Transparency in Automotive Advertising Panel | Daily Dealer Live
Car Dealership Guy Podcast · Jul 20, 2026
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Term
auto loan approvals
This is the percentage of people who apply for a car loan and actually get approved. A higher approval rate means more shoppers are able to finance a purchase.
Company
Cox Automotive
Cox Automotive is a company that collects and analyzes car-industry data. Here, they’re being used as the source for the loan approval numbers.
Term
basis points
Basis points are a way to measure small changes in rates. One basis point is 0.01%, so it helps you understand how big the change really is.
Term
loan terms
Loan terms are how long you have to pay back your car loan. Longer terms can make the monthly payment smaller, but you may pay more overall.
Term
down payment
A down payment is the money you pay upfront for the car. Putting less money down usually means you have a bigger loan.
Term
negative equity
Negative equity means you owe more on the car than it’s worth right now. If you try to switch cars, that “gap” often gets added to your next loan.
Term
trade-ins
Trade-ins are when you hand in your current vehicle to a dealer as part of the purchase of a new one. The trade-in value matters because if it’s lower than what you owe, you can end up with negative equity.
Company
Edmunds
Edmunds is a car research company that looks at how people buy cars and what deals look like. In this segment, they’re providing the negative-equity trade-in numbers.
Term
leasing
Leasing is like renting a car for a few years with monthly payments. At the end, you usually return it (or sometimes buy it), and it can be a way to avoid rolling old loan problems into a new purchase.
Term
overrolling debt
Rolling over debt means you don’t fully pay off your old car loan before switching cars—you add the leftover balance to the new deal. That can make your new payments and total cost higher.
Company
Widewell
Widewell is a company that studies review data. Here it’s used to show what’s happening with dealership reviews on Google.
Term
connected tv
Connected TV means ads shown on smart TVs and streaming devices. Because it’s delivered through the internet, advertisers usually have to keep adjusting it based on how well it’s working.
Term
impressions
Impressions are how many times an ad shows up on someone’s screen. You want the ad to be seen by the right people, not just to rack up a huge number.
Term
reach and frequency
Reach is how many different people see the ad. Frequency is how many times each of those people sees it, so you can avoid spamming the same viewers.
Term
first party data
First-party data is information a company collects directly from its own customers or users (for example, from website visits, forms, or logged-in activity). It’s valuable for targeting and measurement because it’s tied to real interactions with the brand.
Term
predictive models
Predictive models are computer tools that try to guess what will happen next. In ads, they help decide who is most likely to care or take action.
Term
partner data
Partner data is audience information the advertiser gets from other companies. It can help find more people, but it’s only useful if it’s accurate and properly connected to your ads.
Car
Nissan Altima
The Nissan Altima is a regular passenger car (a sedan) meant for everyday driving. People often look at it when they’re shopping for a dependable, practical car. The podcast mentions it as a specific model someone might be searching for or advertising.
Term
TV farms
“TV farms” are basically lots of TVs running in a controlled setup to make it look like ads are getting watched. The concern is that the views may not be real people actually interested in the cars.
Term
real inventory
“Real inventory” means the cars a dealer actually has and can sell. They’re saying you need partners who can confirm the listings are legitimate, not fake or not actually for sale.
Term
Wi-Fi signal
A “Wi-Fi signal” is the wireless network connection that devices use to communicate over radio waves. Here it’s used to describe how TVs could be connected/identified via phone-based connectivity, which is framed as a way to detect whether “views” are coming from real devices versus questionable sources.
Concept
inventory exposure
“Inventory exposure” means how much of the dealer’s car listings might be affected by bad data or questionable tracking. They’re warning that a portion of the cars could be misrepresented if nobody is checking the details.
Term
dealer advertising investment
“Dealer advertising investment” is the money a car dealer spends to advertise cars. They’re saying this spending is a big driver of how much attention the dealer’s inventory gets.
Term
media mix
Media mix just means the different places you advertise—like different websites or ad types. The idea is to use the right mix and measure what it actually does.
Term
post-impression traffic
It means how many people visit your site after they’ve seen your ad. It helps you tell whether the ad is actually getting attention, not just being displayed.
Term
CPMs
CPM is a way advertisers measure ad cost. It tells you what you pay for about 1,000 times your ad is shown.
Company
FTC
The FTC is a U.S. government agency that helps make sure advertising is fair and truthful. Here it’s being used as a reminder that dealers should be able to back up their marketing claims.
Concept
digital retailing
Digital retailing means buying a car through online tools instead of only in person. It can include getting offers, pricing info, and setting up the next step digitally.
Concept
buying direct
Buying direct means the dealer works through a direct arrangement instead of a general marketplace. The dealer gets more clarity on where the cars are coming from and can see the inventory before it’s widely available.
Brand
TrueView
TrueView is the name of a company/platform mentioned in the panel. They’re described as sourcing car inventory directly rather than through a general marketplace.
Term
auction
In automotive inventory sourcing, an auction is a bidding process where buyers compete for access to specific vehicles. The speaker clarifies that buying direct may still involve an auction, but it’s handled in a more private, controlled setup.
Term
open exchange
An open exchange is like a public online marketplace for car inventory. Dealers bid on cars that are still available after other deals have already taken the best options.
Term
pricing intelligence
Pricing intelligence is basically “market price information.” It helps you understand what cars are likely to cost and where the supply is coming from so you can make smarter offers.
Term
OEM
OEMs are the companies that make the cars in the first place. They’re the ones behind the brand and the main advertising strategy.
Term
Tier 3
Tier 3 is a way of grouping participants by level—usually smaller or less resourced players. The idea is they can get better advertising opportunities when they team up.
Brand
infinity dealers
Infiniti is Nissan’s luxury car brand. The speaker is saying they tested an advertising idea with only some Infiniti dealers first.
Car
Infiniti QX60
The Infiniti QX60 is a larger SUV designed to carry people comfortably, usually for family use. It’s meant for everyday driving but with more comfort features than a basic SUV. In the podcast, it’s brought up as an example of a vehicle that fits a certain type of buyer.
Term
CTV
CTV means ads that show up on smart TVs and streaming boxes. Instead of regular cable TV, it’s advertising aimed at people watching shows through the internet.
Term
OLV
OLV is online video ads—ads that play while you’re watching videos on websites or apps. Dealers use it to reach people who are already watching video content online.
Term
streaming audio
Streaming audio means ads that play inside music or podcast apps. Dealerships can target people listening on their phones or smart speakers.
Concept
shared responsibility
Shared responsibility means everyone involved in the ad campaign has a role in making it work. Instead of blaming one party, they agree on who’s responsible for results and reporting.
Term
ad tech platforms
Ad tech platforms are the online tools that run digital ad campaigns. They help decide who sees the ads and track how well they performed.
LIVE
We're doing better as a result of social media presence.
It doesn't do those three things then it's on the chopping block.
