For those of you who didn’t catch that Eminem #madeindetroit reference, Digital Dealer is upon us once again, this time in Vegas. I’m not sure if the frequency of this event sneaks up on you as quickly as it does for me, a marketer in the industry, but ’tis the beginning of the Q4 event season and you are probably figuring out which events are worth your while. Car sales are slowing down, 2018 planning is in full force, and we are all expected to pause and think about what new trends to stay in front of, which new technologies to invest in, and which best new practices to adopt. DD23 is just the place to consider it all. And let’s be honest, Vegas is the place where people go to make decisions, good or bad. Based on the rooms at the Paris hotel, I get the sense that maybe a few more bad decisions have been made there.
Shameless Plug
Hopefully one of your first decisions will be to stop by DealerSocket Booth #601. It’s been an interesting year for Team DealerSocket. We as an organization have been taking a hard look at our own customer experience. We’ve recently undergone an internal audit of our people, processes, and technologies, and have re-committed to putting both our customer and our customer’s customer at the center of everything we do. I implore you to stop by and talk to the team to learn more about our white-glove philosophy.
DealerFire, What?!?!
The last two weeks in digital marketing have been abuzz with activity. We are fresh off back-to-back regional events in California — one in Mountain View at the Googleplex and the other in San Diego at the swanky Pendry hotel — named simply DealerFire Academy. We hosted groups of 50 attendees at each and focused our curriculum on digital marketing trends, digital retail and marketing, and digital advertising how-to’s with an emphasis on our digital product offering, DealerFire and CRM. We even had a couple Google experts come and talk to our guests about the latest car buying data and video content. These events were the perfect launchpad for an exciting, new brand refresh that we will introduce at DD23. It’s not all marketing mumbo-jumbo either, folks. The DealerFire product lineup has undergone some serious upgrades since joining the DealerSocket fam two-plus years ago. Improved page performance, sleek new templates, improved and increased integration points are just a few of the highlights, and we are ready to show the world how much we’ve grown. Fly, young grasshopper, fly!
Giveaways
If for nothing else, we are known to give out the best swag in the business. Consider this your semi-annual spoiler alert on the goodies you can score. First of all, if you request a demo ahead of time, we’ll hook you up with a Starbucks gift card. Of course, you have to actually do the demo to claim the prize, but it’s free Starbucks! After you claim your gift card, we’ll also hook you up with an oh-so-soft DealerFire vintage tee and a nifty fidget spinner that you can bring home to your kids or keep at your desk in case of a fidget emergency. In addition, we’ll have other big-ticket items as random giveaways throughout the event. Of course we’ll be bringing our plush flying animals that everyone loves as well as DealerSocket branded stationery — pens, journals, and field notes — that you can bring back to your team.
One More Thing
Last, but certainly not least, we are hosting a DD23 workshop! Co-hosted by Reuben Muinos Sr., Director of Business Development, and Cavan Robinson, OEM Product Manager, the session will cover beginning or expanding your digital advertising efforts for fixed ops at your store. We launched this session at DealerFire Academy to a lot of great feedback, so I encourage you to come to a class where you will actually learn something. Looking at the lineup of classes, I feel ours will be one-of-a-kind with this specific focus on fixed operations. It takes place on Tuesday, Sept. 19 at 10:05 a.m. in Versailles 3.
Alright Vegas, we’ll see what you have in store for us this year. Cheers to good decisions!