Latest / Auto Collabs / Relevant Near Me with Jeff Revilla

Transcript

Relevant Near Me with Jeff Revilla · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  When I was a kid, I tried to skate, and I was terrible at it. [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs. Like roller skate in the skating rink? No. Like couple- couple skate? [laughs] Like, no.
• 0:17
  Goodness, are you serious? I was an all-pro four-wheel skater. But no, when we're talking about, [laughs] when we're talking about- Tight pants and all. [laughs] Had 'em rolled up, triple rolled.
• 0:28
  [laughs] Doing 90s like it was my job, right? Tube socks.
• 0:32
  [laughs] Uh, no, so our next guest, probably one of the first ways that I was introduced to him is that he owned a skate shop, uh, we're talking, like, board skates, uh, in the late '90s and early 2000s.
• 0:46
  It's called a skateboard. Yeah. [laughs] A skateboard. Board skate. Board skate shop. [laughs] Skateboard. Hey, this is how much I know about skateboarding, all right? Board with wheels.
• 0:55
  I tried it one time, fell on my rear, and I was done, right? That's it. [laughs] But the- that's, like, the first way I get introduced to Jeff Revilla.
• 1:02
  The second way is he shared a video with a group of my friends that was him in his skate shop creating content, and at the end of the video, he takes all of the skate stuff in front of him and throws it at his producer.
• 1:17
  [laughs] Because of that one thing, this video goes on to get hundreds of thousands of views. Really? Ooh. And thus starts the story of Jeff Revilla, the consummate content creator. Oh, my goodness.
• 1:29
  Like, how long ago was that? Uh, it was probably, like, late 2000s, early, early 2010, somewhere in there. I don't know when the video- I didn't know you'd, you've known about him for that long.
• 1:37
  No, oh, I haven't known him. Oh. I just got shared that video, like- Oh, that was the video... just a couple years ago, yeah. So you're saying he's been doing this for a while. He's been doing it a hot minute, yeah.
• 1:45
  Man, he's one of the people that I can't... Is he coming to ASOTU CON? He absolutely is. I cannot wait to meet him. Yeah, he's coming to ASOTU CON. He's gonna be a part of...
• 1:52
  He's a part of the Auto Genius community, so he's gonna be in that dealers pitching vendors, pitch tank- Oh, okay... type of arena.
• 1:58
  And it's really interesting because you, you look across marketers in our, in our industry and you see these super analytical, highly dedicated process people, especially in a director role, but so many of them c- come from this creative ecosystem.
• 2:13
  And, and that's what really makes them great. Because they're not just great creators, but that allows them to be creative in the way that they create processes or engage their community.
• 2:23
  Uh, and, and he's someone that's done that really, really well. Good night. Michael, have you ever skateboarded? Um, I was not allowed, so I would borrow my friend's skateboards.
• 2:35
  And now that I think about it, why wasn't I allowed? We didn't have to, like, pay for hospital visits. [laughs] This is the dumbest- Yeah. What the heck? Now I'm, now I'm enraged.
• 2:44
  But, uh, I used to sneak- I have to go call my dad... into the backyard and just l- practice doing kickflips on the grass. [laughs] 'Cause, like, it still got me skating, but, like- [laughs]... not visible.
• 2:55
  But I'm sure my mom was just, like, peering through the blinds being like, "My son's an idiot" Shaking her head. Yeah, no.
• 3:01
  But you know what I, I was gonna say, I, and I hope, I, I really hope we get to kinda dig into this with Jeff, um, content creating for that long, methinks there must be something to it.
• 3:13
  [laughs] And here we are in 2022 still trying to convince the people about the power of, of content creation. Yeah. So I hope that everybody enjoys this conversation with Jeff Revilla.
• 3:23
  [upbeat music] All right, Jeff Revilla, the man, the myth, the legend.
• 3:34
  Probably, honestly, I think, Jeff, you may hold the, the, like, place in my heart and actually own the trophy for the greatest GIF/meme creator in automotive. Are you okay with that statement?
• 3:49
  [laughs] I mean, I'll accept it, I'll accept it. I did notice on, uh, for the conference, everybody else got an automotive credit.