It's in return on investment discussion.
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Daily Dealer Live.
I'm your host, Sam Dark, and thanks for choosing to be here with us this Monday, July the 20th.
Coming up today, we've got an incredible show.
Dealers spend a record, get this $9.96 billion on advertising last year, that's according to NADA.
It's an all-time high.
Now, there's something nobody's talking about.
When you bought a spot on the local news, you knew exactly what you bought.
You knew the station, the show, the time with streaming in today's world.
Well, most of the time, the buyer can't even see what show your ad ran on.
60% of streaming ad auctions carry no programming information at all.
Not the show, not the genre, not even the rating.
And billions of dealer dollars, well, they're headed straight into that black box.
So today's question is simple.
When a dealer tries CTV, that's connected TV as we'll talk about today, and says, quote,
it doesn't work.
Was it connected TV that failed or was it that nobody would show them actually what they bought?
I've got four people today joining who can answer that very question.
We've got an OEM, a retailer, an ad tech plumber, and a practitioner.
That's coming up on today's show.
A reminder, we're streaming live across all CDG social media platforms.
Post your comments into the chat.
We'll bring them into today's show.
It will make it even better today.
And up first, let's hit today's automotive industry headlines.
Auto loan rates, auto loan approvals are climbing.
That's according to Cox Automotive, who says approvals hit 73.8% in June.
That's up 170 basis points from May and 150 points here over year after dipping just 70%
back in February.
Loan terms keep stretching to a record 31.1% of loans now run longer than 72 months, while
down payments slid to 13.2%.
The rebound happened even though applications stayed flat, said Scott Vayner,
Cox Automotive's manager of economic and industry insights.
He noted more applicants carried prime and near prime credit.
That approval bump comes with a catch.
Edmunds finds 29.6% of trade-ins toward new vehicle purchases now carry negative equity.
That equity, that negative equity is averaging $6,884 bucks a vehicle.
That's enough to push the average payment to $944 a month, approaching a grand.
Ivan Drury, Edmunds director of insights, traces some of that back to 2022.
Purchases made when incentives were scarce and inventory was tight.
Both Vayner and Drury expect longer terms and negative equity to persist,
with Drury pointing to leasing as an option worth considering
overrolling debt into the next loan.
Next up today, a recent Widewell survey offers a new look at how customers
are talking about dealers.
Check this out.
Widewell analyzed 1.2 million Google reviews across nearly 18,000 dealerships
in the first quarter and found review volume is down 15% year over year.
Communication was the number one complaint in negative reviews showing up 42% of the time,
and that's nearly double the complaints about price.
Service is the bright spot.
Positive mentions of service staff climbed to 67.7% with complaints about honesty,
professionalism, and friendliness.
Well, those were all down between 7 and 15%.
Lexus posted the strongest reputation score overall,
and the Midwest let all regions at a 4.7 average rating.
Communication is one of the most fixable things in the service drive,
said Widewell COO Melissa Terrell.
Props to service teams everywhere in automotive.
Thanks for leading the way in delivering an elite experience to every single customer.
Next up in today's news, the same push toward better communication
is showing up in how dealers are using AI.
A new Spine report finds dealership AI adoption shifting from standalone tools such as chatbots,
automated listings, and pricing assistance towards integrated platforms that connect CRM,
DMS, Inventory, FNI, Marketing, and Service Scheduling all into one system.
By 2027, Spine expects dealers running Connected AI
to outpace those still relying on isolated tools.
Among the shift already underway,
lead qualification is becoming payment-first,
weighing affordability and trade equity earlier in the process.
While inventory AI is emerging as a margin lever
through VIN-level pricing and reconditioning costs.
On a related note, Stellantis' tightening enforcement
on that same kind of third-party tool, Sprawl,
the manufacturer confirmed to CDG News that it sent infraction letters
on July 10th to dealers whose websites don't meet its certified digital program guidelines
with a July 31st deadline to get compliant.
No rules changed according to a company spokesperson.
Instead, this is enforcement of an existing guideline
which requires all site links to stay within the dealer's own site environment
with exceptions for social media, approved Stellantis materials,
and local charity events.
Non-certified tools that violate the rules
have to be removed or replaced within 10 business days of notification.
And what happens if a dealer doesn't act well?
Stellantis digital support can remove them directly.
These are elements of Stellantis' current certified digital program guidelines
aimed at providing a positive and consistent customer online shopping experience,
a customer spokesman said,
with FTC scrutiny already elevated across the industry,
dealers on Stellantis' list have two weeks to get their sites in order.
And that, folks, is a wrap on today's automotive industry headlines.
All right, we got a lot of great comments already in the chat.
So Lauren Love Carter says,
this is going to be a great episode.
Chris ISK702 morning, everyone.
Good morning back.
Dale in progress, nothing beats word of mouth
and organic social marketing.
Kenzie pops back in today, long-time listener, as many are.
Let's go.
Hey, Sam, rough month going.
Give me some good news.
Well, we'll have that coming up today with some solutions to some big problems.
Kenzie also saying,
I think I need to join CDG circles for dealer-made AI platforms.
Yes, join it.
Biger is conversations going there.
Dale in progress.
I still think one-touch salesperson model is the way to keep communication going
with a customer.
Kenzie says, will the FTC make us better?
You know what?
They may not make us better,
but it is a cleanup on aisle nine,
as Senator Bernie Moreno has said.
And candidly, if everybody runs towards the same standard,
it will make the entire industry better
and it's going to make us focus on experience instead of just price.
Speaking of experience, let's get into today's panel
where we talk about this nearly $10 billion ad spend
and what is going on with connected TV advertising.
So I've got four people at the table today,
each who sees a different piece of the chain
and together they see the whole thing.
Let's get into it.
Let's welcome to the show Shelly Pratt.
Shelly approves nine-figure media portfolios at Nissan USA.
She's Director of Media Activations and Business Intelligence
at Nissan.
Shelly, welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Good to be here.
Good to have you here.
And then we've got Kristin Coleman.
She started at BMW then seven years at VW,
Building Dealer Marketing Frameworks,
now runs marketing at AutoNation.
And Kristin's the only person here
who sat on both sides of the aisle in this.
Kristin, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
Mario Diaz, CEO of Peer39,
the company that reads what's actually inside a streaming ad auction.
Welcome to the show, Mario.
Thanks for having me, Sam.
And finally up to you, we've got Sean Helm,
sorry, who was in retail at CDK at VW Univision Agency.
He sat in every seat in the house.
He built TrueView to fix what he saw.
He's founder and CEO of TrueView Media Group.
I'll come to the show.
Thanks, Sam.
So it is fascinating.
I remember the good old days.
So I started in the auto industry late 80s, early 90s,
and you basically had a few choices.
You could put an ad in the newspaper.
You could put a listing in the phone book.
You could pop up a freeway sign.
