Ruth’s car was stolen and she dreaded buying a new one. Edmunds.com gave her all the confidence she needed with car reviews, TMV pricing, and easy-to-use dealer quotes to buy a new Honda Civic from Rick Case Honda in Davie, Florida. This is her story.

April 11, 2013 — DAVIE, Florida - Richard Bustillo, General Manager of Rick Case Honda, the World’s Largest Full Line Honda Dealership, will be leading a panel discussion at the Automotive Leadership Roundtable (ALR) on Monday, April 15, 2013, at the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach, Florida. This is the second consecutive year Mr. Bustillo was selected to speak at ALR, an annual conference of leading automotive management executives.

Serving as General Manager of Rick Case Honda for the past five years, Richard Bustillo’s leadership of the dealership’s authorized Sales, Service and Parts operations has helped the Davie-based location earn American Honda’s highest honor, the President’s Award, on five consecutive occasions — the only Honda volume dealer in America to earn this distinction.

His strategies and tactics have propelled Rick Case Honda to set numerous sales records. They have also guided the Service Department to achieve best-in-class customer satisfaction scores, while cultivating a Genuine Honda Parts business that’s thrived throughout his tenure.

Now, Mr. Bustillo plans to share his some of his core management principles at Automotive Leadership Roundtable 2013. Amongst other topics – such as digital marketing and organizational leadership – Richard’s One Dealership Philosophy will be a main talking point.

“A cornerstone of the One Dealership Philosophy is ensuring all departments work together to provide each customer with a consistent experience — every time they visit. Regardless of if they’re interacting with Sales, Service or Parts departments, dealers must always deliver valuable experiential and transactional benefits to create loyal customers,” Mr. Bustillo began.

“It sounds simple, or maybe even obvious, in theory,” he continued. “But when you’re developing unique buying propositions at a strategic level for each department, and then implementing various tactics in a way that must function cohesively throughout a large operation, there are innumerable challenges that can derail the One Dealership approach before you even realize its’ benefits.”

While Mr. Bustillo is gracious for the prominent role he’s been selected to at ALR 2013, his main focus is on delivering useful, actionable thoughts to a peer group whom he deeply respects. “I admire the reputations and results that many of my fellow ALR guests and panelists have cultivated for themselves. I look forward to yet another humbling opportunity to learn from them, while sharing tips and insights myself that help ALR attendees gain useful industry knowledge.”

I’m a big fan of Columbo, the TV series starring Peter Falk. But, that’s not what I’m going to write about this week. Instead, I’m going to interview Richard Bustillo, who used YouTube TrueView ads to double the monthly trade-in vehicles at Rick Case Honda, resulting in a 12x return on investment.

Bustillo worked his way up in the dealer world, starting as a salesman. He sold 26 cars in his first month, making more money that month than he’d made the previous year. After working at several dealerships and boosting their performances, Bustillo was invited by auto industry pioneers, Rick and Rita Case to be the General Manager for Rick Case Honda.

Rick Case Honda has a 600,000 square-foot facility in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area that houses 1,500 new Hondas. The facility includes not only a showroom, but also a state-of-the-art collision center, a gas station, a County Clerk’s Office, and even a barber shop. Yet, Bustillo still saw opportunities to improve the store.

Since April 2008, Bustillo has helped Rick Case Honda generate record breaking sales, despite the tough economy. Much of this is attributed to an emphasis on cross-functional integration, on valued customer experiences, and on Bustillo’s push for Rick Case Honda to adopt better digital and video marketing strategies.

‘You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out’

In 2011, Bustillo attended the Automotive Leadership Roundtable, where he was exposed to a variety of digital marketing strategies. After returning from the trip, Bustillo started Rick Case Honda on a paid search strategy, before incorporating online video, reputation management, and social media. The marketing team soon found that video advertising converted four times as much as other advertising strategies.

After his early success, Bustillo was asked to speak at a number of automotive marketing conferences. He then met AJ LeBlanc, Managing Partner of Car-mercial.com, who told Bustillo about their unique and scalable video production offerings. Bustillo had already worked with a handful of video vendors and also produced video in-house, but realized Car-mercial.com’s video production capabilities were completely different, and offered an opportunity for growth.

In the fall of 2012, Bustillo and LeBlanc came up with the idea to create YouTube TrueView in-stream ads promoting the distinctive features of Honda to encourage trade-in. That same year, the 2012 Compete Google Automotive Shopping study discovered that 21 percent of vehicle shoppers find online video content about vehicle trade-ins useful for their research process. 

