Advertising 2009 Model Cars
Automakers Introducing New Vehicles with Multimedia Websites
Sophisticated sites are using video, high-tech graphics, music, narration, specs and instant pricing to show more about 2009 auto technology than any other ad medium can.
It’s only April, but manufacturers are already introducing 2009 model cars with sophisticated website advertising. Stepped up television schedules will probably follow, but for the moment buyers can search the web for just about anything they want to know about the 2009 models.
The early 2009 lineup includes the Lincoln MKS, the Nissan Maxima, the Cadillac CTS-V, the Subaru Forester, the Honda Pilot and the Toyota Venza. According to their imagemakers, they’re all "all new."
The multimedia technologies demonstrated in their websites, like the auto engineering they are advertising, were just dreams a few years ago. They now suggest that the Internet must have been made for advertising cars.
Auto Websites Provide More Information Than Any Other Ad Medium
They use videos, close-up interior photos, text, music, narration, sound effects, moving 360-degree exterior and interior views of the vehicles, high-tech graphics, interactive pricing and vehicle specifications tables to show much more about the cars than can be shown in any other ad medium.
The real superiority of the websites is demonstrated when the sites include the television commercials developed for the cars, exposing how relatively little information is provided in a 30-second vehicle spot these days. Neither does the Internet have to sacrifice the emotional pitch that has made TV such a great car seller.
A prospective buyer can not actually touch the vehicle (or kick the tires) as he can in a showroom, but he probably gets more information from the site than he would from a salesperson, with more time and freedom to absorb the material.
Want to see Lincoln’s invisible keypad? A website video zeroes in on that spot and explains how the system works.
Viewers Can Build His Own Car With a Few Mouse Clicks
A particularly helpful website feature is the ability to see how a car looks in any of the exterior or interior colors offered by the manufacturer for that vehicle model. Just click and drag the color samples. The exterior choices for the 2009 Lincoln MKS, for instance, range from white suede to tuxedo black. Inside, they range from charcoal black to cashmere.
Want to see more than one view of the car? Just drag the mouse around the photo and off the car goes into a 360-degree spin, stopping anywhere the viewer wishes to take a closer look at it.
With a few mouse clicks, a viewer can even build his own car by examining all the options offered on a particular model, choosing the preferred ones. Within a few seconds he can have his dream car on the screen, along with the manufacturer’s suggested retail price for that combination.
Prospective Buyer Can Go to The Auto Showroom Armed with Information
The only thing missing is the salesman saying "let me talk to my sales manager." But that can wait until the customer arrives at the showroom, possibly equipped with as much information as the salesman has.
Some sites, particularly the Lincoln MKS site, are so busy they navigate very slowly and their text is too small to read easily. The website music choices won’t please everyone and a bit of change would help after a few minutes. But the vast amount of information is worth a few annoyances.
References: Lincoln.com, Cadillac.com, Nissan.com, Subaru.com, Toyota.com and Honda.com websites.
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