Car Dealer Infomercials

[The Big Ear]

Sometime around lunch time I flipped around and WSAZ had Olympics. WCHS and WOWK had the SAME Dutch Miller infomercial and Ch 9 (the CW?) on Comcast had a different Dutch Miller infomercial.

That must cost Dutch Miller a bunch of cash. Talk about saturating the market with your ads!

Do other markets have the entire 30 minute infomercial for car dealers - (complete with the bad skits/bad acting)? I've seen real estate shows listing local homes like that years ago, but it seems pretty expensive seeing as how I don't think dealers are making quite the killing on each vehicle that they used to.

I was just amazed at how they blanketed the channels. I suppose if WSAZ didn't have the Olympics, they'd have run the car ads too.

Which begs the question - outside of not being able to show the cars, why don't they buy big chunks of radio on local stations as well? You could describe the cars and expound on the virtues of your dealership, etc.

Where's Billy Mays when you need him?

[genlock]

Some car dealership from Logan, WV had 30 minute commercials for some time.
Complete with showgirls imported from the Charlotte area.
Probably a violation of the Mann Act.

This might be part of a trade-out for station vehicles.

[genlock]

WSAZ might have had the same show on MyZ.

[Clay JD Walker]

Here in Greensboro, every morning Battleground Kia is on the local CW or My, can't remember...there's a couple of others on the My later in the morning. I'm just happy that the hot chick that I used to watch hocking Patrick Street Dodge (or one of those...can't recall now) is on with another dealer here in the Triad...what a great way to wake up...hahaha.

But, your answer...yes, those infomercials are saturated all over the place...apparently they really do work well.

[cgarison]

Here in Greensboro, every morning Battleground Kia is on the local CW or My, can't remember...there's a couple of others on the My later in the morning. I'm just happy that the hot chick that I used to watch hocking Patrick Street Dodge (or one of those...can't recall now) is on with another dealer here in the Triad...what a great way to wake up...hahaha.

But, your answer...yes, those infomercials are saturated all over the place...apparently they really do work well.

Yep. Same here in Philly. At least three dealers in town have infomercials, plus the Big 2.5 automakers own On-Demand content on Comcast.

[Dr. Whiplash]

It does seem odd that these programs have grown as they have. Ricart is all over the Columbus stations, too (and although this is faint praise, the Dutch dudes are considerably more tolerable than Fred's boys). What are the economics here? Has buying a half-hour on the tube become cheaper? Are these shows really bringing in that many new customers? Something changed - such shows were not common two years ago - now they're everywhere every weekend.

[Big Media]

Co-op. 60% or more of the cost of those ads are paid for by the GMs and Toyotas of the world.

What ever happened to the Logan Shitzuki chicks anyway?

[oldtvman2]

back in the old days of radio Heiners Bakery had spots running on all ALL local radio stations at 4:59pm. so no matter which one you were tuned to you heard their spot. and the time had to be exact. of course there were only four stations at that time. this was either in the 50's or 80's

[Dr. Whiplash]

Co-op. 60% or more of the cost of those ads are paid for by the GMs and Toyotas of the world.

To sell USED cars? Just askin'.

[Dave Allen]

Here's what happened with Logan Motor Sales. You had an old Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealership here that added Suzuki a couple of years ago. The owners sold out a few years ago when the started to notice how bad Chrysler, etc sucked, plus they wanted to concentrate on their three motorcycle/ATV dealerships since that's where the money is here in these parts. They sold out to some rich guy from Charleston who did not want to be known as a Logan dealership so he refocused their imaging. I would have no problem with that (Thornhill Ford and GM did this and both have led the state is various categories in the past) but you don't forget about your local market, which is what Logan Motor did. They hired an agency to handle everything for them, including the God-awful Suzuki girls. Those girls just go from dealership to dealership that are represented by the agency. Logan Motor's Suzuki sales are decent, but as of Thursday that had not sold one new Chrysler/Dodge or Jeep in August. I presume they have dropped the agency and the girls. Now Chrysler is threatening to pull their franchise. Smart move, dropping that local focus, huh? Sounds a lot like some radio stations I know.

[GlenBrannon1]

back in the old days of radio Heiners Bakery had spots running on all ALL local radio stations at 4:59pm. so no matter which one you were tuned to you heard their spot. and the time had to be exact. of course there were only four stations at that time. this was either in the 50's or 80'sREV.

20+ years later, I can still hear the famous Heiner's jingle. Talk about effective!