New car sales have gone through a severe decline over the past few months in most major markets. Many car dealerships have adopted an advertising reset during this period especially when mandatory lockdown restrictions were in place. They have either eliminated, or drastically reduced advertising spend over several months.

At iAuto, we’ve talked to a number of dealers and industry stakeholders and noted several observations during this period, mainly –

• Realization that more money than needed was being spent on advertising.
• Recognition that advertising alone cannot move the sales/market share needle.

Looking ahead to a return to normal (or “the new normal”), it is time to re-start and re-think advertising planning. Especially if you have reduced advertising spend.

The best practice approach for restarting advertising spend is to –

• Ramp up the spend slowly and track the return on advertising spend based on sales and share.
• Assess and optimize by changing your marketing mix (traditional media, digital, OTT etc.) impacts sales and share.
• Align advertising planning with your sales targets, incentives and market trends.