That was a great way to go.
And the world has changed today, right?
And we're spending a lot more money,
because of that $10 billion record.
And we don't have the same visibility behind how that's
spent that as we once had.
So let's start with you, Shelley.
First question up.
When Nissan writes a nine-figure media check,
what do you get back, Shelley, that proves it worked?
Well, there's various things that we get back.
And I think governance is very important.
But when we campaign, we have to make sure we outline what we expect from it.
Otherwise, it's just data for data sake, right?
So with connected TV, it's not a set-and-forget media buy.
We have to manage it with a ton of rigor.
A lot of questions that we watch is, where do we run it?
Who do we reach?
And how often do we reach them?
I think that's really important,
especially for our dealers to understand.
A lot of times, we'll see reports with impressions,
and you'll see 5000000000 impressions.
Well, that could be very good.
But you need to make sure it's the right impression.
And so when I get those back, I want to know,
is the quality right?
Were you hitting the audience that I needed?
What is our reach and frequency?
And we cap it at that.
And that's something we probably do better at a brand level.
It's easier for us to do that than maybe you can do at a dealer level.
But we take a step back, and we need to understand who the audience is
and spend a lot of time building that.
I think dealers can lean on their OEMs have that,
because we have a ton of data-rich signals.
We have our first-party data.
We have partner data, predictive models.
I was at a meeting today where it showed
that we could see 10,000 behavioral insights.
And what do you do with that?
You know, like, you have to be really smart.
I think the example you gave earlier,
you were giving a Spanish language that something's not firing right there,
if that's what's happening, so you're not hitting the right quality.
So, you know, what are those indicators of predictions and life stages
and things like that that you can make sure you're sending the right creative?
You go to my webpage and you're looking at an Altima.
I'm not going to send you a frontier ad.
We have to know you and understand you.
I think the goal is really to create this rich environment,
then the easiest way to look at it is the right time,
the right frequency, and the right place.
So, Shelley, do you get better data as an OEM
because of the size of your media spend, this being seven figures,
or is it because of who you are as an OEM and the questions you're asking?
Maybe a little of both.
I think the biggest difference for me as an OEM, if you think about it,
I rent tier one, two, and I don't only run like connected TV.
So, I can take a step back and look at the complete performance
of how it's working across the brand, across channels,
how audiences are working together, how they're not working.
So, if something's not converting, how do we change that?
And I think one of the most important reporting that we have
is I can see downstream behaviors, website traffic,
lead generation, and ultimately sales.
And so, the reality is,
dealers probably get impressions and clicks and maybe video completion.
That's not the full picture.
So, I push on them not to ask, where did my ad run?
It ran. It ran somewhere.
But the question is, did it reach the right customer?
Did it influence behavior?
And did it contribute to your sales?
And the level of accountability and discipline,
it should exist if you're spending $50,000 or $500 million.
Yeah, and that downstream behavior is super critical
when it comes to deciding whether or not that advertising is effective.
My example I used in the green room is true.
I'm astonished every now and again listening to my favorite podcast
here and there or watching a show on TV, and I get a Spanish speaking ad.
And I don't speak Spanish.
That I've often thought is kind of a waste for whoever put that there.
Is that by accident?
How does a Spanish speaking ad end up in my profile, Shelly?
Do you know?
Well, there was an easy answer for that.
I think that's why we're all laughing,
because there's so many different triggers
and you don't know what you're being served,
where you're being served, and things like that.
We have a third party validator that I call the policemen.
They go in and make sure that my ads are showing up in the right place.
It's a little different for me because I can buy at a program level
and I can work with the direct inventory.
But it's not simple anymore because you don't have so much media running.
You may not necessarily know what triggered that Spanish language ad.
Yeah.
Well, Kristen, you're president of marketing at AutoNation.
You spent a decade building marketing systems at BMW and Volkswagen.
Then you transitioned over to the retail side.
And let's start here.
Finish this sentence for me.
What's one thing that shocked you most when you came into the retail side
versus the OEM experience?
I think it's transparency in the buys.
And that's not a knock on my internal agency.
I have the benefit of working with an Omnicom agency
who, from a buy perspective, is structured similarly to Shelly.
When I began looking at the immediate opportunity for us,
it's crossed your alignment.
Our dollars work harder, go further,
which leads you back to certified programs.
And that is where many single-point dealers start
when they look at opportunities with CTV or streaming audio.
If we were to go back 10, 15 years, we used to share schedules.
And you can piggyback off the buys.
I think that there's an assumption that when you're buying in program,
you're doing the same thing to the points Shelly conveyed.
You're reaping the benefits of the manufacturer's relationship.
However, to my initial statement,
transparency in the buy doesn't exist.
I think we've created some bad behaviors
through the certified programs.
There is an inclination for these providers
to provide cost-effective options for CTV
and streaming audio for the stores.
As a result, they buy less than desirable inventory.
And to the earlier conversation,
the output is only as good as the input.
So if your advertisement is appearing next to remnant inventory,
the return on your investment,
how I would validate success is the assist.
Somebody saw an ad, heard an ad, and searched for it.
It doesn't exist to the extent that you would see with a brand campaign.
So to Shelly's points, yeah, there's more sophisticated models.
And I don't think it's a matter of availability
from a Tier 3 perspective.
I think that, especially when I look at the certified programs,
the ability is there.
The desire to provide that level of transparency
is what doesn't exist in those programs.
So to your question, it's transparency in the buy
from placement all the way through reporting,
post-impression traffic.
That's inevitably driving the behavior
that we're looking for from a Tier 3 perspective.
So does Shelly and Kristen,
why there's transparency at the OEM level,
and then it becomes murky at the dealer level
as you descend down the door?
Why is it?
Is it just not asking for it?
Is there something that stops at Tier 1?
Why is there a double standard, would you say, Shelly?
There are, we have a lot of scale,
so I think that that helps us write.
So we have probably greater insights of where the buys are
because we can buy directly with the inventory
or from the private marketplace,
and sometimes retailers can't.
We also are experts in this field.
We have to make sure that we help our dealer partners.
They're not programmatic experts,
and they shouldn't be programmatic experts.
And maybe through this and our application
of how to ask the right questions,
because they have to push for it
and understand that they need more
than just impression levels.
Yeah.
So, Mario, open up the black box for us.
We've got nine-figure discipline on one end.
We've got a PDF with impression numbers on the other.
What's happening in the middle, and how do we get,
I think about GMs that a lot of times
are placing these ad buys.
How do we get them educated to the point
where they can get the same type of reporting
that Shelly and Kristen are getting?
Well, so, I mean, there's a lot happening
in the middle at this time.
I think we go through a little bit of the history
and the programmatic and CTV space.
One of the driving factors is,
everybody on this call knows this,
site-sounding motion drives sales.
And I think, but let's just start there.
