The Bird Is Freed, New Service Plans for EVs, Get You Netflix Popcorn…at Walmart

‍SPEAKERS

Kyle Mountsier, Paul Daly

Paul Daly  00:24

All right, we got that Friday feeling. We're finally to the last Friday of the month and the last Saturday of the month. It's been a while. Today we're talking about the furnace fried new service things for EVs and get your Netflix popcorn. Walmart people really want to know who is in who Id they stopped at.

Kyle Mountsier  00:42

Walmart stole this idea from me, by the way, calling it sure they did. They stole it from my wife. Calling. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. Why? Why Walmart. Walmart has been creeping on my wife on how they do retail.

Paul Daly  01:00

Unbelievable. Just Just so you know, I spent a lot of time with Kyle. And if I had a nickel for every time he said they stole that idea for me. I usually have $1. easily, easily. We actually really great today. I think it's a monumental thing. We have a new segue, but just for the holidays. Wow. Actually, I will call the holiday season, let's say just for Halloween weekend isn't really the holiday season yet. But that kicks off the holiday season. That's it. That's all Yeah, that's sorry. Well, you can't overuse the special thing because that's what happens. It could get a max of four especially saying that's it. Right. We're in the season where as soon as Thursday hits, I mean, as Halloween hits on Tuesday, which is the first Google search trends for all i want for christmas are gonna go through the roof.

Kyle Mountsier  01:54

No, it's calm. There's gonna be so much Christmas music so much in November. It's unbelievable.

Paul Daly  02:02

And then December. Hey, we did put a post that last week that something's coming to Nashville on December 20. I think next week's probably gonna get announced next week, what it actually

Kyle Mountsier  02:11

is, I think, I think we'll tell the people,

Paul Daly  02:14

I think let me just say, let me just say that, that some of the people that are going to be part of the programming, we've made a lot of requests over the last couple of days, and there's been a lot of people are coming in live to be in Nashville with us. And so it's gonna be a whole

Kyle Mountsier  02:26

programming. Paul, what is the programming

Paul Daly  02:29

for programming for a program? programming for a program? I know it's been awesome. It's been an awesome week, we got a lot of stuff coming out again, new podcasts about to drop called in the dirt with a soda. And once you get podcast art, it's official. You have I'm

Kyle Mountsier  02:45

telling you what Yes, I love all of the podcasting, all the live streaming that we do love it. Right. The conversations I think right now, as we get this podcast rolling, we're up to in the mid 20s. As as far as number of conversations that we've had. These are the some of the most dynamic, intentional conversations that I think we've had on podcasts, because they're all in person. The vast majority are with dealers, boots on ground doing the things and that's why we're calling it in the dirt because it's when we're in the dirt. They're in the dirt and we're talking together it's thing.

Paul Daly  03:17

So we're all building stuff making stuff. Speaking show us a segment button first. I think we need to use their first doing speaking of building stuff. good segue. Alrighty, bail. Love this. Well, everybody missed it. Yeah. It's a good segue. Got us. I was good. Okay. Well, you've probably heard this before. We talked about a little yesterday, but the Twitter takeover is complete. Sure. We're gonna be hearing about it for a while. Immediately. Upon the closing of the deal. Elon Musk assumed the role of CEO and fired outgoing CEO, CFO Ned Siegel. And their top legal and policy executive. Shaun Ajit, their general counsel. He just he fired a lot of people by quite a lot of heat

Kyle Mountsier  04:19

separating the severance upwards of 200 million. Yeah,

Paul Daly  04:23

now cry. No one, no one went home in tears with a box of tissues yesterday. They went home. The account, please,

Kyle Mountsier  04:30

please send me please send

Paul Daly  04:33

that wire transfer go through. Right. That's what everybody did when they walked out of the building immediately logged in. We're going on vacation. Right? Yeah. And some, you know, a couple of things that are coming up now right now that we know the transition has happened. And it's going to be the new reality. You know, some argue that this is an interesting one for us in the auto industry that there might be a conflict of interest in their auto advertising sector. Right I can I can I totally see that there is also some plans to reinstate former President Donald Trump's account, or remove at least removing like the permanent banned status. I don't know how many people they've permanently banned. But He also reiterated the fact that Twitter's not going to become a free for all. So I think trying to like, send me like, this isn't like say anything, do anything world still. Right?

Kyle Mountsier  05:23

Right. And it's so hard man, you still I never want to be in that I never, ever want to think about being in a position where you have to figure out who gets silenced. And who can say what know, somebody will be like more accomplished, that person could never be around. And then other you know, it's who can't I'm not envying that role, for sure.

