio commercials, Internet ads and event marketing. [SUB] 12:01 am U.S. ET | May 5 |
Top auto execs to talk marketing at seminarTop marketing executives at General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Chrysler, Honda and Hyundai will discuss their companies' changing media choices at this year's Automotive News Marketing Seminar, May 28 in Los Angeles. 12:01 am U.S. ET | May 5 |
Ford gives dealers more co-op moneyFord Motor Co. is paying dealerships to boost local advertising. Beginning with vehicles purchased in April, the automaker's new Tier 3 cooperative advertising program gives Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealerships an extra half of a percentage point of each vehicle's wholesale price. [SUB] 12:01 am U.S. ET | April 28 |
Ex-actor Rubin lands a starring role in ad worldGerry Rubin wanted to be an actor. He studied acting at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago but decided he couldn't cut it. After graduating, Rubin was hired by the Leo Burnett ad agency, then went on to become president of Needham Harper. Winning the Honda account in 1986 was a coup for Rubin and his partner, Larry Postaer. And it was the start of a new agency: Rubin Postaer and Associates. [SUB] 12:01 am U.S. ET | April 28 |
C. Europe rally gets automakers' support
Automakers used the first Central Europe Rally as a marketing opportunity. Earlier this year, the traditional Dakar off-road endurance race from France to Africa was canceled due to terrorist threats. The event was replaced with a route in Hungary and Romania. [SUB] April 28 06:01 CET
Ford dealers like regional test-drive ads
Even though it has barely begun, Ford Motor Co. dealers want a word-of-mouth regional ad campaign to continue beyond its original two-month schedule. [SUB] 12:01 am U.S. ET | April 28
Subaru faces challenge in Toyota JV sports car
Subaru will be facing marketing opportunities as well as possible challenges when it starts selling the new sports car being jointly developed with Toyota. [REG] 12:01 am U.S. ET | April 25
GM offers free digital marketing package to dealers
General Motors is so determined to rev up its dealers' digital marketing that it is offering them a comprehensive package from the Cobalt Group -- for free. GM expects almost all of its dealers to sign up. The package is designed to drive more in-market shoppers -- those who intend to buy within 60 days -- to GM dealership Web sites and turn them into sales, says Mark Degnan, the automaker's director of local advertising and marketing. [SUB] 12:01 am U.S. ET | April 21
Ford plans $100M-plus F-150 launchFord Motor Co. will spend more than $100 million to market the revamped 2009 F-150 pickup. Ford marketing chief Jim Farley told Automotive News that the model-year launch budget is "in the same ballpark" as the spending allocated when the automaker introduced the current F-150 in 2003. [SUB] 12:01 am U.S. ET | April 21 |
Concert in the key of C-3POToyota wasn't tooting its own horn last week at the SAE World Congress in Detroit. It left that to one of its robots. Touting a project to develop robots that can replace people in some dangerous or boring jobs, Toyota showed off its trumpet-playing gizmo -- named, with typical Toyota whimsy, "Toyota Partner Robot." [SUB] 12:01 am U.S. ET | April 21 |
Farley: Ford's marketing team is ready to rollFord Motor Co. marketing chief Jim Farley says he has assembled his team of marketers. In March, former Ford personnel chief Joe Laymon said Ford continued to look for outside marketing talent even after hiring Farley from Toyota last fall. This month, Farley brought in Matt VanDyke, 35, from Lexus agency Team One in Los Angeles to become director of marketing communications for the Ford brand. [SUB] 12:01 am U.S. ET | April 21 |
Keeping the Alfa legend aliveAs the saying goes, if you have a finicky Italian car to fix, it makes sense to take it to a Scotsman. OK, so it's not a saying. All I know is that my recently acquired -- and mortally wounded -- 1974 Alfa Romeo Spider was in the care of one Stewart Sandeman, the Scottish proprietor of Alfa Performance Connection Mark Rechtin is Los Angeles bureau chief for Automotive News. [SUB] 3:29 pm U.S. ET | April 17 |