And there's not a single dealer owner,
you could be a tier one advertiser or not,
that doesn't feel the same.
But what's happening in CTV is a little bit different.
It originally started as an extension of a linear buy,
and then it was just kind of like a black box.
So I'm just getting my top tier publishers and so forth.
What has happened now is-
Mario, what do you mean by linear buy
for those that are watching the GMs?
Oh, sorry.
And they're like, what do you mean by that,
to find that for us?
So what I mean by going back to your,
back in the old days, where you would call the local affiliate,
and you would-
That's a linear buy.
That's a linear buy.
Okay.
Placing an ad in a newspaper, in a phone book,
yeah, got it.
All right, go ahead.
So originally, CTV just started as an extension of that.
Like, oh, you're on this,
you're on our linear traditional TV,
now you can run on our CTV and so forth.
And so that has really evolved over the time,
because of all the new tools,
one being programmatic,
or just the simple, what you hit up in the beginning of the show,
which is advertisers using more AI tools,
like you can build fast, creative,
you can deploy it faster, and so forth.
Now, the challenge that's happening in CTV is the tech,
and the business rules, and the publishing community
have to catch up with the interests of those
that are on the call today.
And what we're really talking about with transparency is that,
we need to mimic what has worked for however long it has worked,
however many decades,
because the eyeballs are there in CTV.
And what's happening in the plumbing is the publishing communities,
the platforms that the local dealers are using
are now starting to get more familiar
with how signals are being passed,
so that they can reward the content that their audiences are on.
And that's a really important piece
that we're starting to see as the industry starts to evolve a little bit.
All right, let's look inside this black box, right,
which is the dispersion of this CTV ads,
this connected TV ads, all right?
So I understand that these CTV ads get bought in an auction,
and this auction lasts milliseconds.
What does the buyer actually see at that moment
when the ads are bought?
Kind of give us a picture on that.
Yeah, so I hate saying it depends, but it does,
but let's just talk broadly.
For the most part, a local dealer,
one, they're probably leaning on a practitioner to do this.
That's number one, and that's a really important piece,
and I think we'll probably cover that at some point,
which is you need really good partners that understand this
because you need to get out of it what you put into it,
which Shelley was talking about.
But the technical black box plumbing
is when someone's bidding on a piece of inventory,
let's say in CTV, chances are they are using a data
point like Shelley and Kristen were talking about.
It could be a geo.
It could be a household or what have you,
but they don't know what they're bidding on
from a content perspective.
They may know it's an app or it may be blind.
And I'm talking about the dealer level, right?
And this doesn't happen all the time,
but broadly, there is a lot of challenge in the CTV landscape
with knowing what show you ran on,
the genres or protecting against what we call internally
fake CTV content, which is a whole other podcast.
So wait, Mario, your stat actually says 60% of bid requests
have no usable program data.
So it'll say an app name,
but it won't say the show name, the genre,
it won't say the rating.
Is that accurate?
And how can that be?
Shelley wouldn't accept that at the Nissan side.
She'd want more data to place those ad dollars.
So this is what's happening.
I think people were okay with being blind for a little bit,
but now that the signals are being made available,
and we do a lot of work in this space.
And so you're seeing a trend,
and firms like what Shane is working at,
they actively practice this where it's like,
we need to return dealer ROI to their advertising investment.
And we can do that holistically
if we don't have the access to a program signal.
So what's happening to your question, Sam,
is people are now starting to redirect
away from the blind inventory so that they know
that it's on a program or a genre
or a rating that is suitable or what have you,
and then have the required reporting to say,
okay, we were going after this audience for this family car,
and it really works on this content,
but it doesn't work on this content.
So let's go back, right?
So that's what's happening in the space right now.
Tell us about the DiCaprio scheme.
Where advertisers thought they were on CBS News and PBS on Roku,
and their ads actually ran elsewhere.
So I mean, not to get too much into the weeds,
but the way that the system works currently
is there's an authentication service
that we do with publishers to make sure
Shelley and Kristen know what they're getting in Shane as well.
But there's also some self-declaration
of what goes into the bitch dream.
And that becomes problematic
because sometimes that has one signal
and it could be a wrong genre.
It could be a wrong title because of the systems.
And like, look, granted, this is still very early for CTV.
And television had years and decades to build this out.
But if this is gonna grow,
which we know the eyeballs are there,
this is something that's really neat.
But yeah, you're right, there's more to be done.
Yeah, a lot of comments coming into the chat here.
YogaCars says, can someone comment on the fraud
with TV farms and the views that are never seen?
And I've never heard of a TV farm.
That's crazy to me what he's talking about there.
Yeah, I mean, I could take this broadly without getting into it again.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a separate show.
Yeah, there's a world of signals
that people like Shelley and Kristen and Shane
lean on partners to make sure that they're investing in real inventory.
And there's all sorts of signals that can be picked up.
So Shane and myself could work really close together
to find out when TVs are connected to cell phones as a Wi-Fi signal.
There's no TV connected to a cell phone.
So that's not real inventory, you know what I mean?
So roughly speaking, if you don't have the right partner
looking at all these things, you could be exposed
between 5% and 15% of the inventory.
And that's problematic because dealer advertising investment
is a major component of what drives that.
So a couple of follow-up questions for you, Mario,
and then we'll move on.
You just acquired AdLux, which holds MRC accreditation
for detecting invalid traffic.
Give us a real number if you can.
How much of what's sold as premium CTV
is actually a premium show on a real television
versus a fake app, a spoof device, or made for advertising junk?
Do you have a percent?
Yeah, I mean, so there's different kinds, right?
So there is your standard fraud, which is what I just talked about,
which if you're not working with a partner to protect,
then that could be anywhere from 5% to 10%.
It could be more if you're not running it on real partners.
But then there's something else that's kind of like in the middle,
which is something like your ads may be running on a screensaver
that's in a doctor's office.
And it's just a wide view of, I don't know, Yellowstone
or something along those lines.
And because the technology is so new,
there's a lot of mobile apps that make their way in,
and they look like CTV sometimes.
So the numbers can get pretty high
if you're not working with a partner.
And local dealers are highly susceptible to this
because they may not have the scale that Shelley or Kristen have
in terms of just decades of intelligence and staff, frankly.
Yeah, I think there's an ANA study that says only about 36 cents
of every dollar reaches an actual human,
which if you think about a dealer spending 50K a month,
that's astonishing.
And it does make you wonder,
where does the other 32 grand go in this scenario, right?
Like, who gets it and who gets the benefit?
So Shane, you've sat in every seat, retail, vendor, OEM, publisher, agency.
What did you see from the publisher side
that made you say, I have to build a company around this problem?
Yeah, I mean, honestly, and I appreciate the question.
One of the things, and it's interesting
because you've kind of alluded to it
in getting the Spanish language out,
is that it's not really an industry secret,
but the publishers are selling each other's inventory as well to extend reach.
