his year (2008) will perhaps be a landmark year in terms of digital advertising for US automakers. With analysts predicting unit sales to be slipping below the 16 million mark regional dealer associations are bound to take a firmer grip on their spending. Industry experts believe that this would result in transfer of advertising dollars from television to internet.

The shift to online advertising can be attributed to the fact that in the face of decreasing sales automakers would concentrate their marketing efforts on retaining old customers rather than gaining new ones. This would entail greater product advertising, and customer relationship management programs. Internet becomes the most cost effective route for this. ... more