Owen Moon joins Car Guy Coffee to talk about his work in fixed-ops and dealership digital marketing, including how teams use search, video, and blockchain-based ad verification to reduce fraud and improve lead quality. They discuss scrubbing non-human traffic, targeting real households, and driving people from awareness into dealership websites where inventory and hiring info live. The conversation also touches on NCM event experiences—speaking, take-homes for dealers, and the conference’s growth in Kansas City.
In this special Series NCM Event Conversations we grabbed a few of our favorite guest to talk about their experiences and whats happening in our Industry. In this interview Lou Ramirez and Fred Lennartz speak with longtime friend and Fixed Ops Fridays co-host Owen Moon to talk about his latest startup, DealerStream, and why he jumped back into the trenches. Owen shares how his team is helping dealers use OTT/streaming video to build awareness and reach customers higher in the funnel, beyond VIN-focused ads and low-funnel tactics.
NCM Fixed Ops Summit, an experience built for leaders ready to elevate performance, profitability, and the customer journey through modern systems and by utilizing AI-driven innovation.
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"Obviously that was getting picked up on google and driving that organic traffic"
Organic traffic means people find the website through regular search results, not by clicking an ad. If you write helpful pages about car service, search engines can show them to people looking for that service.
Organic traffic is visitors who find a website through unpaid search results (like Google) rather than through ads. In automotive marketing, it often comes from content pages that match what car owners search for, such as service or parts topics.
"So we were doing some facebook
[124.4s] We were doing some paid search that was very specific to service"
Paid search is when you pay to show up in search results as an ad. For example, if someone searches for “oil change near me,” a business can pay to appear there.
Paid search refers to advertising where you pay for ads to appear in search engine results for specific keywords. When the speaker says it was “very specific to service,” they mean ads targeted to searches related to vehicle maintenance or repairs.
"they actually have built their demand side platform or they're how we build and operate and manage our campaigns"
A demand side platform is a tool that helps advertisers place ads across different websites and apps. Instead of negotiating one-by-one, it helps manage ad buying in a more automated way.
A demand side platform (DSP) is software used by advertisers to buy digital ad inventory across many publishers. The speaker says the partner built a DSP to help manage and run dealership ad campaigns more effectively.
"they're using not crypto for just blockchain. Yeah, absolutely
[200.9s] What they do is they they they write a smart contract"
Blockchain is a shared digital record that many computers keep in sync. In this context, it’s used to help verify ad activity so the system can reject suspicious or invalid ad traffic.
Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology where records are stored across many computers, making them harder to tamper with. In this segment, it’s described as being used to validate ad calls and manage campaign crediting to help combat digital ad fraud.
"What they do is they they they write a smart contract on every ad call that comes in and if it doesn't meet their criteria
[207.3s] They kick it back to the publisher"
A smart contract is like an automated agreement written in code. It can check rules and then automatically approve or reject something—without a person manually reviewing every case.
A smart contract is code stored on a blockchain that automatically executes rules when certain conditions are met. Here, it’s used to evaluate ad calls against criteria and decide whether to accept them or reject them to reduce fraud.
"...e like, hey I want to buy a I've seen a new Honda Accord. I really want to kind of go look at it You know ..."
The Honda Accord is a regular passenger car (a sedan) meant for everyday driving. People talk about it a lot because it’s designed to be comfortable and practical for commuting and errands. If you’re thinking about buying one, it’s a good example of a mainstream car you can live with day to day.
The Honda Accord is a mainstream midsize sedan known for balancing everyday comfort with efficient, practical driving. It’s often discussed because it’s a common “go-to” car for buyers who want a reliable daily driver and a straightforward ownership experience. In a podcast, it may come up when someone is considering a new purchase and wants to understand what the Accord is like as a current model.
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Hello and welcome to the car guy coffee podcast. You are listening to the inter brews at the ncm client and friends event
Enjoy these conversations. Let's brew what's going on car guys and car gals
We're excited to be back with you and back with this dude. We are so excited for the things that are brewing with the one
The only
Oh
He's just quite a bit over the over the years, man. We've done some shows with you
We co-hosted a plenty of fixed ops fridays brother and and to see you
Just constantly grow in this industry and constantly looking for ways to be able to help
Deliver things for dealers. It's it's amazing, man
And now you're onto a new project right now and you've been doing it for a little while, man
And you guys have been making a massive splash with what you're doing. So congratulations with with that, brother
Appreciate it. Get back in the trenches. I'll back in the trenches back. I knew you'd be back quick
If I call it I know there's only so much golf you can play right and you know, so eventually he was like
That's what we all say
But no there has been a lot brewing with you. We appreciate the friendship
You're one of the very first people to physically sit down and brew with us at the first event that we ever went to
And here we are again
Seeing things now you're wearing a little bit of a different logo. You made some big that big things happen for fixed ops digital
And we're excited to hear about all these things that you're taking to a whole other digital level
You're getting inside of the streaming game and he's got some awesome logos great hats
You'll be seeing us rocking some of that rock him on the plane things like that one of the matches
I think my fit today or it's close to it. Heck. Yeah a little light blue
But tell us tell us a little bit about this journey and why you did get back into the startup game
Yeah, it's it's actually been interesting. We at fixed ops digital we were looking for ways to drive
good quality traffic into
The infrastructure that we were building with content and things like that people were like, hey
I love that you're building great oil change pages or tire pages
Transmission pages things like that. Obviously that was getting picked up on google and driving that organic traffic
But people the dealers are starting to go. Hey, I want to spend a little money. How do we do this?