And that's not a standard practice.
But what it does mean is when a buyer thinks they're going direct,
what actually runs could be bundled, extended,
or something else entirely.
And the reporting the client sees rarely shows that.
At the national level, buyers have teams and verification tools,
like Shelley said.
But when I looked at tier three specifically,
nobody was asking these questions.
And for me, that's when it stopped being an opportunity
and really became the company.
Who benefits from this murky middle,
where it gets kind of sent to either, you know,
but who benefits by it being murky, Shane, here?
I mean, ultimately, whoever's buying the inventory
and then reselling it to the end user.
Because they can hide fees, hide mortgages.
And because you have this lack of clarity of what's being bought
and because it's generally accepted, that's where the problem lies.
Yeah.
So Shelley Nissan pays for tools that solve this at tier one.
And Kristen, does anything like that show up
in what AutoNation stores receive?
So in what AutoNation stores receive, yeah.
I mean, again, in terms of the reporting.
Omnicom, which is a large agency,
if I were to lean into my Volkswagen,
days note, transparency and advice don't exist.
The question I would advise most dealers to ask
to the point Shane conveyed is, where is one your inventory
or your ads appearing relative to the inventory that's available
to what percentage is going to media
and what percentage is going to fees?
As I begin looking into single points
that are looking to my points earlier
to have stronger cross-tier alignment,
I think the immediate response is that you can do that
in the same capacity as, right, Shelley.
But those tools don't exist through the certified programs to date.
So to your question, yes, I have the benefit
of working with a large agency.
So I have and am able to optimize my buys,
looking at post-impression traffic
to understand the downstream implications, 30, 60, 90 days.
But to date, that level of transparency
doesn't exist through most tier three certified agencies
with the exception of a select few.
Yeah.
So when you think about the reporting
and getting that transparency,
what's one thing in 2026 dealers should demand
that they're almost never asking for
when it comes to these CTV ad buys?
Placement, where are my ads appearing?
And then post-impression traffic,
you have to maximize the return on your investment.
At the end of the day, it really comes down
to what's the cost for sale.
And if you do not have proper attribution
to understand what's driving the assist, they see it,
they hear it, they search for it,
you're not effectively managing your media mix.
So if there was one thing I would tell every dealer
to look for in their reporting,
it's post-impression traffic.
And a subset of that is where are your ads appearing?
Yeah.
And if it's difficult getting that response
from a media partner,
what's the sign they're quote unquote
grading their own homework?
What's a sign that they're not doing the right job
in that area?
I think the lack of transparency
when you're reporting on CPMs and impressions
with nothing to substantiate behind it.
Like any partnership,
if we were to look at recent updates with the FTC
or rate digital retailing during the pandemic,
there's an expectation that there's transparency
in everything we do from an automotive perspective.
I'm holding our partners to the same standard.
I don't think it's a question
that anybody should be asking.
It should be a mandate.
So if you're only getting impressions in CPMs
to all the points conveyed earlier
about the types of buys that are currently in market
and candidly, probably some of the concern
dealers have about making that investment, right?
Can I do what Shelley and Kristen are doing,
whether it be from an automation or a brand perspective?
The answer is yes,
you just have to have the right partnership.
The tools exist.
And if you aren't getting that level of transparency,
I'd suggest you don't have a great partner.
Yeah.
Well, Mario, take us there then.
What's the one line item on a media report
that proves the partner has real transparency?
What's the one thing a faker can't produce?
What are we looking for?
A faker can't produce placement.
Yeah.
A faker can't produce placement.
And it shows that it ran on which networks
that a faker can't do that.
So if you're asking for that,
and that's probably number one.
Now, that's in addition to all the other transparency items,
which everyone on this call also uses
audience information and so forth.
But one thing you're buying is you're buying media,
and you should know what media you're buying.
And if you don't get that, you got a lot of questions
or you need to go elsewhere.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A lot of comments coming into the chat here.
I'm going to bring just a couple in.
James Klaus comes in and says,
this is a great topic and panel refreshing to hear
you fighting the same fight as us at Clover.
And mobile apps and display on the big screen
must be disclosed.
I hope you all touch on the old blended CPM on the show.
Roll display into STV and watch the impressions grow.
And any thoughts or comments from anyone on the panel
on that comment from James?
Yeah, I could take that one.
Yeah.
I mean, we've seen it in the past where
you might have 50,000 impressions of connected TV buy,
but then they've bundled in 2 million impressions
for display, right?
And so in an effect, because they're buying every
in-market consumer in a specific geo,
through display, they're touching them.
And so there is a piece there where you talk
about attribution back to sales.
Well, if you're buying every in-market
and tender display impression in the market,
of course you're going to touch somebody.
And so that bundle between those two mediums
becomes again, if you're not seeing specifically,
and I think there's even a conversation to be have
of what exactly do we define connected television as, right?
There's even that question as well, because is it?
How do you define it?
How would you define it?
How should it be defined?
For me, personally, we define it as anything
that's running on a big television screen device.
So we're not buying mobile impressions.
We're not buying tablet.
Now, there is a space for that.
I'm not arguing that, but we're just trying
to be very definitive and clarify exactly
when we're speaking and talking about buying that.
That's exactly what we're buying.
And does the industry fight you on that definition?
Do they make it gray in an attempt
to place some of that less expensively on the media,
on the handheld devices?
Shane?
I mean, you have to do your due diligence.
That's, I mean, we've even, I can won't say who,
but we even just recently had an incident
where we had a PNP in place, direct with the publisher.
And when we got back, the buy,
and when we were looking at it in our platform,
we could see that 93% of the impressions were going
somewhere where we were not intending them to go.
So if you're not actively inside of it on a day-to-day
and checking and ensuring what's the saying,
trust but verify, that's what you have to do on a daily basis.
Yeah.
Oh, I can throw that out in Russian.
Pravieritya no devieritya, right?
Trust but verify.
Back, that's a Reagan term to Gorbachev for everybody
who was around in the 80s and whatnot.
So James Klaus comes back in and says,
bingo, Shane, agreement with you.
So TrueView buys direct from publishers
instead of the open exchange.
For the dealers, never heard those words.
What's the difference in what I can verify
at the end of the month
when you're buying direct from those publishers
versus other sources?
Yeah, I would say three things.
Buying direct doesn't necessarily mean the auction disappears.
It just means that we're in a private one, right?
So the publisher sets up a deal specifically for us.
We know exactly whose inventory it is.
We've negotiated the pricing
and we get a look at that inventory
before it hits the open market.
On the open exchange, you're bidding on whatever's left
after deals like ours clear
and you often can't be certain who the real seller is.
Two is pricing intelligence.
And I think this is an important one.
I can call our partners up
and ask what supply looks like, who the seller is,
where the win rates are,
what happens to pricing in the back half of the year,
like we're about to hit the political now, right?