• 3:55
  They're like, you know, director of this and invented this, and then I, all, my only credit for the conference was, uh, smoothest voice in podcasting, which I- [laughs]...
• 4:04
  I was like, I was like, nothing I do ever gets an automotive credit. But, you know, I do, I do stuff. [laughs] That's great. No, uh, yeah.
• 4:13
  So Jeff Revilla, uh, uh, w- is, um, uh, is your technical title director of marketing at Smail, is that right? Or is it- I like to say digital marketing director. Digital marketing. Yeah. I like it. Okay, cool, awesome.
• 4:24
  Fancy. It's fancy like that. Yeah. Well, d- Jeff, tell me a little bit, because your history is not in automotive.
• 4:31
  You've kind of, like, you've touched a lot of marketing eco- ecosystems, so give us a little bit of history a- about, like, where you were pre-automotive and, and then how- Yeah...
• 4:41
  that's led you into the automotive space for, uh, probably a lot of our listening audience that doesn't know.
• 4:46
  Yeah, the only thing I have in common the last 20 years is I've only worked in industries that have four wheels. [laughs] Before automotive, I had a skateboard shop. I did skateboard manufacturing at a skateboard park.
• 4:56
  I did that for about eight years, and, uh, I, I bought this old building from a guy, um, and I didn't know anything. I was like 25, and my dad's like, "Go tell this guy you'll give him, uh, $3,000 for a building."
• 5:08
  And I'm like, "Are you sure?" And he's like, my dad's like, "Yeah, do it." [laughs] And I'm like, "Okay." So I go to the, I get a meeting with this guy to open up my skate shop.
• 5:15
  I say, "Hey, I'm gonna buy this building from you. I'm gonna give you $3,000." He throws me out of his restaurant, we met at a restaurant. Naturally.
• 5:21
  [laughs] And, uh, he calls me back and says, "I, I can't do 3,000, but I'll do it for 11." So I bought a build- my first building I bought, I bought for $11,000. Oh, man. It was like 8,000 square feet.
• 5:32
  [laughs] It was, it was in a very rundown area, but the roof- Wow... had good, it had good guts, they say. Good roof, good guts. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, that was like 2001. I started, um, a skateboard shop.
• 5:41
  I did, uh, mail order retail, uh, all over the place. Early on e-commerce. Wow. And, uh, you know, it kinda went from there. It kinda kept growing and growing.
• 5:51
  The wheels got bigger and bigger, I guess, and more expensive as, uh, my career went on. So, so how did those four wheels of a skateboard turn you into an automotive marketer? Like, what, what was the...
• 6:02
  [laughs] How did, how did that- Yeah... uh, that transition happen? I, I mean, you, you know me, too. I'm a little rough around the edges.
• 6:08
  Uh, I do have that skateboarding, punk rock, uh, mentality where everything's- Yeah... kinda malleable. Rules aren't really rules. We can make things, uh, work. But I didn't even know I was a marketer.
• 6:18
  Like-I had, I was just running a, a skateboard shop. Mm. But, you know, I'm buying AdWords in, in, you know, 2002, 2003. Um, uh, Overture was a big, uh, paid search with Yahoo. Right.
• 6:28
  They were doing a Yahoo search at that time. And, you know, I'm, I'm optimizing pages, I'm building catalogs, and I'm doing all this stuff.
• 6:35
  And after I closed my shop, people started asking me, like, "How do you do a website?" Or, you know, you know, "What is," you know, "What's MySpace or Friendster?" You know, little things like that.
• 6:44
  And, and I kind of explain, like, you know, how you register a domain name. How... And I'm, I'm answering all these questions all over the place.
• 6:50
  And I'll- You're like, "I was, like, trying to sell some skateboards over here, though." [laughs] Yeah.
• 6:54
  I, but I developed this set of skills that I didn't even know w- was, it, it was more valuable than my college education. And I just kept building on it and building on it.
• 7:03
  And I would do consulting, I'd get some side gigs. And I'd tell people these crazy numbers, and they would pay it. And I was like, "Okay, I guess I'm doing all right." [laughs] I love it. I love it.
• 7:13
  So, so maybe walk me through, like, where...
