Latest / Auto Collabs / From Disrupted to Disruptor with Anthony Jingoli

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From Disrupted to Disruptor with Anthony Jingoli · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  Okay, if you're in Philly, and- [laughs]... one name comes to mind, who is it? [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs. Come on, both of you.
• 0:18
  I need a name from each of you. Don Johnson. What? Okay. Kyle? Oh, you just said you didn't give any other quali- I could say anywhere and think of a name I said, "If you're in Philly" and a name comes.
• 0:26
  Like, I think of the craziest stuff. Rocky, right. Yeah, I mean, lots of names come into my mind everywhere. I don't have to be somewhere for a name. Okay, okay, okay. And, and what's the...
• 0:33
  If you were to personify the overall energy of Philly in one word, what would you say? The Roots. The Roots. That... Okay. Nightly news. [laughs] You know I'm doing this just- The nightly news? [laughs]...
• 0:47
  'cause I know you where... I'm doing this 'cause I know where he wants us to go. [laughs] I know where Merv's going. Like, "Meh, meh, meh."
• 0:53
  Well, well, let me put you on the spot one further since we're a minute into this intro. Okay. Where, where do I want you to go? [laughs] Sparty pants.
• 1:01
  He wants just to be at the top of the Rocky Steps, is exactly where he wants us to be. [laughs] No, you're all wrong. You're all wrong. Ah. You're wrong, and you'll realize this.
• 1:11
  No, but Philadelphia is definitely a city that is full of people that have just grit and just, just get to work day in and day out, right? Yeah, there's some...
• 1:22
  You know, even the stories that have made it out of Philly, right? Like Rocky, um, some, like, the Founding Fathers, you know, little stuff like that. Um, it really is- Just little. [laughs] Just little.
• 1:33
  [laughs] Little things like that. Little stuff. But it really, the essence of Philly is really people that just show up every day, and they just keep moving forward, and they keep moving forward.
• 1:41
  And today's guest, Anthony Gingoli from Effective, just reminds me of that mentality.
• 1:46
  Like, he's from Philly, and, like, he just reminds me so, of so many of the hardworking people that I know from the city from growing up there. And it's, like, not a ton of fanfare, right?
• 1:57
  But dedicated, consistent, keep swinging the bat day in and day out. And just for some reason, they're always standing still. Like, they always just have another round in them.
• 2:07
  So, that's where I was going with all that, gentlemen. [laughs] Really, the whole intro was not dedicated to Anthony. It was dedicated to Paul being like, "And I'm from Philly, too," right? I... Do I talk about that?
• 2:19
  [laughs] Did that happen? Yeah, but he stayed. That did happen. Let's see how much I know about Philly. But he stayed, and I left. [laughs] One day I'm gonna... [laughs] One day, [laughs]
• 2:31
  one day Cirillo's gonna be like, "Let me tell you about Texas." He's gonna be like, "But actually, I'm Canadian." Let me tell you... No, he's gonna be like, "Let me tell you about Canada." [laughs] Well, hey.
• 2:38
  Look, with all of that said, we really hope that you enjoy this episode and our conversation, uh, with Anthony Gingoli. [upbeat music] All right.
• 2:55
  We are hanging out with Anthony Gingoli. I'm pretty sure I got that right. I think I've said it on, on, uh, on camera a few times now.
• 3:02
  Uh, the regiona- regional director of auto for Effective, and he is actually in Philly, where we will be very shortly. Center of the universe. Anthony, thanks for joining. [laughs] Center of the universe. Right.
• 3:14
  Thanks for joining us, man. I'm, I'm happy to be here. I'm, I'm patiently waiting for everybody to arrive, 'cause I think this is gonna be, uh, such a fantastic event.
• 3:22
  So, uh, it's a, it's a great city, and, uh, everybody's gonna have a great time in the city, and then they get to, to learn a little bit about automotive along the way. So, it's, uh- [laughs]... should be fantastic.
• 3:32
  You... Well, and what we found out is you're gonna be patiently waiting for Cirillo for a long time- [laughs]... 'cause he just started walking. The... He's actually in front of a green screen.
• 3:40
  He didn't book his flights in time. [laughs] He was like, "This is in person? I thought it was virtual." [laughs] So much commitment. Well, Anthony, so, so being from Philly, give us, like,
• 3:52
  real quick, before we get- Yep... into the real thing. Because, you know, we don't get to talk to people that are on, boots on ground where ASOTU CON's gonna be held th- that often.
