Posts by Tony

Chicago, IL – December 18, 2009 – Chicago Automobile Trade Association (CATA), which is the oldest and largest new-car dealership association in the nation announced today they went live this week with a newly redesigned DriveChicago.com. DriveChicago.com is a free online portal provided to CATA members to cultivate new and used shoppers, guide them through the selection process, and pass them to CATA member dealers. The new DriveChicago.com site features expanded content and tools to better help guide consumers through the car shopping experience. The redesign incorporates new colors and graphics and completely new navigational tools, but the most important
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Automotive Internet Media, Inc. recently teamed up with Google’s Wildfire social platform to enhance their already successful social media marketing package for the automotive industry. Automotive Internet Media’s team will continue to work with their clients to provide great online content and promotion, but will now leverage the Google Wildfire platform to achieve even greater results. Whether you are looking to build brand awareness, capture more leads, or amplify your dealership’s marketing reach, this solution will enhance your digital presence. “Our social media strategy combined with Google’s Wildfire platform puts our clients’ digital marketing on steroids,” said Tony French, President
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“Web 3.0 is here (mobile websites, real-time, video, GPS) and the ubiquitous shopper is empowered like never before. Dealers must breakthrough the patterns of communication that are defeating them and get on the same page with the customer, literally the same page.” TonyTony French is a Digital Marketing Expert, Sales Guru, Entrepreneur, Writer, Artist, Husband, Father & Dog Lover
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Mitch discusses industry changes in the past few years and what cars.com is doing in response. He also touches on the increased prevalence of mobile. TonyTony French is a Digital Marketing Expert, Sales Guru, Entrepreneur, Writer, Artist, Husband, Father & Dog Lover
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More and more car dealers are starting to truly grasp that the internet is the most powerful way to market their dealership and advertise their inventory. For years, dealerships would check the box. “Yep, I’ve got my inventory in Autotrader and Cars.com. I’ve got that internet thing all covered.” It used to be that progressive dealerships would venture outside that paradigm but now we see that most dealerships have to do more online to compete. There are many good products and services in the market to help dealers win the online consumer but when you boil it all down it comes down to very
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DriveChicago.com, the automotive portal owned and operated by the Chicago Automobile Trade Association (CATA), is partnering with Automotive Internet Media (AIM) to help CATA dealer members get more exposure to vehicle inventory and dealership websites. “Automotive portals are fantastic for helping auto shoppers find vehicles,” said Tony French, president of AIM. “DriveChicago.com is terrific for Chicagoland auto shoppers because they can see every dealership’s inventory without going back and forth between other sites. DriveChicago.com is provided free to CATA dealers and has become a clearinghouse for Chicago area automotive information.” Until now, DriveChicago.com worked like most other automotive portals. When
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Philanthropist and founder of Kentucky’s largest auto dealership, Sam Swope, died Tuesday, December 9th, surrounded by his family and friends. He was 88 years old. Swope bought his first small dealership in 1952, and turned it into the 69th largest auto group in the country. He was also a natural salesman, with the ability to turn all situations into wildly successful opportunities. In January 1959 when a propane truck exploded and burned down one of Swope’s Elizabethtown centers, he took a photo of all his cars lined up in front the rubble, and published it in a newspaper ad with
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