• 7:16
  Because obviously, coming from, like, buying AdWords and buying, buying ads on Overture back in the early 2000s to, like, what you're doing now from a digital marketing perspective, there's, there's been a lot of transition that you've, that you've seen and gone through.
• 7:33
  But I guess maybe what's the through line to things that, that have stayed consistent, to things that you have always needed to make su- Like, you're like, "If you do these things," or, "If I've done these things," they just, they stay consistent, though the mediums or the resources or anything like that would change.
• 7:51
  Yeah. Like, the one thing they do have in common is conversions don't really happen online in either industry. With, with skateboarding, it's mostly 12-year-old boys just clicking on ads and looking at pictures.
• 8:01
  And they're not buying stuff, right? But you gotta get in front of them to get their parents to buy the stuff. And in automotive, you know, people click on stuff, they're looking at pictures.
• 8:10
  They don't really buy stuff online, right? But they're in a process of 30, 60, 90 days to find that right vehicle. So I've never really been in an industry where...
• 8:19
  You know, there's conversions, obviously, in e-commerce. But automotive, the last 10 years, you don't buy a car online. Especially in Pennsylvania, you can't even do that. Right.
• 8:27
  But, you know, h- you know, how do you serve that audience? How do you create stuff that gets in front of them, right? That's kind of, I'm sure, is what we'll get into with some of the video stuff that we've been doing.
• 8:38
  And how, how do you maintain time on site? How do you get people back? How do you increase your presence in the search engines? And, you know, there's a lot of things you could do. There's a lot of ways to do it.
• 8:50
  Um, you know, one way that we've been doing has been, uh, pretty successful. Yeah. So, so talk about that.
• 8:56
  Because I think when people hear marketer a lot, they think about, like, "Is that person doing a good job managing my paid search and my social ads and my, my website?"
• 9:07
  But you've taken a much broader approach to that, especially being, like, a digital marketing director or manager, right? That, that it, that the ecosystem is a lot wider, and specifically with video and content.
• 9:19
  So tell us a little about, like, how you see that broad ecosystem playing, playing really well together.
• 9:24
  And then maybe give, give some insight on exactly what you've done with, like, your YouTube and video and content strategy. Yeah.
• 9:31
  It's not, it's not just conversions, 'cause we, we know, you know, you hear the stories, 60% of people walk into the dealership never made contact with the dealer, right?
• 9:40
  So, you know, I can get some sort of data from 40%, but 60% you can't, right? Right. And that's still the majority. So how do you keep those people engaged?
• 9:49
  H- how do you make sure that you're top, top of mind when it does come time to make that ch- that choice who they're gonna buy from?
• 9:56
  And we, about, I think I brought in a videographer maybe 2014, 2015, and we did what every dealer out there does. "Look at us, we're great. We got these great cars. We got these great deals. Us, us, us, us.
• 10:11
  It's all about us," right? Mm. And we, we kind of started with, like, "Look at these cars that we have." And around that time, we were like, well, that's just, like...
• 10:20
  You, you've seen automotive dealer YouTube channels, right? They get three views- Right... 20 views. Some of the good dealers, you know, they get 50 views, right? Um, well, we, we took, we kind of pivoted.
• 10:30
  We're like, we're, we're Smail Auto Group. We're Smail the brand. We have 10 franchises. What if, what if we took some sort of concept, like, like a structured television concept of a series, like, um...
• 10:43
  And, and we, and we, we looked at three different ways to create video. One was what we thought was an unboxing video. Kind of, you always see people unbox a new cellphone.
• 10:53
  You hear them take off the cellophane and- Right... pull the box. You hear that suction of the air. And, um, we're like, "Well, what if we did that for cars?
• 11:01
  And what if we did it with somebody who didn't, wasn't really a car person?" Uh, we call that first look. That's the first drive or first look.
• 11:09
  And that's just an ex- That's just somebody going through all the things that a normal person would push and pull and press and recline and open and close. Not even talking about horsepower or miles per gallon.
• 11:21
  We, we don't even care about that. We just, what do you do every day in a car? So we, we shifted from w- what do, who are we as a dealer, to what do people use a vehicle for.
• 11:31
  And then, then we do- So do you use people internally for that? Or are you, like, finding customers or friends or things like that to do that? Internally. All internally. Okay. Um, we don't, uh, we have different series.