• 4:00
  Like, if people are coming to Philly, and we know that their schedule's gonna be packed with ASOTU CON, but if they had, like, one hour to do one thing, what would you recommend that they make sure that they don't leave Philly without doing?
• 4:12
  Ooh. All right. So, that's a great question- Ooh... 'cause there's so many things. It's a deep question. But here's what I'd say.
• 4:16
  Given when everybody's coming in, if they're flying in Sunday, and this is, my Italian's gonna come out a little bit here. But everybody's staying in South Philly, go to the Italian market. It's like a 10-block,
• 4:27
  uh, market, with everything you could imagine and want from a standpoint, for any kind of food or delicacy, uh, from the Italian standpoint is there. So, it's a nice... If it's a nice day, you could take a walk.
• 4:38
  You can go see it. Pat's and Geno's butt up against it. So, that would be, uh, that would be a good- Good call... little excursion, too. That's where I'm going.
• 4:45
  And, and with that, and with that, we're gonna need- It's a good call... some new moderators and podcasters- Yeah. [laughs]... 'cause it sounds like Cirillo's gone. [laughs] I'm just gonna be as...
• 4:54
  You're gonna find me asleep on a bed of, like, fresh bread. [laughs] Cannolis and fresh bread. [laughs] Cannoli for a pillow. That's good. That's unbelievable. I didn't know what you were gonna say.
• 5:05
  I was wondering, because, like, you know, obviously, there's the touristy things. You know, it's like, oh, you're gonna have them go to the Rocky Steps. You're gonna have them go to Liberty Bell.
• 5:12
  But the Italian market is literally the thing you don't see on TV- Yep... that is one of the most enjoyable parts of Philadelphia.
• 5:20
  If you wanna get a handle for, like, the culture and the, the quality of the food, and, like... Now I wanna go. Yes. I haven't been there in a while. And it... Wait, is it nearby? It's actually not that far.
• 5:29
  It's not that far from Seoka Subaru. It's not that far. No, it's not. Field trip. It's great. Yeah. [laughs] Yep. Field trip. All right. It's good for you. Well, let's get into it.
• 5:39
  I'd, I'd love to, uh, take a little trip down memory lane because, you know, uh, most people, when they think about, uh, Comcast or Effective, it's kind of, uh, the, the, the, the kind of person over there, or the team over there, or the, or the company over there that everybody knows a little bit about, but not enough about.
• 5:59
  And there's... And... But I think getting to know the people within organizations is always a lot, a lot of help, for me at least. Mm-hmm. And so I'd love to hear a little bit about your history in automotive.
• 6:10
  Have you always been on the media side, or has it been kind of a, uh, something that you've been around different parts of the, of the automotive ecosystem?Yeah, I mean, my journey into automotive is, um, it's- it's a little...
• 6:20
  It's not traditional, but it's in the sense of I've been with Comcast for over 20 years. Uh, I spent a l- a long time here, and I've moved i- in throughout a lot of different roles.
• 6:30
  And, uh, at one, I'd started out in marketing and, and branding, so that's, at my heart, that's what I am.
• 6:36
  Um, but I took a role, a business development role, that was very focused on tier two automotive, uh, about midway through my time here, and I got to spend a lot of time with dealers and dealer group presidents providing additional value.
• 6:49
  They'd buy- they would buy television and, and use us for all the- the- the power of the sight, sound, and motion.
• 6:54
  But then we would come up with other ways to push the brand out there f- for a tier two, and we did some really creative and fun things.
• 7:02
  Um, w- like we did something awesome with Toyota called Holloway Hunger where it's really their event, but we brought it to life with video, and it's about 75 Tundras heading down Columbus Boulevard packed with food that, uh, gets delivered to Philabundance.
• 7:15
  And we would kind of partner with these groups and bring these things to life and put them on television and put them into video.
• 7:22
  And getting into that community and starting to kind of feel that, um, was pretty powerful.
• 7:28
  And then as we kept adjusting our business model, the opportunity to get into tier three came, and it was something that I jumped at because of the- the dynamics I had working with these dealers and seeing what they did in the community and what they wanted to do with their- their brand and how passionate they were, not just about automotive, but about the economy around them.