So we were doing some facebook
We were doing some paid search that was very specific to service
We looked at other ways to use video, right? We thought video is obviously being a very highly
Out alcoleyed it out there and we said, let's let's let's look at ott
What could we do with some some streaming television type stuff?
And right around that time is when trade pending was also looking at us to acquire our company and
Obviously being a tech company. They didn't really want to do a lot with the the media side of things
So we just tabled it and said, you know what if we ever get back to it?
We get back to it. If not, we'll just keep moving forward and see what's next, right?
And yeah, October came and our our time at trade pending kind of came up and I think we looked at this and said
This is this is the next thing we want to really focus on a couple reasons why
Lot of outdated strategies out there
We're noticing that everybody was really focusing on sort of old strategies
Maybe not the highest quality of traffic things like that
And then one thing we also got into and we didn't really realize this is how much fraud
Is actually out there when it comes to the digital space and we have a partnership
We announced it earlier this year with a company called block board
A lot of great things happening with them and they actually have built their demand side platform or they're how we build and operate and manage our campaigns
Through the blockchain. So they're using not crypto for just blockchain. Yeah, absolutely
What they do is they they they write a smart contract on every ad call that comes in and if it doesn't meet their criteria
They kick it back to the publisher and we get credit back and then we run that that investment back into the dealerships campaign. So it's awesome
Yeah, so it's really cutting edge. They do a lot of stuff in the non auto space
They're looking to get an automotive and kevin colman my partner and I had to go out there a couple times and really
Explain to them where we think we could help them get an automotive and how we could utilize some of the strategies that we're utilizing
With their technology to really maximize results for dealers and it's showing because what ends up happening is when we scrub away all the
non human traffic and we only talk to real households
That's when your reports look a lot better, right because you're reaching more people
They're actually taking action once they get to your website that type of thing
All of that goes hand in hand with everything that we're doing and now it's just a matter of us getting our message out
Which is why we're coming to conferences like this and just trying to talk to as many
Dealerships that are looking for help that we can yeah, it's been great. Absolutely and one thing that's for sure is that you're always down to help
And I love that just the whole point of the show the fixed ops friday was to help fixed ops people
Right be able to give them some kind of knowledge and give them free information on a weekly basis
We were doing a show live every two weeks doing a replay in between and it was a lot of fun to do that
And but you've translated that in what what a good bump for you
I appreciate that you were able to see something and realize maybe it's not time for market
Let me just wait on this let me put this on hold then you saw a great opportunity
You know what right now is the time so let's go ahead and jump on it
It was just such a great opportunity for you to be able to bring more help to the industry
And it's a it's a similar help, but it's a different help by far right you're you're not just limited to just fixed ops now
You're limited to not limited. You're open to everything inside there. So that's pretty awesome stuff brother
In my background is I was I was a self-proclaimed ad guy for years. I was part of an agency
I had I won my own agency
We were doing I was our script writer for years as we were selling concepts and campaigns and television commercials and regular spots
I was the one that was right now. So I got to use my creativity a lot more
Obviously when I got to fix out digital that wasn't so much right?
It was all about content and how you structure that to get out on the on the search engines
Sure, but how to get you back to my roots now where I'm actually saying hey, how do we help you with your brand?
How do we help you with your sales message with your service message?