• 11:42
  And that one isn't, that one's done by people in the marketing department, so they're not salespeople. They're not trying to sell you a car. They're just trying to use the car in the way that you would.
• 11:51
  And, and we- Mm... we have a, we live in the mountains of Pennsylvania, so we have these great back roads.
• 11:56
  So we do another, uh, with a ride-along, where you sit in the back seat while you're, the salesperson's taking you on a drive through the hills of Greensburg. Ah.
• 12:03
  And when we changed these two things, so now you see the car performing, right? Up and down and around the bends, and you hear the acceleration, you see the radius of a U-turn. We do, uh, uh, backing in using the camera.
• 12:16
  And when we change from this is us, like, we are awesome, uh, we're, you know, buy us, us, us, Greensburg Car Sales, to this is how you use a vehicle-I, w- I, that was the first time I, in a long, I saw a hockey stick growth.
• 12:30
  Like, we went from, you know, 50 views a day, we get about 400, 500,000 views a month on our videos now, uh, month after month. And it g- it's grow slightly, you know, here and there. Wow.
• 12:41
  But that change from, "Hey, this is who we are, this is what we do" You said, did you say 4 to 500,000 views a month across the group? Yes, correct. Okay. So- Yeah... break that down. So you got 4 to 500,000- Yeah...
• 12:55
  views, and obviously this is, like, y- you started this back, what, seven, eight years ago, something like that now at this point- Correct... where you've kinda created this. So 4 to 500,000 views a month.
• 13:05
  You've got, how many videos would you say you're producing on a monthly basis now as, as this kind of, like, content feed grows?
• 13:12
  Pretty consistently with, you know, including, like, reels and TikToks and vertical video, we're in the 25, 30 videos a month. So I, I know we, we kinda one time it was over 300, or 3,000 videos before.
• 13:25
  We're probably at 3,500 videos easily, uh, over those seven years. And we, I have a tremendous photographer. And a part also what we haven't talked about was I am process driven, and I- Right.
• 13:37
  [laughs] Um, we have structure. Like, as loose as I am, and you know how loose I am, and, and the nonsense that I bring to AutoGenius- [laughs] But that nonsense also creates structure that- Yeah...
• 13:49
  uh, and, empowers and enables my team to just produce. I'm not a, I'm not a guy that hovers. I don't say, "This needs done, this needs done." They know what needs done.
• 13:58
  They have a great time doing it, and we, and we publish. Yeah. And, and when we saw that growth too, l- now let's be honest too, 4 to 500,000 views isn't Western Pennsylvania. That's not Greensburg people- Sure...
• 14:09
  um, looking at our videos. It may be 10% are Pennsylvania, maybe 5% of that are even Western Pennsylvania.
• 14:17
  So, you know, we're talking, you know, 30 to 40,000 are probably local to us out of that, out of that whole batch. But what we realized is w- we didn't care.
• 14:27
  Because when you look at our, our video SEO, when you look at referrals for, we don't just get YouTube referrals, which we can talk about you're either dead or you're not if you're not getting recommended. Right.
• 14:38
  But you start to see the, we get 5, 10% of those views from search engine, or from other res- from other places. It's not our blog, right? Nobody goes to auto dealer blogs, uh, on purpose. [laughs] Um.
• 14:50
  It's, they just trip- But it's co-... into 'em every once in a while. Yeah. "Ah, I get here." [laughs] Yeah. That's what my joke is.
• 14:56
  Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, "I wonder what my local car dealer did on their blog overnight?" Right.
• 15:00
  Uh, yeah, nobody ca- But when, when someone looks for, you know, who is the most relevant Honda dealer in my area, who's the most relevant Acura dealer?
• 15:10
  Well, this content that's getting seen globally gives you that hyper-focus locally, where you'll see, uh, you might search for a model, you might see a couple ads, you might see your organic listing, which is even better.
• 15:23
  But then you'll see that video pack. Mm. And we show up in that video pack so often for so many searches that it's, th- that's where the investment is. And we- Yeah...
• 15:35
  and you can a- Because we've been going for so long, all of our stores have qualified for the ads program.