After launching the TrueView ads, the dealership doubled the number of trade-ins from a competing make from 10 per month to 20 per month. Rick Case Honda was now earning an incremental $50,000+ for online videos that cost $0.20 – $0.30 per view. Monthly unique site visitors had also increased by over 18 percent. Bustillo says, “That’s targeted video that you can tie back and figure out ROI… You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out!”

‘We’re only scratching the surface’

Despite Bustillo’s continued success with digital, he recognizes that “we’re not where we want to be yet — we’re still evolving. There’s so much we can do and we’re only scratching the surface.”

Moving forward, Bustillo and LeBlanc are looking to test more online video ideas, including launching Spanish videos, and finding ways to integrate more video content onto the Rick Case Honda website.

Bustillo also emphasizes the importance of his website as a critical component in ensuring the success of his online video campaigns. He says, “It is important to make sure your website is user-friendly to make sure that when video pre-roll sends traffic to your site, users engage with your brand and then come to your store. It’s all interconnected.”

He adds, “You gotta look at it all the way down the road. When you integrate every department… everyone benefits from video pre-roll… If you only look at it from metrics such as views, that’s very short-sighted. You have to open your eyes and look at everything, so that you can see the full benefit of what you can accomplish.”

‘Oh, uh, a few more questions for my story, sir.’

Using my best impression of Columbo’s investigative style, I thanked Richard Bustillo for his interview and turned to leave – only to turn back at the last second as if I’d suddenly remembered something. Then I politely said, “Oh, uh, a few more questions for my story, sir.”

GJ: Can you tell us why you partnered with Car-mercial.com?

RB: It wasn’t difficult to realize that Video was the next evolution in internet marketing.  We wanted to make sure we positioned ourselves with the best company in that space.  We felt Car-Mercial produced OEM quality videos that could convert and they did.

GJ: After launching the ads, were you surprised that the dealership doubled the number of trade-ins from a competing make from 10 per month to 20 per month?

RB: I was very surprised.  As a car dealer, we are always looking for ways to figure out our ROI.  After a few months with Car-mercial.com, we started to notice that an increase in our conquest trades.  That was track-able.  Now we knew we had ROI.

GJ: Rick Case Honda is earning an incremental $50,000+ a month from online videos that cost only $0.20 to $0.30 per view. How many views do you typically need before you get a trade-in?

RB: When you take into consideration every dollar generated from a trade in (i.e. reconditioning, sale, etc.) we make that and more.  What it costs to generate a trade in is another story.  It depends on the time of month, the models we’re targeting and the Honda incentives, which varies.

GJ: How do you know monthly unique visitors to your site have also increased by over 18 percent?

RB: That information is based on Google Analytics.  I know where everyone is coming from.  It’s a simple and fantastic way to get your data.

GJ: Based on your initial success, what do you plan to do next?

RB: I am just figuring out this Video SEO and Pre-roll.  Give me a couple of months and get back to me on that question.

Thanks, sir. Now, where did I park my car? There’s only three like it in the States. Oh, uh, I parked it in the shade because the sun ruins the paint.

A Benefit That Poses an Undeniable Challenge

This dramatic increase in Internet consumption by consumers has many implications for business. On one hand, more people with greater access to a robust web experience means our stores can be “open” and ready to serve all visitors 24/7. What business person doesn’t love that?
On the other hand, almost every business has recognized this increase in web consumption and launched a website — or 2, or 3, or 10.
This means we’re not only competing against other auto dealers for consumers’ attention, but in many ways, we’re also competing against every other website for attention from the same customers and prospects.
The overall effect is that consumer retention has gone down. With so much to discover and explore on the web, less and less gets remembered. And that’s just during the “surfing” aspect of web use.
Add the offers that Marketers flood the web with, and we now have a full-scale, 24/7 war on the Internet for the attention and business of US consumers.
So, how do you win?

Effectively Communicating Your Promises

With so much happening on the web, there’s one straightforward way to stand out and be remembered: your Brand.
In simplest terms, your “Brand”  is the promise(s) your business makes to the public – and “Branding” is how you communicate what your business stands for. People easily forget your current special offer or latest commercial, but we don’t often forget what others – people and businesses alike – promise us.
But how do you extend those promises – your Brand – on the web, in order to be remembered and attract business?
Below are some examples of how we do it at Rick Case Honda.
(And no, I’m not just talking about placing your logo or color scheme on your site and calling it a day. I’m talking about extending your Brand promises to your website in a tangible manner that people can interact with and benefit from.)