• 7:48
  And it really kind of, kind of drove me, so I stepped in into this role in about 2017 and have been, um, much more focused on tier three, um, and helping to lead our teams be, um, a valuable, um, solution provider to dealers all- all across our company.
• 8:06
  So being in, being at Effective or Comcast for 20 years, like if- if people just put on a little, like, thinking caps real quick, you've been at a media organization that's focu- focused on TV and video since before iPhones existed, right?
• 8:24
  Mm-hmm. So the amount of- of change in the way that the company and maybe you even interact with advertising or with long form or short-term video must have been...
• 8:39
  I mean, you've been through all of the changes- Mm-hmm...
• 8:42
  from moving to, you know, streaming services and YouTube and OTT and all this, uh, all these different types of video inputs that we now have in our life that we didn't have in 2002, right? Mm-hmm. What, what's been,
• 8:57
  uh, what's been, like... Maybe m- maybe talk about, like, the most significant changes and- and the way that you've had to approach them as an employee, like at your personal level- Yeah...
• 9:06
  as those changes have happened. Yeah.
• 9:09
  W- what's interesting about that is we, I've gone in my career from being sort of the disruptor to being cable when it was on the, on the come, and it was, you know, all these shows popping and reality TV, and everybody wanted to be on cable, and our inventory was growing, and people wanted to advertise there, and we were disrupting the traditional television model.
• 9:28
  And then you fast-forward and, um, you know, TV changes, right? And it, and it becomes a different dynamic, and now there's people disrupting us and- and forcing us to change, um, our perspective on things.
• 9:40
  And I think that's been the...
• 9:42
  If- if there's any one thing, it's- it's that you have to keep evolving and learning, and I think what- what Comcast does such a great job of is staying ahead of the curve on what's happening next.
• 9:51
  They're planning for what's happening because we understand what our consumers want, and we continue to pivot sort of our- our cable business, our- our video business,
• 10:01
  um, to support consumers and what their needs are, and then our advertising is able to follow past that.
• 10:05
  So I think it's- it's been an interesting dynamic of being sort of on top of the world and then being the one that everybody's coming after and then having to kind of catch back up, 'cause we went through a phase where, you know, we had to get smarter and- and provide better resources because digital came into focus and did a really good job of showing data and- and- and different things.
• 10:26
  So it, it's been good for us. Um, but I've gotten to see both sides of it, and it's definitely, um, been an interesting ride, that's for sure. So it's like from disruptor to disrupted. Yeah.
• 10:38
  You know, it's like basically that swing. So you remember the d- being the disruptor part. Um, there's usually a little more ego involved when you're the disruptor, right? Yeah. Like being the humble disruptor is- Yeah.
• 10:50
  [laughs]... is, they're not two things that you usually hear together, although I think that you find a humble disruptor and you- you have a really great thing. Um, back in the...
• 10:59
  When you, when you were disrupting traditional media, what was the main value proposition? I- I think it was geography. It was, it was the biggest thing. We had geography, and we could bring different kinds of audiences.
• 11:11
  So it went from the traditional broadcast model was one network, and we had a lot of people- Everybody sees the same thing, right? Correct. Yeah.
• 11:18
  And we could now, we had zones, so you could advertise in different zones, so you didn't have to buy a whole DMA. You could buy a smaller area, maybe just your county.
• 11:26
  So that was very interesting to a dealer who didn't want to advertise down at the shore when they were in, you know, West Philadelphia. Yep.
• 11:33
  Um, so there was that part, and then we had all these networks that we were partnering with, ESPN, HGTV, Food Network, that were, could define certain kinds of audiences.
• 11:41
  And now it was easier to find your sort of niche, um, customer depending on what kind of business you were.
• 11:47
  So I think those were the things that really set us apart out of the gate, and then there was just an influx of viewership there, and then that just carried us through.
• 11:55
  So what, what lessons do you feel like you've carried through being on the other end of it? You know, like now you're on the other side of it, right? Mm-hmm.
• 12:02
  And, and you're obviously making a real sa- sophisticated and savvy push, you know, with digital. But where, where do those two things connect, your experience on the one end and now your experience on this end? Yeah.
• 12:14
  I think it's about, um, I- I said a little bit earlier, evolving and, and learning. I think we, what, what was-We got to a point where we realized we really have to kind of lean in and figure out what we can do better.
• 12:28
  We can't just ride this sort of wave any longer.