Obviously my year at trade pending. I got a great under the hood look at vehicle acquisition. Oh, yeah
Actually approach that so now we are looking at some vehicle acquisition. I was just talking to
Somebody other day that are like hey, I need to hire technicians
Maybe we put together a campaign that's really focused on kind of hey our dealership is hiring for all these positions
And the ultimate goal is to get into the website because once you get to the website
That's where all of the information sort of is is housed right all your all your vehicle inventory all your if you're hiring
You put your hiring jobs that are open things like that
So what we're trying to do is create awareness
Driving into the website and then let the website take over and go from there
And I think that's something that wasn't available years ago
And so come on using some of the new technology and kind of making it work together
And that's that's sometimes is not easiest thing to do
But we're up for the challenge and we're excited for a future dealership. Wow speaking of not easy things to do
It's not often easy
To have a good conversation putting out some great information with the room that's eating or the room that's in transition
Right and you're not necessarily the handling a keynote moment where everybody's isolated
No, you got people chewing drinking walking in and out
But you had the opportunity to deliver a great message that had some good interaction great participation
What was it like being able to share here and wearing a new hat?
You know, it was a lot of fun. I kind of a day job room for me
I I went and spoke at one of david king's 20 groups back in 2019 and it went pretty well
And he was like I would love to get you to my friends and family conference
Which was about this time at that on that year's I know they did move it to a spring for a while
Hey, I was always using april time
Yeah, but they at that time they had it in september october
Where you do so I showed up and the only thing he had was he's I can give you 20 minutes over lunch
I'm like, I'll take it. Let's go and so he actually mentioned that to yesterday when I was talking
Or two days ago I was talking because he said that they didn't really have us a lunch sponsor keynote at that time
And did a lot bigger room this time a lot more people in there probably helped. They started five minutes early
People couldn't get you know get out of there and leave. No, I actually it was really good. I actually was at the
I was at a oh, I'll say I was at the bar that night for a little bit and
One of the guys is like you spoke at lunch, right?
And I was like, yeah, he goes, you know what you're one of the best presentations that I saw he goes
You had me on the seat of my pants. What's next? What's this guy gonna say next?
So I was I was like, uh, I was good to hear at least I knew it was impactful
Definitely you definitely gave him something to chew on
I see what you did there Lou and he's so right he did and then they swallowed it and they enjoyed it right
And they got to fill their bellies up with some really great information, brother
And I can appreciate you too in that loose. They'll look at me like that
He just gave me eyes. You all heard what I said. I didn't mean it that way
You guys man, Lou, stop it. Anyway, he gave me the look
But at the end of the day you did you gave them something that they can ingest right and something that they can really
Get the all the protein and everything
The best thing about it was I gave the the dealer some some take-homes, right?
Kate go to your provider and ask these questions
And I I had a lot of people stop at our booth and they're like, thank you very much for
Giving us that they're like, it wasn't just you pitching a dealer. It was it was you actually gave us
Some homework right go home and ask the right question to see what see what is because let's be honest most
OTT companies are not going to talk about fraud
I actually had a demo with a an old fix-up digital client a couple weeks ago
And he's he goes it's interesting. I've had six demos with different OTT streaming companies
Not one person's brought up the fraud and I was like, why do you think that is right?
They don't want to talk about it because they're not doing anything to help it
You know what I mean and when they give you a report that shows these really great metrics high level
They don't actually get under the hood and show you what's actually going on
It's a little smoking mirrors going on on. Yeah, but at the end of the day, we I don't worry about that so much
I worry about what can we do to be better? I think that creatively we can be better. I think that everything's gotten pushed to
Vin vehicle type of advertising and I think that the dealer is much more than just their inventory
I think it's what they're doing for the community. How people are they employing keep telling it, you know all those things, right?
They and so how do you tell that message without actually putting together a really nice looking maybe the television commercial
And they're getting it out into the market. So people when they do have that consideration phase where they're like, hey
I want to buy a I've seen a new Honda Accord. I really want to kind of go look at it
You know what? I just saw something from a company that I forgot about that I hadn't really thought about and now
Now you're engaging with that customer and that's really what the dealerships need more than ever because everybody's online now
We're all using those low funnel
Strategies, how do we hit people prior to that and that's where streaming can really I think impact
Yeah, engagement. Go ahead. No, it just gets more and more impactful as we do that and I've noticed that we all
Know that how how powerful streaming is and what we how we watch everything we do now
Probably streaming this show right now. Yeah, and most people don't watch live tv
Most people don't listen to live radio anymore. It's all streamed stream stream
So just know that and what he's saying is so on the money and be there
You got to be where your people are so that you can catch them higher in that funnel instead of so low
It's my time to get here. They've been beat up. They're all over the place right there becomes a price game, right? Yeah
And that's why we're losing money on new cars. That's why we're in grosses are down
It's because we didn't do a good enough job of maybe giving them other reasons to come look to buy
I think people dealerships tell me all the time the best money they make on a car deals when somebody just
Impulsively decided to come in and buy they're not they're not necessarily in the trenches looking at prices and trying to figure out
Where what is the the cheapest where they can go? It's I really like this vehicle
I saw some of the best things I've ever bought. I'm sure the guys made more money
I mean, but I had a great experience and that's and that's ultimately what you can do with the power of it
And it and so there's so many decisions that of course every customer has to make every client of ours ever has to make
A lot of it is what am I going to purchase?