So those are things that we work with the publishers
and our partners to try to help navigate
so that we can help plan the budget,
the dealer's budget around it
instead of getting run over by it.
And three, and I would say this is the big one,
the reporting comes from the source.
It's not a summary,
three layers removed from what actually happened.
Yeah, but doesn't that reporting from the source
kind of cause concern though, right?
Like what's the check on it?
What's the trust book verify?
Like I will have, in my COO role,
I'll have companies come in
and they provide me reporting.
And here's what's interesting to me,
and this deals more with the lead generation side.
I'll see a ton of leads,
I'll see low conversion,
and I'll question the accuracy of the lead count.
I think the same thing goes with advertising.
You can see a ton of ad placement.
You can see some faux engagement
based on their own numbers.
Where's the best source for that data
to have it be accurate, true, and correct, Shane?
So for us, we like to basically provide receipts.
And what that means is that
we're providing the log level impression data.
So what that essentially does is show
every piece of inventory we bought,
what time we bought it,
what the price was paid for,
and the publisher.
And then we work with partners like Peer39,
and I think that would be a good question
for Mario to take as well,
because you do need to have good partners in place
that help filter out that
before we're even going to buy it.
Yeah, so it's accurate data.
Mario, what would you add to that?
Yeah, it's common practice.
I think Shelley and Chris and Shane can speak to this as well,
that you have a trust verify
and you have a measurement partner
or someone that can help enrich
the measurement piece.
The other thing that's also important
is that once you've built a trust verify relationship,
the other piece that's really important
is kind of what I would say,
like the normalization of intelligence.
A local dealer could spend across,
I don't know, 20, 30 different publishers.
So aggregating all of that reporting into one
is a daunting task, right?
So companies that help aggregate intelligence
and work within the systems that you have.
But first, you have to be able to trust and verify.
So I'm going to keep going after that.
I like it.
Can you say it in Russian?
You should be able to say it in Russian too.
We should all be able to say it.
Shelley, here's my question for you.
Can this Tier 1 discipline
actually travel down to us at Tier 3?
Not in theory, but at a real store with a real budget.
And whose job is it?
Is it the OEM?
Is it the agency?
Is it the dealer?
Shelley.
Everybody's job.
I would say we all want the same thing.
I need my dealers to sell Nissan's.
I need to help them sell Nissan's.
So we're all in this together.
And absolutely can be done,
but we have to partner.
OEMs are very advanced in this field.
Our media partners are extremely advanced.
I did work on the OEM side for a majority of my career.
And we helped Tier 3 buy into connected TV,
and they were able to access premium sports
and things that they couldn't do on their own.
Now, I will tell you, it was a small scale.
There's 100 infinity dealers,
and we picked a subset of those
to see if we could do this in practicality.
We worked with some partners.
We built two audiences.
So when I'm saying it's a small scale, scale.
So the QX60, we built a working mother's audience,
and then we were able to...
It was their money.
They were able to buy into it in CTV
because we helped them build those parameters.
We worked with another partner who built it,
and then when that deployed it,
so you have your audience building
and then your programmatic that served it.
And we knew the audience was right
because we helped them build it.
The problem is, is it takes patience.
We don't always have patience, right?
You spend it all if you want to sell a car today,
and that's just...
That's not really how it works.
We all know that.
Shelley, speaking of that patience,
thinking of a general manager
that may be placing these buys,
that may be engaging with the ad agency,
who they don't...
I think it's unfair to put necessarily
that same level of attention to detail on them.
Is this a case for having an auto group level ad bike strategy,
or what's the hope for the single store GM
that's just trying to place ads well?
How do I do that?
What's my strategy, Shelley?
What should I learn from Nissan in your efforts?
There's a ton of complexity in that, right?
But what you can learn from this
is that we can help you build the audiences.
We can tell you who to create
that we know that we can convert.
I think the data needs to be shared both at Tier 1
and at Tier 3, that's very complex,
especially once you start getting into some privacy laws.
But really, that's the sweet spot
because then you could start to see the audience overlap,
who's converting, who's not converting,
where there's incrementality.
To that point, that's like the shining star.
But in the short term, rely on your OEMs
because they want to help sell cars.
It's everybody's jobs.
Nissan can help define the audience.
Agencies can translate that into media requirements and rules.
Reporting, that's so important.
As I said earlier, you want to know
what you want to get out of this, right?
Yeah.
And if it's not working, and then always optimize,
as you said, trust Spotify, something might not work.
And that's okay.
You just have to learn from it and you have to pivot
and be able to dig in and always be optimizing.
I have a bigger team so we can do that daily,
but always look at the data and ask for more.
Yeah.
All right, we're going to come back just a moment.
We're going to talk experience here for just a second,
and then we'll come back to the entire panel
for a few rapid-fire questions.
As we ran out towards the end of today's show,
but let's talk experience for just one moment.
Smarter marketing data drives smarter growth
with Experian Automotive reaching in-market shoppers,
boost loyalty, and service revenue,
and activate powerful automotive audiences
across 30-plus platforms, which is interesting
because I think we're having conversations on that.
You can also scan the QR code here
to learn more about this service from Experian.
Props to Experian for supporting today's content,
including this elite and interesting conversation
as it relates to connected TV and ad buys
currently in the marketplace, thanks to Experian.
And Shelly, I think what you said
was super interesting about aligning with your OEM
and getting assistance from them
as it relates to help on the power of those ad buys.
We turn to the chat here.
Michael Thompson says,
it's been exciting to see more transparency
and precision come into this space at the dealer level.
CTV, OLV, streaming audio, et cetera,
without good reporting, loops are,
I lost the backside of it, loops are very...
Actually, I think he did that intentionally, dot, dot, dot.
He went into the ether there
and we didn't touch the backside of that.
All right, for the entire panel, let's talk about this.
What does shared responsibility look like
in accountability for those CTV buys across OEM,
agencies, ad tech platforms, and for dealers?
Where does each part of the chain
have the most leverage to move things forward?
And let's start with you, Shane, on that
and then go to Kristen and Mario.
Say the question again.
What is shared responsibility look like
from an OEM standpoint,
from an agency, tech platform, and dealers?
Where does each part of the chain
have the most leverage to move it forward?
It's accountability.
I mean, plain and simple, right?
It's having these conversations and, you know,
the goal really is to bring the discipline and rigor
that's happening at tier one down to tier three.
It is possible, but there has to be accountability
in place in order to do that.
Yeah, and so part of that accountability,
as Shelley says, it's asking...
Actually, both Shelley and Kristen said,
it's as you engage with your ad agency
or whoever's placing these ads,
it's to get that reporting
and that accountability reporting, right, Shane?
What percent of ad agencies would you say out there
are able and willing to provide that level of detail, Shane?
Able and willing are probably two different things.
I think to an extent, everybody is able.
I think it's, you know, and platforms like this
where we can educate and inform dealers
the right questions to ask in order to get it.