• 15:42
  So now we start thinking, well, and, and Google made some changes early in the year, whether or not you're in the ads program or not, they're gonna run ads. You can't out- Right... you can't opt out anymore, right?
• 15:52
  So we're like, well, if we can't opt out and they're gonna make money on us, and 90% of our vi- views are all around the world, well, let's, let's, uh, let's, uh, take a little of that scratch, right? Right.
• 16:02
  [laughs] Let's take a, a, I want a little taste. Give me a little taste of that, Google. So we've opted in, and now we monetize our, we kinda do this donut strategy, right?
• 16:10
  We care about our backyard, but we also don't care about outside of our backyard. So- Okay... if somebody watches our video in California or Nevada, and they get, they get use out of it, great. You know what?
• 16:20
  I get ad revenue out of it.
• 16:22
  So now I'm taking these views from ar- globally and funneling that into, you know, a nice little chunk of change every month we get deposited into our account that I can use for new equipment, I can use to compensate- Yeah.
• 16:35
  So, so you're using- Yeah... that for, like, putting it back into the marketing team, right? Yeah. We're g- we're going to conferences. We're, uh, upgrading our equipment.
• 16:44
  We're comping, you know, salespeople with gift cards, so wherever they want. Uh, we're spending that and, and, and really just building the program bigger and bigger. Now it's, now you see that scale. Right. Not Mr.
• 16:54
  Beast level scale, but we're, you know- [laughs]... we're doing all right. [laughs] No, that's, that's really cool.
• 16:59
  You know, you said something as you were going there that I think is, is a really interesting kinda concept that I think as marketers, you know, i- it's all, it's all been about SEO, and everybody, it's like you gotta show up for near me searches, right?
• 17:13
  Mm. Everybody's searching near me, and whether or not it's actually, like, a near me search, it's a location-based search. Yeah. But, and it's all about just accessibility or availability.
• 17:22
  But you said something that really caught my, my ear, and I think this is something that marketers and, and content creators and, and even dealers maybe can be thinking about, and maybe you can add some context, 'cause I'm sure you've thought about it.
• 17:33
  But you said relevant near me, that there's, that there's- Yeah...
• 17:38
  a, there's actually an importance to having some level of relevance and, and there's, like, social proof and video proof and, and all of the things that say, like, no, this person has relevance and authority, not just accessibility.
• 17:52
  M- yeah, uh, I'm guessing you've thought about that a little bit. [laughs] Right? I have some theories. Yeah. I mean, locally by far your number one best bet is, is your Google Business Profile.
• 18:02
  Hands down, 100%, optimize that. That'll crush locally, uh, phenomenal.
• 18:07
  But when you get s- when you start to get outside of those searches or, you know, that's, it starts, as you get away from make geo a little bit, that, you know, that relevance of Google Business Profile fades a little.
• 18:17
  But when I'm a Honda dealer and somebody's searching locally, you know, my, my c- idea is that I'm probably the most relevant Honda dealer in Western Pennsylvania.
• 18:27
  No one's producing a-Content at the scale that we are getting... We just had the, I think it was the 2023 HRV video, 100,000 views in the last six weeks. Like, like- Wow...
• 18:38
  no one's gonna outbeat me on 100,000 organic, uh, HRV views in Western Pennsylvania. So when people start searching for, you know, "I need a HRV in Western Pennsylvania", I'm gonna be there in that video pack.
• 18:51
  I'm, I am the most relevant Honda dealer in Western Pennsylvania. I've gotta win that search, right? Wow. Yeah.
• 18:58
  Well, and, and not just that, but, like, when you think about search engines today, there are three top search engines. Top is Google. Second is not Bing, it's YouTube. Third is also not Bing, it's TikTok, right? Yeah.
• 19:14
  [laughs] So, like, when you talk about this content, you're, you're literally feeding all of the search engines that someone could possibly be trying to find relevancy in a local area. It's, it's huge.
• 19:26
  And, you know, I, I... Like, to be able to put money back into almost, like, an R&D fund- Mm... for your team is, is literally, like, saying, "These people matter," whether it be the salespeople or the marketing people.
