It would take 14 years to watch all 880,000 videos produced by dealers with the CitNow technology in the first nine months of the year. As the uploads to YouTube will attest (every 60 seconds 100 hours of content is added to this online site), video can be “engaging, easy and fun”, said CitNow commercial director Alistair Jeff.

Jeff said 42% of car buyers look at videos when searching – and 96% will have a positive view of a brand via video and 87% say video will have a positive impact on buying a car.

“Consumers are taking control of the sale. Showroom traffic is declining, 50% of enquiries are by telephone, email or chat. Average email conversion is less than 10%, telephone less than 10%. It isn’t a positive story if you’re a salesperson. Traditional sales techniques are being challenged, so how do you address this? Video is one way.”

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However, he said, fewer than 3% of dealers had put video on their used car locator pages, for example.

Dealer group Peter Vardy is one of those that has. In its used car search pages it also has a ‘request a video’ button. “This allows the consumer to get an answer to a personal query – how big is the boot, show me the alloy wheel damage.”

Jeff showed a number of examples of videos produced by dealers using CitNow, promoting sales events (Brazilian sales event in a tie-in with the World Cup), introducing sales staff and confirming appointments, F&I upsell, pre-handover teasers and handovers/reveal and workshop work requirements. The latter had 265 views on social media.

Gordon Grant, CitNow sales director, said: “None of these are of MGM standard, but it doesn’t matter. This is about personalisation and emotionally engaging with the consumer.”