VEHICLE VIDEOS: EYE CANDY FOR INTERNET CUSTOMERS

February 3, 2007—Dealer Web site video products are hot, hot, hot at NADA this year. Dealer Specialties, Inc., Cincinnati, a division of Dominion Dealer Solutions, is premiering Vehicle Videos, or VeVos (shown), which use Flash technology to create a “walkaround” video experience on the Internet, basically a 30- to 60-second commercial, including music and voiceover, for individual vehicles. VeVos can be viewed online as part of the company’s Vehicle Manager tool or stored on a server and included in targeted e-mail campaigns.

Meanwhile, UnityWorks! Media, Edina, Minn., has a “one-stop” Web video marketing solution, the portal-based Video Marketing System. It lets online car shoppers view a dealer’s inventory through a full-motion “mini infomercial” video both on the store’s Web site and on third-party sites. The videos can be integrated into the dealer’s Internet advertising and marketing, including e-mail campaigns.

Also, IMN, provider of dealership e-newsletter service IMN Loyalty Driver, today launched Drive Live TV—series of video channels for dealer-to-customer communication. Each channel consists of two-minute segments that offer comprehensive overviews of numerous vehicle models—highlighting features and benefits, styling, driving dynamics, safety, and more, says IMN. “Today’s consumers increasingly turn to videos for sales information,” says IMN marketing vice president Jo Ellen Collins. “We need to use the media they’re most comfortable with to keep them engaged.”