• 19:42
  That these people matter, and our content can actually provide me resources as a marketing director to, to enable them to do even more with- Yeah... their time or their resources, right? Yeah.
• 19:53
  I mean, it's the whole, it's the Red Bull model, right? You... How many of us, before their, we really watched livestream, we, we watched, it was a Felix Baumgartner jump from space, right? Right, yeah.
• 20:02
  It was a Saturday afternoon, we're all at home, everybody's blowing up watching Felix.
• 20:08
  And it was, like, the, the value that Red Bull got from that, it was, like, 2010, I think, um, from the world watching Felix jump from space.
• 20:18
  That value of that ad revenue, or not revenue at the time, but the, the, uh, the earned media of Red Bull for just doing that.
• 20:25
  And that, that was kind of the concept we had in 2014, like, let's just do what Red Bull does. Let's be an in-house m- media company, and people will have to focus on us. Like- Yeah... there's no other way around it.
• 20:36
  So, okay, so, uh, I- you said are there three channels or three things that you're... 'Cause you've got the, the unboxing for cars, the ride-along.
• 20:44
  Is there anything else that you've kind of explored at this point that, that is content that, uh, like, you're regularly dripping, other than, like, you know, the, the newest, freshest thing? Yeah.
• 20:53
  It, the- these play a little better on Facebook than they do on YouTube, uh, but we do a series called Cars in the Community. Kind of real Mr. Rogers-y.
• 21:01
  Uh, you know, "Hey, everybody, we're gonna go over to the food bank today. I got this, uh, Ford EcoSport. We've loaded up some cans. Let's go see what they need over at the food bank."
• 21:09
  And that's the only mention of the car, um, right then and there. Just up front, real subtle. We show a picture of the car pulling in, and then we go and we interview the food bank.
• 21:18
  We talk about what they need and everything else. Uh, and we, like, we'll go to the, the animal shelter. Same type of thing. Or the local parks having a festival, free fair for everybody.
• 21:28
  We'll go there and talk to the, the, not the director, but whoever's producing that event. We'll go talk to them. Go to the theater, talk to the theater. And, um- Wow... just, you know, just us in the community
• 21:39
  showcasing the community. Not us, but we gotta get there somehow, so we do that- Yeah... little Mr. Rogers, uh, you know. Yeah, like, we gotta drive there. [laughs] We gotta get there. And we've got some cars. Yeah.
• 21:47
  And so we put a guy in a car, and then he went there. [laughs] And we shot it. [laughs] Yeah, we, yeah, we just put a guy in a car, you know what I mean? [laughs] We put a guy in a car. Oh, hey, hey.
• 21:56
  And he went to the food bank, you know? [laughs] Yeah. And we just so happen to have some cameras on hand, so. [laughs] Yeah. All the time. [laughs] Yeah. Yeah, it's perfect. It's unbelievable.
• 22:07
  So, you know, what I, what I also appreciate, appreciate you in the, in the time that I've gotten to know you, um, in, in this Auto Genius community that's out there, is that you really have a perspective that looks outside, you know, outside of auto.
• 22:22
  So you've got your history in, in skateboards, and you're also looking at, y- like, you know who MrBeast is, who a lot of people- Yeah... you know, unless they've got kids, they may not know. [laughs] Right? Yeah.
• 22:31
  And, and, and then, you know, even, even, like, you've told me you think about what, what places can I take my team that are non-auto conferences, or, or events, or, or learning.
• 22:43
  Or what podcasts can I listen to that are, that are outside of the automotive silo that might be able to m- find some relevance to bring within auto. Where have you- Yeah...
• 22:53
  found the places that have enabled your marketing team or you to really be more impactful within auto, uh, from a learning perspective? Yeah.
• 23:02
  Uh, well, you, my hands-down favorite conference is Content Marketing World in Cleveland. I'm literally going to a SoTo Con, and I'm driving from Philly back to Cleveland, uh, just to go.
• 23:13
  Like, a whole, a seven-day, uh, span of conferences. Wow. And, um, that, it is just, it is a phenomenal community. You're gonna meet people from every industry.
• 23:23
  You're gonna get perspective on the types of content they create. Even in, even in travel, you will get ideas on how to make a great automotive video from the travel industry.