Ease of Use, Information and Customer Satisfaction that Resonates with Our Audience

Note: Visit RickCaseHonda.com to experience these examples yourself.

1. Homepage – One of our Brand promises at Rick Case Honda is that we’ll quickly help people find what they need or want in order to buy, lease, service or accessorize a Honda. In almost all cases, our customers simply want to save money. We recognize this, and have designed our website to help them easily do it.
As a result, our Homepage clearly displays links to calculate fuel economy savings on new Hondas, a special offer trade-in program for current Honda drivers, a “Quick Quote” form, and Service and Parts specials in the main slideshow.
Our web visitors not only use this functionality to easily learn about the money they can save with us, but this easy functionality also helps create an experience with our Brand that’s hard for them to forget: “Rick Case Honda knows I want to save, and their website easily helps me do it.”

2. Navigation Menu – Another Brand promise we make at Rick Case Honda is that we provide you with information to help you make the smartest decision for your needs. In almost every section of the top navigation bar on our website, you’ll find links to information that helps customers research and learn about our Rick Case Honda and our products and services.
Some examples are our Honda Vehicle Comparison, College Graduate Program, Military Assistance Program and Recall Check pages. Even our Finance Privacy Policy is available for visitors to read at any time.
Of course, our Navigation Menu includes substantial information on our inventory and specials. But that’s standard in the auto industry — what’s not standard is our willingness to go above and beyond in terms of the information we’ve made available to our online audience.

3. Customer Reviews – At Rick Case Honda, our motto is “Treat every customer like we would our best friend”. That’s also the most important promise we make as a Brand.
We use our website to showcase the results of that Brand promise by including real customer reviews in the black background area on the bottom of every webpage. No matter if you’re looking for new or pre-owned Hondas, Service, or Parts, you’ll see what other customers say about their experience with Rick Case Honda.
Publishing real customer reviews isn’t exclusive to Rick Case Honda, but how we execute this strategy on our website to directly align with our most important Brand promise is — and that’s why it effectively helps remember our commitment to their satisfaction.

It’s Not Easy, But it’s Worth it

For the better part of a decade, we’ve worked long and hard to make our entire digital presence – including our website – the best it could be. One of our goals has always been to provide a Brand experience on our website that’s consistent with our offline, in-store customer experience.
There were, and still are, many challenges to conquering the Internet auto marketing universe. But understanding key branding principles and how to extend them to your website will help you achieve online success.

The award is presented to Honda top-ranking dealerships across the country, based on their achievement of excellence in all areas of operation – customer service and satisfaction, sales, training, and facility. Only a few of the more than 1,000 Honda automobile dealerships won the President’s Award during 2012. The program award objectives are established annually to address the changing economic environment and to encourage dealerships to continually strive to achieve even higher levels of customer satisfaction.

“Since its inception in 1995, the President’s Award has been recognizing top dealers who are unwavering in their pursuit of excellence and customer care. The team members of Rick Case Honda have proven their dedication to their customers by achieving the rigorous standard established for this award,” said John Mendel. “We are extremely proud of the accomplishments of award-winning Rick Case Honda.”

Congratulations to Richard Bustillo and Team Members!

Marketers have long viewed Facebook as an online cocktail party — fine for socializing but weak for selling cars. Now that’s changing. Rick Case Honda and other dealerships are starting to take advantage of Facebook’s huge potential to reach customers on the users’ digital home turf, by putting ads directly into their customers’ news feeds.

Technical improvements introduced in September allow dealerships to take their customer lists — with just names and e-mail addresses — and find those people on Facebook. The “custom audience” feature allows dealerships to push ads directly to Facebook users’ news feeds, the must-see center column of the home page that consists of a constantly updated list of posts by a user’s Facebook friends. Facebook users are more likely to look at news-feed ads than those in the more common ad location, the right side of a Facebook page, the social media giant says.

“Facebook is starting to understand what we need to sell cars,” Bustillo said. In June at Rick Case Honda, an employee-pricing-for-all promotion on Facebook contributed to a strong month — 615 new vehicles sold — the most of any Honda store nationally for the month, Bustillo said. Facebook played a key role in the campaign’s success, he said. The store took its customer list with thousands of names and e-mail addresses and identified who were Facebook users. It then delivered to their news feeds the employee-pricing offer, Bustillo said.