So that's really the goal here is to elevate that
just because we see the shift in dollars
moving over to the platform.
Yeah. Kristen, who has the accountability?
How do I get better accountability?
You've spoken a little bit about it,
but from your standpoint, I mean,
in your role at AutoNation,
one of the largest auto groups in the entire country,
who should be accountable for these buyers?
It's a partnership.
And I think to the points conveyed,
it starts with cross-tier alignment,
understanding manufacturers go to market plans.
It's been really interesting over the last couple of years
to watch the pendulum swing tier one,
tier two programs evolve, disappear,
and the impact that that has locally.
So I think, first, it starts with communication
and having cross-tier alignment,
so that as a dealer, you understand the investments
that are or are not being made in market.
So you can plan your strategy effectively.
Marketing is not that deep.
Where are people tuning in?
Does it have an in-market layer?
So by understanding the partnership
from a media perspective that you have
with your brand in market, it's the starting point.
From there, from a tier three perspective,
it's structuring a buy that either augments
the current go to market approach,
whether that includes awareness drivers or not,
so that you have better performance.
It's tried and true.
On my days at Volkswagen,
if any dealers are on the call,
you'll know through a mirror out of case studies
that our dollars work harder,
go further when our message is in sync.
So to your question about where does the accountability lie,
first in the manufacturer partnership,
then from a tier three perspective,
ensuring that you're making the right investments
in the right area.
Where are people tuning in
and how are you managing your buys through to sale?
It is not singularly placed on media or media partners
and your agency partners.
Yes, you need to have transparency in the buys.
You need to understand if our visual mediums
are awareness drivers,
they get you to see it here in search of work
or inevitably driving traffic to your tier three properties,
then converting and then converting through to a sale.
Because at the end of the day,
we're looking to maximize the ROI of our investments.
So we spent a lot of time talking about
how we get the traffic there, converting that traffic,
or why it's not from the media placements
that were put in market to the points conveyed earlier.
I might not have the right targeting.
I might not have the right buy structure.
It is a two-way street up and downstream for sure.
How do you fine tune that, Kristen?
Actually, from your perspective and your role at AutoNation,
like you certainly are making these ad buys,
you're placing these messages,
and then you're measuring, as Shelley said,
an impact and engagement down the pipeline.
What advice would you give to single-point GMs
or single-point dealers trying to do the same as you, Kristen?
I would say don't trip over dollar bills
to pick up nickels when you're placing your buys.
The points conveyed here, not all inventories create an equal.
If you have a partner that's willing to give you
transparency into where your buys are being placed,
you have clear communication on the fees.
The CPMs will follow.
Don't be afraid to pay a little more up front for a lead
and be accountable for your process to handle the traffic
that's coming in.
There could be cost implications,
reasons why you're willing to pay a bit more
for a sale of a particular vehicle.
Don't be afraid to have that conversation.
I think it gets back to don't trip over dollar bills to pick up nickels.
We have, as a retail body, inherently created bad behaviors
to the point Shane can be about blended inventory.
We're looking for lower CPMs.
It is in our DNA to negotiate.
It's a race to the bottom though, Kristen, isn't it?
It can be.
And for many dealers, optimizing to a lead model
and evaluating success based on the volume of leads
or phone calls being driven, that is an inherent bad behavior
that I think has been systemic when dealers have really
leaned in heavily to a digital first approach.
But the reality is the market's constrained right now.
We have to create that demand,
which is why we're having this podcast.
The need to invest in awareness drivers is real.
The change in manufacturer strategies,
investments are not from a national perspective, is real.
These are things we have to begin leading into
and we have to begin breaking the bad behaviors
that exist from a retail perspective
to throttle our business forward.
Shane, Kristen makes an elite point that in our attempts
to negotiate the best cardio possible
with our media company or our ad buys,
we're trying to get the least expensive dollars.
Are a lot of dealers tripping over dollars
for nickels out there by going for the cheapest?
And they make it worse that way?
It's the way it's positioned.
I think the beautiful thing about what we're talking
about today is the one thing we can all agree on
is that TV works.
So that's the non-negotiable.
And when you operate from that foundation,
the whole conversation changes at that point, right?
So now it's just about quality versus quantity.
And again, knowing that TV works,
I think it's okay to pay higher CPMs knowing that,
hey, it's going to be real inventory with a real eyeball.
And we know it's going to drive some sort of action,
whether it's a website visit, VDP view,
or going into the dealership.
But we see it time and time again,
because we do track back to look at market shares specifically.
And because we know TV works,
it's amazing that when you buy it the right way
and you get in front of the right people,
the end result is you move the needle.
Yeah.
All right, Mario, anything to add to that
before we go into a rapid fire session here?
We can go to rapid fire.
I'm ready.
I'm ready.
All right, let's do rapid fire.
All right, what's one data point
you'd force into every dealer media report?
Mario, let's start with you and then Shelley.
I mean, we've hit on this a lot.
If we're talking CTV specifically
and you're buying at scale programmatically,
you need to ask them where they're at, Grant.
That's it.
If they can't say that,
that'll be one of the clearest indicators
that you may not have the right partner.
Because it exists.
Shane and I are doing a lot of work together.
It exists.
So that would be the one thing I would say.
And what's the biggest objection
to providing you that clearly?
Well, what happens at the local dealer level
is they may not be as sophisticated.
So you have large sales teams coming in
and providing solutions that are glossy
with efficient CPMs that may have, like what Shane said,
2000000 impressions of display or OLV
and then 1000000 of seats.
So it looks nice on the outside,
but is it generating the result?
Is it connecting to the right systems?
And I think that's why this type of podcast
is so, so important for the dealers
to just be curious and get educated
on what should happen in the ecosystem.
Shelley, do you agree with Mario?
Is there anything you'd add?
I would.
Yeah, this is a little media speak,
but that's why I'm here.
So I would tell them verified,
unduplicated reach and frequency.
Impressions don't tell the story.
They're big numbers,
but they can really mask the true impact.
They can't tell you if they drove scale.
It may impact.
You might be scaling to waste.
So don't just chase those big numbers.
It's easy for us to do.
It's easy to understand what an impression is.
But make sure you're really looking
at the reach and frequency.
You're hitting the right people
in the right amount of time.
All right, Kristen, agree with Shelley?
Anything you'd add before we go to Shane?
I do. Multi-channel attribution.
I think we have the Clifidae to lean
into digital first approach
because that's what drove the lead,
the VDP view.
Having multi-channel attribution
will give you a full view
on what's driving customer engagement.
So if there's one thing I could leave
the dealer body with,
let's get with your agency
and ensure that the connective tissue exists
within your tactics, for sure.
Love it. Shane, agree on anything you'd add?
I'd add one more thing.
I would be asking the question
of how much of every dollar
actually bought media, right?