• 23:32
  You'll see corporate, like GM or, or, or GE, and you'll see agencies from around the world. They, they kinda diverge on Cleveland, you know, for two, three days. And you just, you just see what's possible. It- Mm.
• 23:47
  It doesn't all relate to automotive- Right... but it, you see it. You, you see content in a whole new way. And you will make connections there that you'll take with you.
• 23:57
  You know, you'll, you'll, you'll be calling them on the, uh, you know, the next weekend, "Hey, I got this idea. Have you ever done anything like this?"
• 24:02
  Or, it's just a great place to meet people, a great place for content. Um, for video, uh, right now it's, I know you, they have a virtual ticket. I don't know if you wanna go. But it's VidCon.
• 24:12
  Uh, it's, uh, it's Daryl Eaves, MrBeast. Uh, they actually, they put on this con. It's $199 for the replays. So, um-Uh, not trying to plug other, uh, c- conferences [laughs] No, it's perfect- But it's a-...
• 24:22
  because here's the thing. This is what I notice, and I don't know if you've ever hired someone and this happens, right? But I notice this happens.
• 24:29
  We g- you get a great graphic designer or a videographer or something like that, and they're coming from outside of automotive.
• 24:35
  And you get 'em and you're like, "Yes, found a great videographer, content creator," or something like that.
• 24:40
  We're bringing 'em in auto, and all of a sudden, like, they start and, like, day three they make an auto ad, and everyone knows what that is. And you're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 24:50
  You showed me your portfolio over here." Yeah. "You stepped in our building, and for some reason you thought, like, slanted text with a 399 and a jelly bean thing was okay," right? Or, like- Yeah...
• 25:02
  they shoot it like a- the auto commercial that they saw when they were, when they were, like, 13 in their mom's- Yeah [laughs]... you know, in their mom's living room.
• 25:09
  And w- like, we have to get that somehow out of people that there's, like, an auto way to do creative and, and really expand thinking.
• 25:20
  And I think that, that things like that, like, people maybe just in auto don't recognize that there are...
• 25:25
  That learning outside of auto, especially for marketers or creatives, is still an important th- place to go, right? Absolutely. Yeah, th- g- going to see the, the perspectives of, you know, the, the other...
• 25:38
  Put the other industries aside, great. You'll get other perspectives from other industries. But you will see things that aren't done the way that people, I don't wanna say experts, people suggest in automotive.
• 25:50
  Like, you know, it is very line up, do it this way. This is how we do it. This is how we've always done it. You're gonna do it this way because that's, you know, that's the way we've always done it. Um,
• 26:02
  I, I, I'm for- so fortunate to work for a very progressive organization. E- even the owners went to the first digital dealer, I, I don't even know what year it was. Oh, wow. Um, th- they were there.
• 26:12
  Like, they were one of the... I, I don't know how many people were, like, a couple hundred people were there. Right. Yeah. Um, they were there. So they knew. They had websites in 1990. Or not- Oh, wow...
• 26:23
  you know, in the '90s. In the '90s, yeah. They had the first SmailAuto.com was already out there. That's awesome. So they've always, they've always been forward-thinking, progressive.
• 26:31
  They, they keep marketing separate from sales. They understand that, like, I need to have a presence. I don't, I don't... The, the, the outcome is important.
• 26:41
  But what we do, how we position, how we keep leads funnel into the CR. Like, how do we keep that flowing, right? Yeah. I'm part of the flow of the system. And, and they understand all that. And it's great.
• 26:51
  The, the key, uh, keep me out of the public, right? Keep me away from the sales. Uh, let me do what I do. And, you know, it's really been a, just a great relationship. Oh, man. That's so cool.
• 27:02
  I'm glad to, I'm glad to hear that you're, like, the dealers recognize, like, that there's value in people like you and the people that you've built around you in building this, like, whole ecosystem of content and marketing and paid advertising and organic content.
• 27:17
  And, and even c- like, you talked about community. You know, Paul and I talk a lot about being the mayor of your town, that you've kind of done that. And so, um, really cool, and I can't wait to have...
• 27:28
  We're gonna have you and Nate Gratzik and Brian Ortega on a stage talking about the way that you do content and, and exploring some of those ideas. I, I'm, I'm sure that'll be...