• 12:31
  And again, Comcast was doing a lot of those things, but as an advertising business, we had to come around, uh, come around to that and say, "Okay, we have to provide more service, more value."
• 12:40
  That's part of what that business development role was. It was bringing more value to dealers and dealer groups. But then it was, we have to do even more than that, and we have to do it faster.
• 12:50
  We're a big company, so we had to learn how to get quick, and I think that's, that's that point of inflection of it's not just enough to get to do more for dealers.
• 13:00
  It's we have to do it faster, and we have to do really unique things. And not only do we have to catch up, but we gotta pass the curve, and I think that's what we're set up to do now.
• 13:10
  Um, but we had to take some time getting there. But it- we made it through, and all along there was still a lot of value we provided. Um, but now I think we can, we can do even more.
• 13:19
  Um, and that's, that's kind of been the critical piece for me. You know what I love about this? It really, it, it does two things for me.
• 13:27
  It emphasizes the point that when something first comes out, it never actually ends up the way we all anticipate.
• 13:38
  So for example, when Web 2 was really, like, the big- And we're like, "Oh, man, this is gonna kill every th- type of media that came before it." Eh. [laughs] The second thing it emphasizes is that given enough time,
• 13:53
  we realize that this isn't gonna kill something like TV or radio. We could just digitize it, you know? Radio, isn't that a podcast? Like, my kids don't listen to radio, they listen to podcasts.
• 14:06
  My kids don't watch TV, they watch YouTube, they watch Netflix, they watch all we- you know, Amazon, whatever. But that's still TV to them- Mm-hmm... and it's still radio to them. So we can just evolve it.
• 14:16
  But, but to the point of, you know, evolving and things not ending up. You know, like, I, I look at, uh, radio was supposed to kill newsprint. TV was supposed to kill... Well, radio was supposed to kill the theater.
• 14:33
  TV was supposed to kill the radio, and the internet was supposed to kill it all, and yet here we are. Mm. It looks vastly different on how we use this medium to communicate, and, and aligning with you.
• 14:44
  But in that evolution that you're kind of talking about, going from disruptor to disruptee and then maybe into disruptor again,
• 14:52
  is there a mindset shift that needs to happen on part of the person producing the ads or creating the advertising to fit these new mediums? Yeah, I, it, definitely.
• 15:02
  I think, but at, but at its source it's kind of still the same thing, right? It's sight, sound, motion. You're telling a story, and that doesn't change, and you're using video to tell the story.
• 15:11
  So now there's, there's much more sophisticated ways to target that story to different audiences, but good storytelling is good storytelling. A good show produced in, in 1980 for broadcast TV is still a good show.
• 15:24
  It still, you know, tells a great story. So I- Right... think there's a tenant to it. And what, these things tend to come back around again, too.
• 15:32
  Like, we saw this with, um, you know, everything went streaming and people said they're gonna watch on their tablets and their phones.
• 15:37
  But we see 83% of all viewing still happens on a big screen because we just put all those apps on a TV. And people said- Wow... "Okay, nobody wants to have all of these networks, um, in a bundle.
• 15:48
  They just wanna watch what they want." But now there's all these streaming services to hold- [laughs] Going right back, right? All... Exactly. That's been my favorite new thing. Yeah.
• 15:56
  Someone's like, "I, I'm a cord cutter," and they're like, "Yeah, I got the Apple thing, and ESPN thing-" But that came packaged with the Disney+ "... you know, you got the package." Said that. [laughs] Yeah.
• 16:05
  "Now I got Hulu for an extra $3.99 a month." "I never watch it, but I got it," right? Yeah. Yeah. [laughs] That's wild. That's hilarious. Yep. You know, actually- Yeah, so- No, go ahead, Paul.
• 16:17
  I was gonna say it, it- Eh, but, but, oh, no. I just had to- Shribit booby dooby... I had to throw myself into that for fun. Michael just wanted to get a, throw his two cents- Yeah... into the mix. Yep.
• 16:24
  There really is, I think that's the benefit of experience, right?
• 16:29
  You can look and you can take a more measured step because if you haven't been through a disruption, haven't been through a major transition, right, like a generational transition once every 20 years, right?
• 16:39
  It feels like they're, the transitions are getting a little faster between technologies. But I don't know, I think 20 years is still kind of a, kind of a thing, you know?
