30-second summary:
- ClickZ and SEW hosted a virtual briefing, The Impact of COVID-19 on the Automotive Industry & Marketing with Trevor Hettesheimer, Manager, KPI’s, Analytics, Search & Planning at Volvo.
- There has been a sharp drop in automotive sales compared to the 2020 forecast in January, which predicted 16.8 million in total sales and 13.4 million in retail sales.
- As a result of nationwide shutdowns combined with an oil price war, automotive industry sales were down 41% in March 2020 compared with the previous year.
- To help mitigate the impact on its business, Volvo took inventory of their U.S. dealerships and assessed who could remain open for sales and service.
- They then assessed what dealers could do business online and brainstormed ways they could safely deliver cars or allow consumers in lockdown to have their cars serviced.
- Hettesheimer noted that the most significant drop in sales would likely be April at 60-80% below what was initially forecasted at the start of 2020.
- Based on the pre-virus forecast, Volvo decided to cut all planned media spend for April and May, except for paid search which is based on consumer intent. They audited their ad copy and messaging to ensure it made sense in the current business climate.
- Volvo is constantly monitoring the state of the economic recovery across the U.S to inform when they decide to relaunch their advertising.
- Hettesheimer summarizes four key steps that businesses can use to inform their marketing decisions: take inventory, review all messaging and adjust as appropriate, capture demand with search marketing, and take note of changing search behaviours and tailor content accordingly.
We recently hosted a virtual briefing as part of our new Peer Network series on the impact of COVID-19 on the automotive industry