But the hardest question I believe is still who and putting the what all over the screen is one thing
But putting the who and who you're building this relationship. That's genius marketing
But that's also the relationship that people are wanting with as many different touch points as we have to get into
A system and to be entered in there's so many different ways of engagement to get a customer's information
One way or another or get their attention now more than ever
We want to make sure that we're building something real with them and and you again
You had a difficult task, but it was good that you got some great feedback
But you were actually literally and figuratively you were giving them something to chew on but something to digest that was different
Than what they've been hearing before and I think that kind of perked up the ears
Especially because this is an environment where people are trying to learn marketing a little bit different, right?
Isn't necessarily the greatest strength for sure of everybody here. This does have a big marketing bend to it
Yeah, absolutely. And I I I attribute that to David Kane. Obviously he was just required by ncm
I think this is going to continue to grow. I've been this is my fourth david keen event
I guess you could say but obviously this is the first one where ncm was in charge and
There was different dealers here than I've seen in the last three because usually it's the same dealers come because they really the content
They like david
I think that with their sixth. I think I heard the ncm at 6000 dealers. Oh, yeah
Now imagine getting that out there and all of a sudden maybe this can become that that
It's fall conference that everybody is craving right now. I smell that cooking right now
And I know exactly what you mean to your sentiment
I know that they do have a lot of clients and they don't all know about this shit
I think that ncm is being smart. They're trying to slowly see how this was they wanted to bring it here to kansas city
See if it was going to be success and they saw success
They also are already planning it for next year. They're actually getting the whole ballroom. They're getting all of it
So it's going to be even a bigger event because they're expecting more people
Yeah, so that being said and we don't have to worry about another conference being right next door underwriting. Yeah
Tell us to keep it down. We don't shush. We don't
We do our thing but
No disrespect to them. We understand they're here trying to learn stuff too
But you can't come in here and tell baby to go in a corner and we don't do that. Right. So not the car guys
You ain't gonna tell a bunch of car guys
It's been a great event brother and yes us too
We've been coming to these for a long time now and it's always been a pleasure to come here and see it happen
We're looking forward to seeing what next year's looks like looking forward to seeing you here next year
We're looking forward to seeing you all the time. Yeah always that kind of guy that we run into him
It's like being a brother with them
We always we always end up hanging out talking and just being all the share vibes and congratulating each other on current successes, brother
And I'm gonna sometimes even wrestle like we did yesterday if you all want us all we should have you took the picture
I have that picture. I'm gonna make sure you don't see that but we were saying taylor. We're twinning. We look good
Yes, we did nice. Nice. Yeah
Car guys and car gals again. We are not done hearing from this solution area that's brewing with us today
You probably have more episodes with us than anybody else in automotive with the fixed ops fridays
I'm pretty sure he's he's he's been on screen with us more than anyone
So he is one of the most familiar faces on on the show, but we're so thankful for you and your consistent support
We thank you for you how you do cheer us on
But how ultimately you are not just large in stature your presence as a person is is felt
It's it's respected around here and it is encouraging to see somebody
Do what it is that you've done build up and a lot of people would go find a place on the beach and chill out
You're finding a new way to innovate to create and to still uplift the industry too young to not do something
I just want to do something impactful and I think that was I had a lot of people calling me and I thought
Let me just see where this goes and we'll figure out what's next and I think dealer stream
You're gonna see a lot of it of us over the next couple years. We've got some great people coming on board
I've got more people calling me going. Hey, how can I get involved?
Which was obviously a little different than when fixed off digital. We were a startup
We were kind of the obscure company
You know only knew about been fun to collaborate with certain company people that I maybe would have had the chance to
In past life. Yeah, hopefully the future is bright for us and I'm excited for it. Hopefully the future is bright
It is we got you out
You know what success tastes like and you love keep getting cups of that
So keep getting you more cups of that success and I promise you you all need to come get some of his success
Come come rub off on this guy because this guy knows what's up man. Everything he touches turns to gold brother
You have the mightest touch brother. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens
You have the mightest touch and yes, like you said, he's too young to get out of the game
But we are grandpas. We became grandfathers the same day. We had our first grandchildren
It's pretty incredible. So we're connected forever for that
But with that, he is no stranger to how to drop those f-bombs how to forget focus fly
So let's rock that out on 3123
Focus fly and keep growing keep growing
We have been ruined solutions here in Kansas City at the ncm associates clients and friends
mastermind event of smart awesome marketers and people and of course this incredible
individual the one
the only
Moon
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