Between the agency fee, the DSP fee,
the measurement fee, the audience fee,
like there is a lot in there
from the consumer back to the publisher
and I think clarifying
what that specifically looks like
will help a lot of dealers.
Good call. All right.
Next up, we're going to do a gut check.
Five years from now,
do you think CTV is more transparent
or less transparent?
What's the trend?
Shane, we'll start with you
and then go, Kristen.
I think the technology
gets more transparent every year.
The question is whether the incentives
of the people selling it
to the dealers ever do.
Yeah.
But it's people asking the questions
we're creating here
that will force some transparency.
Kristen, thoughts?
More or less.
I couldn't agree with you more.
You have to ask the question.
The data exists.
It's not a matter of will it be
more or less transparent.
It's about your partner's willingness
to share that information.
And if they're not today,
you've heard here clearly it exists.
Probably not the right partner for you.
Yeah. Mario?
So it will absolutely be more transparent.
I'm just talking on the signal perspective
and the reason why,
because we're already seeing this happen,
18 months ago,
there was maybe one or two publishers
and suppliers doing this.
Now we're well over 50 plus
with multi-publisher.
Now what happens is the service providers
for regional dealers
are going to start to see more success
when they have better transparency
and program signals in CTV.
So if those other companies
that are selling to them,
if they're not doing it,
they're going to show them something new
and then the market will just accelerate.
It'll be one of those slow at first
and then everything all at once
kind of situation.
And it starts here.
Shall we agree?
More transparent, definitely for sure.
And especially with this,
like we use this for best practices.
We expect greater accountability and visibility.
Anybody, your investment bankers,
this is your money.
You have to make sure you're getting
that return on investment.
So ask the questions.
Make sure it's moving the business.
If you're not seeing increases in sales
and other attributions,
it might not be working.
All right.
Kristen, as head of auto nations
at our marketing folks,
I think this last question,
a lot of dealers are going to be listening to.
If you're a single point dealer, Kristen,
and you have a 20 K a month budget for connected TV,
what's the first call you make tomorrow
to efficiently, effectively put that to use?
Well, you heard it here.
It's first ensuring that you have the right partner
that can give you the right level of transparency.
At the end of the day,
CTV is a digital tactic.
It gives us the ability to effectively reach consumers
who are in market.
So no matter which partner I'm going to work with,
we'll have to call me afterwards
for specific recommendations.
But I would be with ensure that your partner
is giving you the right level of transparency
where your buys are, what you're paying for.
And that reporting is there to support it.
Post impression traffic exists.
Multi-channel attribution is a real thing.
And if you're not getting that to the point,
Shelley conveyed,
you should move your dollars elsewhere.
All right.
Shelley, any additional guidance
to add on to Kristen?
20K a month.
I'm a dealer.
And I want to get into it and be efficient, effective.
Yeah. Don't let a low CPM make you think
that you bought the right media.
So I like that.
Yeah. That is a theme from today.
I love that theme, by the way.
An expensive media could also be lower quality,
low attention, not brand safe.
So yeah, really easy to be like,
that number looks good.
But if it's not the right people
and then they're not in the right place,
you wasted your money.
Yeah. Mario 20K, you got it.
Dealer asking you, where do I take it?
Well, the first question,
if I'm a dealer after watching the show,
I would say what content worked the best last week?
And just let it cook, see what comes back.
Yeah. Yeah. Shane?
Yeah. I think everything that we've described today
is really more about a buying problem
and not a medium problem.
And pulling out or streaming
because your buy was bad is like quitting the dream
because your trainer was lazy, right?
So I would say, pull your last invoice
and last report and put them side by side
and ask whether the report really lines up
and proves the invoice out.
Then send the email right back to your provider as well.
You're not necessarily looking for fraud,
you're just looking at how your partner responds to being asked.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, it's been a heck of a lot of fun this panel has
and it's enlightened me at my level.
And you know, it is fair, it's true.
Kristen, I think Sarah Shelley did, many did.
You know, in automotive, we spend a lot of money,
almost 10 billion all told.
We're not professional ad buyers.
And so discussions like this with transparency
into how OEMs act, how large auto groups act,
and how ad companies act really gives me some direction
on how to put better place those dollars
and really demand better transparency go forward.
So Shane, Helms, Shelley, Pratt, Mario, Diaz,
and Kristen Coleman, thank you all
for being on today's Daily Deal Alive
and the special roundtable.
I appreciate it. Thank you.
Great job.
All right. Well, here's my takeaway.
I love, I had a fun panel today to everybody that came in.
Paul Salisman saying,
there's no set and forget in marketing
as much as we'd like it to be.
Great content like these panels shows within specific verticals.
And Dan C sometimes you need to get out of the clouds
at 40,000 feet and start looking at the details
on the ground level.
Many listeners coming in saying, keep it up.
So here's my takeaway.
CTV, it's not the problem, the audience is there.
90% of car shoppers, they're streaming.
The problem is dealers are being asked to buy it blind
with none of the discipline brands demand
when they spend nine figures.
And there's a whole supply chain that's fine with that.
It changes the moment you start asking the questions
that you heard today.
And we had some elite voices on today's show
from significant companies giving us direction.
Ask for the show, not the app.
Ask for verified numbers, not a screenshot.
Ask where your 36 cents went.
And that really, in a lot of ways,
equals up to a dealer bill of rights
as it relates to CTV product placement and advertising.
So to everybody that was part of the panel today,
thanks for being here.
And to you, our Daily Dealer Live listening audience,
thanks for watching Daily Dealer Live
where we break down the biggest news items
in the automotive world.
Don't forget, we're here live every Monday, Wednesday,
Friday, 1 p.m. Eastern,
which means we'll be back this Wednesday.
So if this is your world, hit like, hit subscribe,
turn on those notifications so you never, ever miss a beat.
And we'll see you next episode.
Thanks for being here, everybody.
About this episode
Dealers are spending nearly $10 billion on advertising, but the panel argues the industry’s visibility is lagging—especially as connected TV and streaming buys move into fast auctions and “black box” systems. They break down why transparency gaps happen (missing program data, opaque placement, and bid-request limitations), how to measure beyond impressions (reach/frequency, downstream behaviors, post-impression traffic), and what dealers should demand from partners. The discussion also ties accountability to fees, verification, and even dealer review communication.
Original notes
Today's show features:
- Shane Helms, Founder / CEO at TrueView Media Group
- Shelley Pratt, Director, Media, Activations, and Business Intelligence at Nissan USA
- Kristin Coleman, Vice President Marketing at AutoNation
- Mario Diez, CEO at Peer39
This episode is brought to you by:
Experian – Experian Automotive helps marketers identify and engage high-value auto shoppers, strengthen customer loyalty, grow service revenue, and activate 1,100+ automotive audiences across 30+ advertising platforms. Learn more here: https://carguymedia.com/3RTNi9H
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