• 27:40
  There'll probably be, like, a new idea synthesized between the three of you- [laughs]... while on stage because all of you just think in those imaginative ways, so, uh- Yeah...
• 27:48
  thanks for spending some time with u- with me today and with us and, and, uh, can't wait to see you i- in a few weeks at ASOTU CON. Yeah, I'm pumped. Thanks for having me. I'm really excited. We're...
• 27:58
  It's gonna blow up that stage, I'll tell you that. [laughs] Yeah, it's gonna be fun.
• 28:03
  [upbeat music] There's nothing I like more than a practitioner, someone who doesn't just talk about it and doesn't just do it now, but has shown a history of having done it for a long time, which just brings so much more weight to their advice and their strategy and the fact that it doesn't happen overnight.
• 28:22
  It doesn't happen overnight. And when you, when you look at any strategy, especially one that isn't just based on transactions, in any industry, it takes time to curate.
• 28:34
  You know, Smail Auto Group didn't one month start to host videos on YouTube and the next month be like, "Yay, we qualify for monetization." [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] Right?
• 28:46
  It took a measured approach over years and years for them to get to that point. But now they get to, like, go even quicker because they get the ability to push back into their people.
• 28:57
  And I love the part, uh, that he talked about the way he's pouring back into his people is not just purchasing them more equipment, but he's finding ways for them to learn, and not just learn inside of automotive.
• 29:09
  He's not just sending them to Digital Dealer or DMSC. He's sending them to, like, ad creative- Yes... conferences. For VidCon and all those cool ones. Yeah. Yeah.
• 29:18
  He's sending them to VidCon, which is, like, that's what our industry needs, is to take from other industries that are creating and doing really innovative stuff and go, "Oh, yeah, we can, we can do that, too.
• 29:32
  Actually, not just that. We can do it quicker and better because we have the resources and people to do it," and they're executing on that. I, I wish this was more commonplace, right?
• 29:41
  Like, th- there's kind of this divide where it's like, look at all of these schmucks creating content. What do they possibly get out of this?
• 29:50
  Um, and then there's those on our, kind of our side of the fence who have been creating content for quite some time, who have been in the creative game for quite some time.
• 29:58
  I mean, we've even had conversations about this, so it's really kind of refreshing to hear it from Jeff's perspective. It's because those efforts, we're not just going into them being like, "Hey, you know what, guys?
• 30:08
  We should do a podcast" [laughs] Or, uh, the equivalent to that on the dealer side, being like, "You know what we need? We need social media." "Well, what are we gonna post?" "Signs that say you should be here."
• 30:22
  [laughs] I wanna find an account that has that. "You should be here." Like- [laughs] What are we doing? Is that a real example? Yeah.
• 30:32
  You know, like, when they sold a car and it's like, the caption's like, "Congratulations, Mr. Smith," and they force him to hold a blank sign, and then somebody Photoshops- Oh [laughs] no-... "You should be here"...
• 30:41
  never hold the blank sign. Guys like Jeff, guys like Jeff, people that are doing content creation, they understand- [laughs]...
• 30:47
  they understand how there's, like, a hyperloop of demand creation and authority building that breaches the wa- the four walls of the dealership. They, that, today it may not necessarily map directly to monetization.
• 31:02
  However, if we tell our story properly, maybe it's our Google ads that feed into our website, and our website feeds into our social, and our social feeds into- Yeah... video creation.
• 31:13
  All of that then tells a story about who we are, and it's that thing that opens doors, and the transactions happen on the other side of that door.
• 31:22
  So that's something that I f- I just really, really impresses me in, in being able to get to hear from, like you said, practitioners who are thinking outside of the box.
• 31:30
  We hope that you enjoyed this conversation with Jeff Revilla. On behalf of myself, Michael Cirillo, Paul Daly, and Kyle Mountsert, this is Auto Collab. We hope to see you soon.
• 31:39
  Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email for a free shot of relevant news in automotive, retail, media, and pop culture. You can get it now at asotu.com. That's A-S-O-T-U.com.
• 31:52
  If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.
• 31:59
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Are we recording yet? Are we rolling yet?
• 32:17
  Not yet.