News

PCG Digital Marketing announced that Alex Snyder was chosen to receive the Lighthouse 2010 Automotive Website Award (AWA) for active participation and his contributions to online automotive communities.  The awards were presented to the leading automotive website companies, developers , and social media advocates at the AWA breakfast ceremony in Las Vegas on October 12, 2010.

As the automotive industry increases its reliance on digital marketing, website technology, analytics, and mobile applications, it must find ways to educate its members.   Some of the best education is coming from industry peers.

The 2010 AWA Lighthouse Award recognizes one individual in the automotive community who serves the online community unselfishly with thoughtful articles, encouragement, and  engagement.   The award was created to encourage others to serve the online community with their experience passionately.

Bob Burg, co-author of The Go-Giver, recorded a video congratulating the automotive industry’s Go-Giver Alex Snyder, contributing writer at DealerRefresh.com.    The video was greeted with great enthusiasm by attendees who also received a copy of The Go-Giver to read.

Alex Snyder is the Director of Product Research at Dealer.com. He is responsible for helping shape the future of the company’s product line. Prior to joining Dealer.com, Mr. Snyder was the director of e-commerce at Checkered Flag Automotive Group and was instrumental in their becoming a top 100 e-Commerce Dealer in varying automotive publications, as well as the No. 1 dealership website of the year in 2008.

The 3^rd annual Automotive Website Awards (AWA) were created by PCG Digital Marketing, recognized leaders in automotive digital marketing strategies.  For 2010, PCG Digital Marketing recognized the industry’s best website platforms across three different categories: design, technology and search marketing.

The Automotive Website Awards seek to provide car dealers with an unbiased evaluation of automotive website platforms and integrated search marketing tools.  The 2010 AWA study included a review of over 50 automotive website providers.

This year’s published study includes 160 pages of valuable information regarding automotive website platform choices, search marketing performance, design and technology. The report is the industry’s reference guide for the best in automotive website technology and design.

Download a full PDF version of the Automotive Website Awards study .

The 2010 ASMA report will be exciting and all members of the automotive community should remind their website vendors that the initial applications are due on Monday August 2, 2010. Final data submissions and completed applications are due on August 27, 2010.

Applications received between August 3-6th will be assessed a late fee of $300.

Applications after August 6th will not be accepted.

If you work at car dealership and love your website platform, make sure your website vendor enters to be part of this annual award of excellence. We will be once again selecting the best website platforms to assist dealers with their search marketing needs.

Digital marketing is THE place for growth in spending in 2010 and 2011 and the 2010 ASMA report will assist car dealers in selecting a platform that will reward that increased investment with a stronger ROI.

ASMA Vendor Features Grid

Some questions have been asked by automotive website vendors about the extended list of website platform feature questions in this year’s application. In the 2010 ASMA report we will be creating for the first time a master grid of website features and applications offered by vendors.

For example, some vendors offer Video SEO and some do not. Some offer unlimited page building and other don’t. Some offer integrated chat and others do not. There is no master list that lines up platforms and features, but there will now, as a bonus in the 2010 ASMA report.

We also added some functionality questions that do not affect SEO like integrated CRM. We were asked why this question was included and our response is that it enhances the features grid. It is not being asked to add any weight in the award selection process for integrated CRM.

A few vendors offers their own CRM product and others use third parties. This does not impact the search visibility of a website but having that feature column will help dealers compare vendors for specific criteria they may be interested in.

ASMA Award Integrity

The 2010 ASMA report is unique in that it combines vendor provided data as well as independently verified data by our ASMA review staff. The report is funded by PCG Digital Marketing and is wholly managed and owned by PCG. Here are some additional points of clarification:

• If vendors do not submit an application for the awards it does not mean that the ASMA team will not perform an analysis from public information and our own testing. In this case, the vendor has chosen not to clearly answer the matrix of questions about their products.
• We will review ALL vendors again who were in the 2009 ASMA report regardless of their formal participation and application submission. Any vendors that did not feel that their platform was accurately represented in 2009 should participate in the formal application process.
• Without vendor particpation in the application process, the ASMA team may be reviewing old technology. This is because we will pick websites at random unless otherwise dictated from formal applications.
• If there is a question on the application you do not want to or cannot answer – leave them blank. If any question you feel would compromise your technological advantage, leave it blank.

Our independent analysis and honest reporting has won the respect of the automotive industry and this year will be no different. Each year the ASMA study and awards will seek to be relevant to the needs of car dealers and the changing landscape of the automotive industry. We encourage all members of the automotive community in website design to particpate.

ASMA Applications can be obtained by contacting Carrie Hemphill at: 732-450-8200

Below are photos of the dual award winners of the 2009 ASMA Awards.  The dual award winners were Dealer.com, TK Carsites and DealerTrend.  We congratulate all nine companies that were presented with an award of excellence this year.

Click on this link for a full a list of all the 2009 ASMA Winners.  Brian Pasch, CEO of the PCG Digital Marketing, congratulates the winners.