Are mobile ads actually selling cars? Can marketers track back and deliver ROI and other metrics? Those were the key questions Elgin Kim had for a panel of auto industry marketing execs at the OMMA Mobile show in Los Angeles.

 

“I don’t really know where you’re going with that,� said Mike Sage, VP, Sage Auto Group. “All we’re trying to do is get to young ladies like Tiffany on her phone. It’s a matter of having her come to Universal before going to another dealership. For us it’s all about the call to action. The content comes from manufacturers.�

 

Hyperfactory’s Daniel Blackburn had a more concrete answer, saying that he knows from dealer feedback that mobile contributed significantly to moving some 3,000 units of a particular line of Jaguars. He said that one of the major hurdles to mobile effectiveness is the lack of geo-targeting capabilities, which we know will soon be a standard requirement in all smartphones. “GPS enabled targeting is really where we want to go,� he said. “We’ll spend the money; it’s just a matter of where.�

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