Phil Zelinger - AdAgencyOnline.Net Automotive Advertising  

In today’s troubled auto industry the need to leverage resources across multiple channels is the solution to many shared problems.  AdAgencyOnline.Net is in the unique position to link them all together on their free automotive advertising resource / networking portal.  Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C., (AAOL), – a national network of independent automotive advertising agencies, production partners and select auto industry vendors – and the host of http://AdAgencyOnline.Net  has found a way to “blur the line between the real and the virtual world” for automobile dealerships and their automotive advertising agencies that are struggling to survive in today’s challenging economy.  The solution lies in the ability for AAOL to integrate real world selling process with Internet based applications through their representation of automotive advertising technology vendors as well as their access to venture capital firms and commercial real estate companies focused on the auto industry.

A diverse group of vendor applications have been featured on AdAgencyOnline.Net as “preferred automotive advertising vendors” linked through the portal.  More importantly, a growing number have engaged AAOL to represent them in a variety of matters ranging from formal reseller agreements to acting as their agency of record.  Some of the more noteworthy automotive advertising vendor clients of AAOL are EveryCarListed.Com, SiSTeR Technologies - Video CarLot, Argistics – AutoTransaXion, Bulldog Marketing Technologies, CityTwist.Com and DealMaker.Com. 

The venture capital sector represented by AAOL includes New Wave Automotive, LLC, (N.W.A.), - a general partnership made up of a group of diversity investors and dealer operators.  N.W.A. is headed by Maceo Sloan, Hal Howard and Don Pollock.  The group is already in the process of reviewing potential site acquisitions through several O.E.Ms anxious to liquidate some of their real estate as well as individual auto dealers in urgent need of working capital and operational support.

The commercial real estate resources represented by Philip Zelinger include an international firm – Colliers Abood Wood-Fay Real Estate – and their newly formed auto industry facing division Colliers Automotive Real Estate Services, (C.A.R.S.).  Mr. Zelinger has enjoyed a twenty five plus year relationship with Michael Fay and Tom Wood, two principals of the company, which has survived to mature into today’s shared opportunities in evaluating existing auto dealership facilities with a “highest and best use” philosophy based on the diverse pool of International investors and user/investors represented by C.A.R.S..

Additional resources available to AAOL include their new affiliated office, Market Acceleration Partners, (M.A.P.).  This joint venture partnership is headed by Philip Zelinger, Joseph Grieshop and Rick White who joined together to provide market evaluations and to augment senior management services for their shared auto dealer and vendor clients.

All of the new resources linked through AAOL and their online networking community, http://adagencyonline.net , are joined by the original network of independent automotive advertising agencies and production partners that was formed by Philip Zelinger in December of 2001.  The online communication distribution system developed by Philip Zelinger was originally designed as the “ultimate outsourcing tool” for automotive advertising agencies.  The business model allowed independent automotive advertising agencies to leverage their resources to compete on the national stage with much larger individual automotive advertising agencies.  Philip extended his focus to include vendors and real estate in response to the changing auto industry.  “The consolidation in the auto industry as a result of reducing sales and margins from the O.E.M to the retail distribution channel has opened opportunities that only exist when a market is in stress.  The problems for many often provide the solutions for the few that recognize it as the opportunity to replace the status quo.” explained Mr. Zelinger.

Many of the vendors represented by AAOL and featured on AdAgencyOnline.Net have been reviewed on the blog talk radio station hosted on AdAgencyOnline.Net – WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The Time.  WAAOL interviews decision makers from the automotive advertising industry on blog talk radio shows including “Lunch With Phil Discussing Automotive Advertising, “Lunch With Ralph Discussing Automotive Advertising” and “Automotive Advertising Experts.”  The shows run on the site Monday through Friday between 12:00 Noon and 12:30 PM EST and they have attracted a growing audience of auto industry insiders who accept call ins to the shows in a problem solution format to share best practices.

Automotive advertising agencies that wish to join Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. as an affiliated office, or automotive advertising vendors that would like to be featured as a preferred automotive advertising vendor on http://AdAgencyOnline.Net should contact Philip Zelinger directly at 888-796-2228 or email him at pzads@bellsouth.net .  Automotive advertising vendors or auto dealers who would like to hire AAOL to represent them can access Philip through AdAgencyOnline.Net and request a free automotive advertising consultation.  To quote Philip Zelinger, “Help is only a click away!” ###

AdAgencyOnline.Net is a free automotive advertising resource / networking portal that shares best practices with their online audience of automotive advertising agencies, auto dealers and auto industry insiders.  The automotive advertising experts that support the site are building the next entrance onto the Internet Super Highway to help a struggling auto industry.  The blog talk radio station featured on AdAgencyOnline.Net – WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The Time – is attracting a growing list of cutting edge automotive advertising vendors with new applications that promise to “blur the line between the real and the virtual auto dealership.”   This week’s “Automotive Advertising Experts” show laid out the design for the next generation of Web 2.0 that earned the title “Web 3.0” by those in the know! 