Facebook also has improved the ability of dealerships and the factories to put promotional videos in front of car shoppers, Bustillo said. Facebook users are three to four times more likely to click on a video than a static ad, the company has found. Rick Case Honda in 2012 has sold 4,238 new Hondas through Oct. 23, the third most of any Honda store nationally, the dealership said. The knock on Facebook, from a marketer’s standpoint, is that although the huge social media site has been useful for automakers to promote brand awareness, it has been nearly irrelevant in the shopping process.

As recently as May, Dataium, a consulting company that monitors online vehicle shopping behavior, found that of 20 million visitors to dealership Web sites, just 120 arrived there directly from a Facebook link. Of that microscopic number, only a handful left contact information to become sales leads, Dataium found. On the other hand, automakers have been building huge banks of friends and sending them soft sells, such as sponsored stories, that talk about topics such as the environment without a direct pitch for vehicle sales. Jeep, for instance, has more than 2 million Facebook fans.

Viral advantages

In an interview last week, Doug Frisbie, Facebook’s head of automotive global marketing, said Facebook attained the technical capability to put ads on Facebook users’ news feeds in late January. Ads placed there are more than eight times more likely than ads on the right side of a user’s Facebook page to prompt a reader to comment on the item or actively “like” it, Frisbie said. Facebook refers to a user’s interaction with an ad or item as “engagement.” And advertisers are seeing 10 times greater recall from news-feed ads than from static ads, he said.

Bustillo said he likes the news-feed ads because the dealership pays for them only when Facebook users click on them. That’s similar to Google paid search. The ads also have the potential to go viral, Bustillo said. Each Facebook user has on average 130 friends, Facebook said. If a Facebook user shares an ad with friends, it has a multiplier effect of reaching people without additional cost to the dealership. The dealership pays for an ad only when the original audience clicks on it, Bustillo said.

Facebook declined to say how many dealerships or automakers have used the new capabilities to find their customers on Facebook or deliver ads to news feeds. The company is watching for backlash from its users, accustomed to conversing relatively free of advertising, to having ads placed in their news feeds. “We are carefully monitoring user engagement and sentiment,” Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in an earnings call last week. “We look at how users are engaging on our platform, and as we’ve increased the number of ads and news feed we’ve been careful — carefully monitoring that engagement.”

Joe Castle, dealer principal of Castle Chevrolet in suburban Chicago, has matched about 8,000 people on his 14,000-person customer list with their Facebook addresses. In the past three weeks, he sent to their Facebook news feeds an offer for them to buy one oil change and get one free. In the first two weeks, the campaign, which cost him about $500, generated about $12,000 in oil changes and other maintenance, Castle said. Castle Chevrolet pays Facebook about 60 cents when a customer targeted on Facebook clicks on the offer, he said. The store sold about 1,200 new vehicles in 2011.

“Facebook has really dialed it in,” said Castle, who also is founder of Socialdealer, a social media and reputation-management company for dealers. Facebook’s features to target shoppers are evolving, Frisbie said. Within a month, Facebook expects to pilot a program with R.L. Polk & Co. that will allow automakers and dealerships to use Polk’s huge database of owners to identify sales prospects, he said. “We’re talking about getting the right message at the right time in front of in-market shoppers,” Frisbie said.

Target Accord

Rick Case Honda expects to make heavy use of ads and video on Facebook news feeds next year to promote the redesigned 2013 Honda Accord sedan, Bustillo said. The store is waiting to launch the campaign until early next year, though the 2013s are available now, to leave time for the store to clear 2012 models still in stock, he said. When the campaign is rolled out, Bustillo said, he intends to shoot videos to potential customers through Facebook extolling the features of the sedan. Moreover, with the help of campaign consultant Tier10Marketing.com, the store will target Accord customers with equity in their cars so he can offer them a new Accord for the same or lower monthly payments, Bustillo said.

The targeting capability of Facebook makes it an economical media buy, he said. Rick Case Honda spends about 20 percent of a $250,000 monthly advertising budget on digital advertising. Bustillo said he gets his best return on investment on the $2,000 a month that he spends on Facebook ads. “I’m chomping at the bit to get started,” Bustillo said of the upcoming Accord campaign.

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