• 16:50
  And if you can kind of see through a generation the big, the big things that happen, you have the benefit of being able to measure your first step, right? Without feeling the need...
• 17:02
  We see that a lot in the markets today. A lot of young investors, a lot of first time retail investors have never seen a downturn.
• 17:09
  So then when all of a sudden the market turned, there was no exposure to that, so everybody panics, right? And you get this really crazy volatility.
• 17:17
  So with experience you do have the benefit of saying like, "Uh, hold on a second. Let's just wait and see if he zigs or zags before we have to, like, go all the way in."
• 17:28
  Um, so I mean, I just see that as a massive benefit of being through it once or twice- Yeah... at this point. And it, it was critical for what we just went through.
• 17:35
  'Cause our, you know, there's a lot of dealers that weren't advertising as much, and we had to kind of s- work our way through that and figure it out, and we still are.
• 17:44
  I mean, the, we consistently hear, "Listen, I, I'm not gonna advertise. I don't have any inventory." And that's great, but our, our question now is, "But do you have customers? 'Cause if you do-" [laughs] "...
• 17:54
  let's go tell a story." Right. 'Cause you're gonna need to- Yeah... to be in front of them one way or another. 'Cause cars will come back and, but you need to keep your brand out there.
• 18:03
  So that's, so we're trying to kind of be, uh, sensitive to what they're going through and understand it.
• 18:08
  Um, but also remind them that your brand's important and, um, you should be present even through these tough times so that when you come out of it you have the ability to take a little more market share or, or have a little bit more brand recognition in the marketplace.You know, and also- You know, I, I-...
• 18:24
  can you, could you love yourself a little less? I mean, "We don't have inventory." Yeah, but do you still exist? [laughs] What do you mean, what are we advertising? [laughs] The thing a four-year-old knows that you sell?
• 18:36
  Um, I, I just wanna underscore this.
• 18:38
  I just got off a call with, um, uh, two colleagues in South Africa, and they were, they were enlightening me on the South African w- uh, uh, retail, you know, industry, where the German manufacturers have had an agency model there for five years, where you, the, the lead time, regardless of chip shortage, like we're talking about normal times, lead time on a vehicle is six months- Oh...
• 19:02
  or more. They really, you know, shone a spotlight on the importance of marketing you, not the car- Wow... and how it's always been that way.
• 19:13
  But here we are in the United States, where we think we're the only ones exper- We are on, we are at such an early phase of, like, chi- you know, inventory shortage, and don't have things on the lot, and yada, yada, yada.
• 19:26
  But what you just said made me think about how important it is
• 19:30
  that i- if you've put all of the, the onus on the fact that you don't have inventory, you are really undermining who you are as a person and why people are coming to you to buy a vehicle in the first place. That's crazy.
• 19:43
  Well, and not just that, but the, but you're undermining the value of your customer too, right? Right. Right.
• 19:49
  So, like, if, if you're placing a higher level of value on a single piece of inventory than you are the value of a customer- [laughs]... being sticky to your brand- Plus the relationships-... it's like-...
• 20:02
  the connection, all of it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. "They don't like me. It's just 'cause I have a Suzuki on the lot." [laughs] Right. Well- Yeah. [laughs] Yeah, that's the truth.
• 20:08
  If you think about, like, how, with your six-month comment, if you, like, kinda use that as the benchmark and you say, well, how would you market yourself right now if you knew you didn't have a product to sell for six months?
• 20:20
  Right. What would you talk about? What would you say? Knowing that you will have the product- Mm-hmm... six months from now, and it will be ready to sell, and there's somebody gonna...
• 20:28
  What would you do and what would you say? Yeah. So Anthony, are you seeing a shift in the way that, that, that... 'Cause you're telling, like, "Hey, tell a story."
• 20:35
  Are you seeing a shift in the type of content that the advertiser are, are placing on, on ad platforms?
• 20:41
  Or is it still so dependent on inventory that they, that advertisers are still only putting one type of, of content piece out there? Or are you seeing a shift in the type of content? It, it's a little bit of both.
• 20:53
  I think the dealers that leaned in and get branding and understand that they wanna be in front of their customer 'cause they wanna drive a lifetime value of that customer, and maybe not just one transaction, they are telling that story.
• 21:04
  Maybe not as deeply as we want, but they're, but they've, they've shifted and they've stayed in front of their, their customer base.