Current wisdom suggests that auto dealers need to direct traffic to their "virtual showrooms" through conventional advertising and/or online investments in S.E.M or enhanced organic S.E.O. efforts. The idea is founded on the fact that almost 90% of today's car shoppers go to the World Wide Web to get enough information to purchase a vehicle before they visit a "real world" dealership to test drive and buy one.

An inventory based websites featured as a “preferred automotive advertising vendors” on AdAgencyOnline.Net, EveryCarListed.Com, (ECL), has provided a leveraged resource for auto dealers who know that they need to sell new cars and used cars on the World Wide Web but they don't have the resources or knowledge to do it competitively on their own.  Fortunately, there is strength in numbers and http://everycarlisted.com/ posts millions of vehicles from thousands of like- minded auto dealers anxious to deal with many more millions of customers looking for their best deal to buy a new or used car, to join the online community to sell their car with a free "for sale by owner" listing or to participate in the blog hosted by ECL. 

The power of this central information resource and two way interaction between buyers and sellers anchored by ECL proves that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts.  The result has been the explosive growth of EveryCarListed.Com and the success that the participating auto dealers have enjoyed.

The power of the people and information on the World Wide Web is half of the solution to jump starting the auto industry, but the other half relies on the developing technologies that are designed to allow easy access onto the Internet Super Highway for both buyers and sellers.  That problem was initially addressed by the use of "conversion tools" placed on individual auto dealership websites to transfer Internet shoppers to a real world engagement with online selling processes.  The solution started with "pop up" offers functioning as lead generators tied to emails offering car buyers "bribes" in the form of coupons or promises to provide the "best price" or trade-in values etc. if the customer just jumped through one more hoop. Those actions were seen as road blocks to a growing number of online customers who wanted to stay behind their glass wall just a little longer.  The "disconnect" allowed customers to continue down the Internet Super Highway to another virtual dealership until they got the information they needed - or at least wanted.

That experience developed the use of "chat programs" that were eventually linked to "click to call" escalations to keep the dialogue going and the evolution of Web 2.0 continued to improve sales drawn from the virtual to the real world. Not a bad idea, but these processes still required a "disconnect" since most chats or click to call programs were designed to simply make an appointment to visit the dealership to get any meaningful information and they proved to be less effective that promised.

The next step was to develop some "push/pull" functions in the chat programs to allow the customer to be directed to information on the site.  Once again, the bounce rate evidenced that most customers still needed some time to land themselves on a vehicle - even though it was often the wrong one - and online transactions tools were developed to fill in some of the holes.

So far - so good, but most of these online transaction tools were simply automated forms that lacked the personality and personal attention that is the true "differentiator" of the real world vs. the virtual one and the glass wall still stood in the way of the sale. In response, "transparency" became the buzz word in the auto industry and the solution to crashing through the glass wall was to figure out how to give customers the information that they wanted, when they wanted it and to still allow a personal connection to develop a "relationship" based transaction to mature into a deal in either the real or the virtual world.

The next step in the evolution of online selling processes came when someone connected the dots of video, S.E.O. and a real time customer interaction platform through a combination of all of the lessons already learned. The solution became possible when Google realized that customers preferred watching a video describing a vehicle over reading a vehicle description on a website, or even flipping through two dozen pictures, so they started prioritizing videos when developing their search engine algorithms and protocols.

Technology kicked in with an automated video production application by another preferred automotive advertising vendor on AdAgencyOnline.Net, SiSTeR Technologies Video CarLot, (VCL).  VCL embeds the same search word and meta tag information in a video as a website in a scalable application that can produce hundreds of thousands of videos in a day pushed through a dedicated API with You Tube to dominate the search engines and virtually guarantee a number one position in local searches drilled down to a specific vehicle rather than to a dealer. That application was enhanced when they made the videos interactive with multi schema layers within the video linked to everything from CarFax reports to custom micro sites capable of bypassing the need to go back up the sales funnel to a website to get the information on the chosen vehicle.  VCL is even able to automatically select group of like vehicles from the originating dealer’s online inventory to offer the online shopper some relevant choices.  As a result, the transparency of the information for the customer was greatly improved and VCL has taken off as the number one video production platform on the World Wide Web.

