F&I and Showroom, February 2014

Industry Trends Michael Boltons and Will Ferrells comedic chops helped Honda and Dodge dealers set new records at the end of 2013 By Stephanie Forshee A familiar face is sometimes all it takes to charm buyers into buying a product But when it came to 2013 sales who helped roll more vehicles singer Michael Bolton or comedian Will Ferrell Bolton was the face of the tonguein cheek Happy Honda Days campaign which launched in November The Grammy winning recording artist belted out some wintery hits over the holidays and caught the social media world by storm with the XOXOBolton campaign Across all social media platforms Facebook Twitter Instagram Vine etc Boltons Honda ballads generated 816 million impressions according to a Honda spokesperson On Twitter alone the XOXOBolton hashtag had nearly 2000 mentions by more than 1100 users It was very successful and wellreceived the Honda representative said noting that the campaign generated 135 million impressions for the automaker and its dealers And then there were the Dodge Durango ads featuring Ferrells Anchorman 14 F I and Showroom February 2014 character Ron Burgundy who was pushing cars as well as Anchorman 2 The Legend Continues The advertisements prompted a wild array of shenanigans Ferrell yelling at ballroom dancers fl inging eggs at a Durango or throwing packets of gum from the SUVs glove box and winning a staring contest with a horse Ferrells fi rst commercial aired in October Two months into the campaign Chrysler reported that total views for all of Dodges Ron Burgundy spots topped 21 million And according to a company spokesperson search volume for 2014 Durango spiked by 89 and 56 for Dodge Durango The manufacturer also received data from Edmunds com that showed shopping consideration increased 65 overall and 46 within the large SUV segment Purchase intent according to Edmunds com data rose 54 in the weeks after the campaign launched USA Today also reported that web interest for the Dodge Durango climbed 524 after the campaigns launch In December AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson told CNBC that the dealer group was seeing tremendous results from Ron Burgundys antics Then there are the Durangos sales fi gures which rose 48 in November 2013 vs the prior year 43 in December and 22 in January Honda sales as a whole were up by 19 in December compared to the same month one year ago However Novembers numbers were down by about 01 while January sales dropped by about 21 How much of those sales can be attributed to the comedic commercials An exact ROI is diffi cult to assess the carmakers said but both OEMs and in turn dealers reaped the benefi ts of their celebrity status We had our best December sales month ever and fi nished the year as our second best sales year on record said Hondas spokesperson November was also a record sales month Its hard to point to the commercials as the contributor but they defi nitely raised awareness of our holiday sales event Who Sold it Best A series of Dodge Durango commercials featuring actor Will Ferrell as Ron Anchorman Burgundy resulted in a signifi cant boost in sales Hondas XOXOBolton campaign featuring Grammy winning singer Michael Bolton generated 816 million impressions across all social media platforms COURTESY CHRYSLER LLC PHOTO COURTESY RPA