Dealers, marketing professionals, and the media gather to learn about the latest Internet technologies and tools.
The theme of the latest instalment of Kijiji Autos DealerTalk event was “Dealership On-Demand: How to Create a Customer-Centric Plan to Thrive in 2019 and Beyond.” The event was held at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Ontario on Oct. 21.
The day began with a presentation by Leanne Kripp, Head of Autos, Kijiji. Kripp provided an an update on the Kijiji Autos platform, going into detail about how it has grow and changed since it was first launched a year ago.
Mindy Weinstein, President and CEO of Market MindShift (and a marketing professor) spoke about voice search and SEO, explaining how dealers should set up their websites, not only to be top of mind with search engines, but also with devices like Siri and Alexa.
Mathew Growden, Head of the Google Canada Auto Retail Team took to the stage to explain the current state of digital in Canada. He highlighted the fact that 93% of Canadians are connected to the Internet vs. 49% for the world in general, and 75% for our American neighbours.
Growden explained how the digital space is changing, and what dealers need to do in order to keep up.
Scott Neil, Senior Director of Commercial Business at Kijiji introduced the launch of a new product: Audience Engine. This Kijiji innovation uses artificial intelligence to help dealers target their ads more effectively. Audience Engine gathers data from Kijiji, Google and Facebook to predict what kind of vehicles individual consumers will be in the market for in the near future. It then drives those consumers to dealer websites with targeted ads.
Marc-Andre Lanciault, President of Amplio Numerique explained what dealers need to do in order to optimize their websites to attract more consumers, keep them engaged, and prevent frustration.
Entrepreneur, author and keynote speaker, Michel Falcon focused on the employer/employee relationship. He explained how his successful hospitality business takes a “people-first” approach, which means focusing on people and not profits. “Our core responsibility as business owners is to serve our customers as well as those who work within our organizations,” he told the audience.
Look for a full report in the next issue of Canadian AutoJournal.
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