The glass wall finally came crashing down when VCL was introduced to another preferred automotive advertising vendor on AdAgencyOnline.Net and vendor client of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C., Argistics, and their “AutoTransaXion” solution.  AutoTransaXion is a customer interaction program built on a two way video "chat" program with complete push/pull capabilities that allows a simple click to engage a real time VOIP conversation with a real world smiling salesperson.  The platform is linked to the dealer's DMS and CRM tools, allowing the salesperson to desk the deal and push the "first pencil" along with anything that could be passed across a real world desk to be pushed through a virtual world showroom.

The final solution lies in the fact that there is no longer any disconnect to an email, a phone call or even a "hold on a minute while I go check with my manager" to answer any question that a customer may ask even before they have to ask it! Auto Nation Direct has already shared this vision with Argistics to accommodate a complete online transaction handled by their centralized BDC to sell their vehicles online and have their real world dealerships handle the delivery since everything is pushed directly to each stores CRM and DMS system. Sonic has already applied SiSTeR Technologies Video CarLot to all of their stores and all three Domestic O.E.M.s have allowed SiSTeR to produce and distribute their entire C.P.O.V. inventory onto the search engines as well as to post their inventories on ECL.

EveryCarListed.Com has already arranged to further enhance the value of their resources by combining the leverage of their inventory and online presence with SiSTer Technologies to include their videos as part of their enhanced dealer marketing packages.   More importantly, they have proven their commitment to stay ahead of the competition for both auto dealers and consumers that rely on their site to provide the most transparent experience possible and they have committed to integrate state of the art processes as they are developed.

Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C., (AAOL), and host of the blog talk radio shows on AdAgencyOnline.Net, suggests that Web 3.0 may begin when all of these applications merge onto the real world.  Philip envisions that the next step might be for EveryCarListed.Com to install kiosks hosted by AutoTransaXion in area malls, credit unions and independent service centers to develop a virtual auto dealership with a remote sales and service center staffed by a smiling sales person or service writer standing by to answer their questions and take their orders. 

Philip commented on his blog posts on AdAgencyOnline.Net that he recognizes that many customers will still want to test drive the vehicle.  His reply to that issue was, “When the online customers eventually visit the auto dealership to test drive the vehicle and take delivery, what if the entire transaction was already stored in the F&I office, their vehicle was cleaned and up front for a final inspection while the dealership confirmed that the pictures and description of the trade-in was accurate and they walked in with a printed buyers order that had the picture of the vehicle, the salesperson and a map with directions to the dealership along with the confirmed appointment date and time created by EveryCarListed.Com?  Who knows, it could happen!”

Of course the story never ends, but then again - neither do the solutions. Many new ideas are already in beta testing by these forward thinking vendors and several others represented by AAOL and/or featured on http://adagencyonline.net.  The site is constantly reviewing cutting edge automotive advertising applications for more visionary vendor clients for AAOL - like EveryCarListed.Com, SiSTer Technologies and Argistics – including DealMaker.Com, Bulldog Marketing Technologies and CityTwist.Com.

Automotive advertising agencies have always relied on technology to maximize the R.O.I. for their auto dealer client’s automotive advertising dollars and change has always carried the auto industry through tough times.  Learning from experience is the key to the future and the World Wide Web is definitely part of the future for the auto industry.   The end game of a website is to convert to a sale or a service appointment - and that can be done in an online community like EveryCarListed.Com using cutting edge technologies and leveraged resources provided by SiSTeR Technologies and Argistics without having to first go to the real world showroom or to surf the web to find some local auto dealership websites that are willing to deal with a customer the way that they deserve and demand to be treated.

For additional information on AAOL or any of the automotive advertising vendors that they represent, automotive advertising agencies, auto dealers and auto industry decision makers are invited to visit http://adagencyonline.net, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/adagencyonline or to contact Philip directly at 1-888-796-2228 or email him at pzads@bellsouth.net .  To quote Philip, “Help is only a click away!” ### 

Automotive advertising agencies have learned to leverage their resources through auto industry social networking sites like http://adagencyonline.net .  The online resource portal reviews cutting edge automotive advertising applications and shares best practices with site visitors through links to “preferred automotive advertising vendors” posted on the site as well as through blog talk radio shows featured on the site’s online station – WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The Time.