• 21:11
  I think the, the co-op programs drive a lot of, a lot of, you know, price, sticker price and, and some of those old habits that...
• 21:19
  So the, the money that we need to sort of bring in to pay for the advertising is driven by rules that require that. So it makes it a little harder to do that. Mm.
• 21:27
  Um, so it'd be interesting to see if OEM- OEMs begin to evolve some of that to, uh, on behalf of their dealers.
• 21:34
  Um, but I, I think there is, and I think it's a good sign because I think dealers have a, an opportunity right now. Because the consumers understood what, what happens at a dealership for the most part.
• 21:44
  I get my car serviced, and I buy a car. They, the dealers haven't had to educate a lot on how that works. Where we're moving, they're gonna need to educate consumers again.
• 21:54
  The consumers are gonna wanna feel comfortable around EVs. They, they wanna understand the dynamics of it, the logistics of it. Digital retailing is a new way of buying a car.
• 22:03
  They're gonna need to learn and understand, and I think putting, having trust out there. And, you know, a lot of times your commercial or your advertising is the first impression you make on any consumer.
• 22:13
  So if they feel trust in that and they know that, "Hey, I'm gonna lean into an EV and this dealer's taught me about it, so I'm gonna go learn some more from them," that creates this dynamic that they haven't had for a long time.
• 22:25
  And I think that they can go and tell some new stories that they haven't had the opportunity to tell for, uh, a few years now. Hmm. Mm, mm, mm. I love that. I love that.
• 22:36
  I wanna, I wanna just key in on one thing that, that we haven't talked about because I think it's important.
• 22:41
  You know, uh, early you said, like, as you were moving into, uh, as you were moving into cable, you know, it was the ability to go from, you know, a, a linear, like, very, um, very broad, broad reach, like, targeting.
• 22:58
  You're only talking the city, till you went down to zones.
• 23:01
  And I, I, I'd love to hear a little bit about, because a lot of, uh, uh, I think still a lot of people when they think about a TV or a cable advertiser, they just still think in this, they think kind of legacy now, which is zone buys and zone bids.
• 23:16
  But from what I understand, you guys are, uh, at Effective are, are actually going even deeper with the type of data and audience structures that you have, that you've actually innovated at that level as well, allowing dealers to maybe put these stories in front of even a better audience.
• 23:32
  Can you talk a little bit about the evolution- Sure... of those audiences? Yeah. And, and I think you, you, you set it up perfectly in that we were able to kinda shrink the geographies even more.
• 23:41
  So we can go down to a zip code level, especially with digital. Um, so we can hone in on that. But then we really started to get more precise with the audiences because of our set-top box data.
• 23:52
  So we can aggregate the viewership data to be, to be able to say, "Okay, people that buy Hondas have these viewing habits, so let's go match commercials to those viewing habits."
• 24:02
  So now not only are you in the geography that's in your backyard that's gonna drive the most value into your dealership, but you're talking to the people that are more likely to buy your car.
• 24:11
  And you're doing that not just at the bottom of the funnel, but you're teeing up this whole, we've talked about the flywheel in the past.
• 24:17
  You're bringing in the, bringing in these customers no matter what their need is, um, based on that time. So if you need to drive a service message when you don't have inventory, you can go out and do that....
• 24:26
  in the geography that matters, and then tee up and bring those customers into your dealership, nurture them, and then when they're ready to buy new cars, when they're ready to do trade-ins, they're there for you.
• 24:36
  So we've gotten a lot better at bringing that, that, those insights and that first-party data that Comcast has that's so rich, and using it to help dealers, um, inform their cam- campaigns and be much more targeted than they've ever been for a mass medium.
• 24:53
  Um- Anthony, we're gonna be at ASOTU CON on the ground not too long from now. Um, it's real- really cool that it's your hometown.
• 25:01
  What is the effective team, uh, looking to get out of ASOTU CON and just involvement in events like this? Yeah, I think it's education. We talked about that evolution.
• 25:10
  Like, I'm, I'm coming ready to listen and learn and to, and to talk to people about partnerships. Like, we, we're in a space, right? We're not a pure automotive company, right?
• 25:19
  We have, we li- we live automotive 'cause it's such a big part of our business. But I, I'm coming to learn and, and, and hear who we can talk to about partnering and, and finding other ways.
• 25:29
  'Cause we have, we have all this robust data and this robust dis- d- distribution platform. If we can have that be more influenced and educated by things that are in auto, everybody wins in that space.
