Once a far-away Jetsons-type concept, the driverless car revolution is coming sooner than many might realize, and savvy dealers will need to be prepared for the changes that it brings. From your technology to your communications and sales processes, the self-driving car revolution will touch virtually every part of your business. It’s a big change, but it’s also an exciting opportunity for dealers to find new and creative ways to connect even further with their target audience.
A recent article in Ad Age, titled The Next Big Mobile Ad Platform -- Your Car: How Marketing Will be Impacted by Self-Driving Cars, discusses the dramatic evolution of the driving experience. With distracted-driver safety concerns gone, drivers will now be able to work, play and engage with their devices, vehicles and surroundings. Even the vernacular will change… technically they won’t even be drivers. They’ll be passengers!
Imagine if the already significant amounts of time people spend in their vehicles afforded still more opportunities to connect, communicate and consume media. From an advertising and communications perspective, that cultural and experiential shift will change the way passengers experience what is in and around their vehicle. Billboards will very likely decline and may even be replaced entirely by augmented reality on phones, mobile devices and even car windows. Opportunities will exist to “complement, not disrupt, passenger experiences with branded overlays of real-world places and geo filters that make the outside world seem a bit more magical.” Geo-local content will explode, as apps offer deals and messaging based on specific businesses and locations. Apps like Google Allo can be car specific, enabling chat and search tools.
The car of the future will serve as a “brand new digital platform”– perhaps second only to the smartphone as a powerful and ubiquitous point of connection to car owners/consumers. Vehicles becoming vehicles for communication is the next step in fluid connectivity of work, home, family and now things.