Philip Zelinger, the President of Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. and host of the blog talk radio shows on AdAgencyOnline.Net, has interviewed a number of decision makers for a variety of preferred automotive advertising vendors.  Many of the vendors that were reviewed and then featured on AdAgencyOnline.Net have also engaged AAOL to represent them, including Argistics - AutoTransaXion, SiSTeR Technologies – Video CarLot, Bulldog Marketing Technologies, CityTwist.Com, DealMaker.Com and EveryCarListed.Com.  These applications represent online selling processes that replicate those in the real world showrooms.  They cover everything from the “meeting and greeting” introduced online by the customer interaction platform – AutoTransaXion - presented by Argistics, to conversion and product presentation tools such as Video CarLot, to direct market selling and follow up processes like Bulldog Marketing Technologies and CityTwist and leveraged 3^rd party inventory marketing sites to find new customers such as EveryCarListed.Com.

Philip recently posted an article on the importance of technology and the Internet in today’s automotive advertising industry on the blog site hosted by EveryCarListed.Com, http://blog.everycarlisted.com/2009/03/26/technology-links-online-selling-processes-to-real-world-auto-dealerships/ .  “I invested 25 plus years as a General Manager and Dealer Principal in the retail auto industry.  My "generation" placed our priority in people and product over technology driven selling processes.  The Internet was at "dial up" speed and our DMS was limited to an in-house server with basic applications focused on producing a  P&L that linked sales, service and parts for a monthly recap to see what happened, not to determine what should be happening in our day to day operations let alone as a platform to help us sell or service more vehicles and improve our profits.”

“We recognized that people like to do business with people that they like so we built our business and relationships from within by maturing, training and most importantly retaining our key staff and customers.  The Internet, coupled with a change - real or imagined, in the work ethic of  our staff has changed the way that today's auto dealerships do business.  More accurately, it has changed the way that our customers do business so auto dealerships and their automotive advertising agencies are being forced to lead, follow or get out of their way if they want to survive in today's Internet and technology driven auto industry!”

“The good news is that the phrase that "you can't teach and old dog new tricks" did not apply to me and mine and we found our way onto the World Wide Web.  If anything, the philosophy that you shouldn't "throw the baby out with the bath water" gave us old school car guys/gals an advantage over this generation's technology focused auto dealers since we kept the relationship part of our selling processes but we enhanced them with today's more efficient applications and technologies developed to travel on the Internet Super Highway!” 

“In today's auto industry shared Internet based inventory marketing platforms like EveryCarListed.Com, (ECL), provide a leveraged automotive advertising tool that we could only dream about when I first got into the automobile business.  If an auto dealer wanted to sell a new car, a used car or even to attract someone into our parts or service department we had to write a check to a radio or T.V. station or "bend over" for an annual contract with the local newspaper to get a competitive rate to place an ad.  Tent sales were one way to provide customers with a "one stop shopping experience" but that solution was temporary at best and it cut us off from our future service business.  Auto malls were developed to share expenses and allow customers to compare different makes and models in one trip but the rising costs of real estate and shrinking profit margins have turned many of those operations into malls or high rise condominiums.”

“The solutions provided by sites like www.everycarlisted.com are both cost effective and relevant to today's car shoppers and auto dealers on many levels.  The free listings of new cars, used cars and C.P.O.V. vehicles for auto dealers are their core product/service but frankly their true differentiator is in their support of services like this blog forum and the ability for individuals to list their car for sale for free along with the auto dealerships.”

“Additional information on ECL through upgraded packages offered to auto dealers in both the virtual and the real world coupled with integrated conversion tools and pending video applications are just the tip of the iceberg and I am anxious to represent them and theirs to me and mine through my advertising agency, Ad Agency Online, L.L.C., on our free automotive advertising networking portal - http://adagencyonline.net and on my blog talk radio station - WAAOL, All Automotive Advertising News All The Time , http://www.blogtalkradio.com/adagencyonline - as their business model matures.  Information is the most valued asset on the Internet and ECL provides a lot of it!”

Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. is a national network of independent affiliated automotive advertising agencies headed by Philip Zelinger that supports AdAgencyOnline.Net.  Automotive advertising agencies and auto industry focused vendors are invited to join the online networking community by contacting Philip Zelinger directly at 1-888-796-228 or via email at pzads@bellsouth.net .  Auto dealers that would like to listen and learn from the automotive advertising experts interviewed on the portal’s blog talk radio shows can visit http://adagencyonline.net or http://www.blogtalkradio.com/adagencyonline .  To quote Philip Zelinger, “Help is only a click away!” ###