• 25:40
  So I think from that standpoint, I'm really interested to just talk to people that I probably shouldn't even be talking to. I should be talking to dealers.
• 25:46
  But what kind of partnerships are out there, and what opportunity is out there for us to make what we provide better, uh, in the hopes that that makes a dealer's, the experience for a dealer much better.
• 25:57
  Well, Anthony, it was so much fun. [air horn] Oh, he's got, he got the horn.
• 26:00
  [laughs] We never had the trigger pad on this, but that just got me fired up 'cause I'm like, I'm thinking, you know, every collaborator that ever comes to an event is like, "How do I find new contracts with dealers?"
• 26:11
  Yes. Yeah. Which I know that that's an intentionality, and we wanna connect dealers and industry partners together.
• 26:15
  But there is so much that can be gained from other industry partners or OEM representatives understanding the network and the, and the inclusivity that if we bring everyone together, that everything just goes faster and further from an innovation perspective.
• 26:28
  Love it. Yeah, I would argue that having Anthony's focus is actually one that will yield better long-lasting results when it comes to connecting with the right customers who get what you do fully, right?
• 26:39
  Not a churning customer, but someone who understands why the value proposition is a good fit. Anthony, thank you so much for sharing some of your stories from disruptor to disrupted.
• 26:48
  And we're on the way back to Disruptor. On behalf of Kyle Mountsier, Michael Cirillo, and myself, thanks for being on Auto Collabs. Thanks, guys. It's been a pleasure. Looking forward to next week.
• 26:58
  [upbeat music] You know, I'm always interested in learning from somebody who's kinda, like, boots on the ground, um, has experience in what we've all kind of referred to as the traditional way of doing things. Mm-hmm.
• 27:14
  And, and interested in seeing how that bridges the gap. And of course, Anthony joined us and gave us some historical insight, but also how it is incredibly feasible
• 27:24
  to take, uh, a medium that we all, um, uh, know and love and know how to use and turn it into something modern. Uh, what, what was your take on that? Well, for me- Well-...
• 27:38
  this, uh, like I extrapolate this straight to broader automotive, right? Right. Is that, is that...
• 27:46
  Like, when you think about, you know, your Henry Ford or even, like, the '70s and '80s of automotive, like, super disruptive, extremely innovative, and then a phase of, like, oh, vehicles just exist to getting back and forth to work to- Mm-hmm...
• 28:01
  hey, look, this can be, again, a disruptive, innovative m- uh, like, source of pop culture. And to see a company like Effective or Comcast who now, like...
• 28:16
  A- again, it, it's mind-boggling to me that in a 20-year timeframe, we can have a company go from, like, "Oh my goodness, look at what they're doing," to- [laughs]... "Eh, get off of cable," right? Right.
• 28:27
  Now only o- only over here. And so, you know, for a company like that to kinda give us an insight into what it looks like to move back in the disruptor phase.
• 28:36
  I mean, at the end, he was talking about how much data they have access to and the way that they're doing audience data.
• 28:41
  I mean, it's just as dialed in as many social media or Google ad platform data c- uh, you know, data centers.
• 28:48
  Um, and so, uh, you know, finding that as inspiration from a broader automotive perspective to say, "Hey, look, if, if a big company like that, publicly traded company like that can do it, then a- anybody, you know, i- in any retail business can take those bumps and bruises and make shifts to go to innovative disruptor again."
• 29:10
  One of my- Right... favorite things about what he said was when he kind of distilled everything down. We were talking about the different delivery methods of the message, whether, what kind of screens it shows up on.
• 29:23
  And he says in the end, "It's sight, sound, and motion."
• 29:26
  I really love that because ev- regardless of the platform you're on, regardless of the distribution method, the sights, the sounds, and the motion has to be compelling.
• 29:35
  It has to connect, or it is equally ineffective as any other medium. So I use the word effective in that, not intentionally. But all that being said- Unbelievable... um, we had a great time with Anthony.
• 29:48
  And so behalf, o- on behalf of my non-Philly born and bred co-hosts, Michael Cirillo- [laughs]... and Kyle Mountsier, thank you so much for joining us on Auto Collabs.
• 29:59
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• 30:12
  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.
• 30:19
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Are we recording? [laughs] Are we rolling yet?
• 30:37
  Not yet.