Paul Daly  05:45

No, and it'll be interesting to see what happens because, you know, a lot of the beta or social media than some of the exceptions they have in policy, like, are they liable for what people say on their platform? Are they allowed to say what they want? Are they curating news? So I don't know, we'll see. But a big part of the business model and how it relates to automotive and automotive advertisers is the advertising drives a big part of the business? So, you know, some advertisers saying like, well, you know, we're, if you reinstates, you know, former President Trump, then we're gonna pull out of advertising, right? And all that, like kind of maneuvering goes on. And he addressed advertisers directly yesterday, and I'm gonna read, read what it said. And the message said, Dear Twitter, advertisers, I also very much believed that advertising when done right, can delight, entertain, and inform you. I love this part. I just love what this does. Like, if I just put my marketing hat on,

Kyle Mountsier  06:34

there's a little scent right here at the end that

Paul Daly  06:37

good it's, we've been going bang on this trip, it can show you a service or product or medical treatment that you never knew existed but is right for you. For this to be true. It's essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs. Low relevancy ads are spam. I'm going to read that, again, low relevancy, ads are spam. Meaning when you do those display ads and the spray and pray, and let's just show a lot of people, actually, it comes across as spam. Totally agree with that. highly relevant, but highly relevant ads are actually content.

Kyle Mountsier  07:17

That may be the best statement I've ever heard Elon Musk, say, I'm like, Man, this guy. Okay, I can get on board with a little bit more at this point.

Paul Daly  07:26

Man, fundamentally, it continues fundamentally, Twitter, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand, and grows your enterprise to everyone who has partnered with us, I thank you, let's build something extraordinary together.

Kyle Mountsier  07:39

So what you're telling me is, what you're telling me is, is that when you buy something, it's not just for the community, or for the free speech or anything like that, that the monetization model is extremely important. And that when he looks at it, he looks at it from a subscription and advertising perspective. And that he knows that the best advertisers actually produce content, not fodder.

Paul Daly  08:03

So he does know that go, you know, strangely enough, it did go I can't remember which article I read, like six articles on this today. He said, Twitter isn't a money making. It's not a money making venture for him. But I guarantee you, it's gonna make money, right, like,

Kyle Mountsier  08:19

well make money. Like much is like going into space or building, because it's still

Paul Daly  08:24

not enough for profit, right? Like this thing needs to be a generator, but approaching it with that mentality, that like, hey, the best, the best advertising is actually content that made me so happy.

Kyle Mountsier  08:34

It made me so happy. You know, I post on LinkedIn yesterday that like the majority of advertising of the major ad platforms right now. So revenue, are seeing revenue declines in on massive scale, like the opportunity to pair attention, gain, market share, and Drive content through your advertising strategy right now is at an all time high, it's similar. And if not more important to like early, the early pandemic, when the people that had an always on strategy with a content forward brand first mentality gained a massive market share that opportunity over the next like six months is anything remotely high. Same thing, right. And going into the pandemic, that was the drum

Paul Daly  09:13

we were beating, you're like, look at all the other times, it worked. It's gonna work now. And now the data shows it did work now. And again, another one of those opportunities, where it's like, what, at what point are you gonna get on the bus and keep circling the block, like, get on it this time, especially if you're an auto dealer, disproportionate leverage when you start to take a quality content, quality, organic, you know, just let's make great content. And as a result, we'll happen to sell a lot of cars, get a lot of retention in our service department, hire a lot of amazing people that like working here, it's not just a single trickle all the way. The bottom line is this culture and commerce are intimately connected. Absolutely. Always. Always speaking. culture and commerce. Scott it's a good segue I want to keep that song rolling. The Eevee service game is going to be different, but certainly not a disaster. According to an expert panel hosted by Automotive News fixed ops journal, this is actually as reported in wards automotive, give our friends over there some credit, ride quality and maintenance needs to become more important and frequent due to the heavier weight and acceleration capabilities of an Eevee. John rock retail innovation. Okay, Evie, Customer Experience Manager for Cadillac said lube oil and filter were always the entry point for service. Now it's going to be tire rotations that are entry point. Like, I can kind of see that tire rotations. It was always the bolt on. Right? Oh, nd your lube oil filter tire rotations. Everyone's like yeah, I don't need the tire rotations. Now. Now the rate these suckers are going to be chewing through tires.

Kyle Mountsier  11:00

Just yeah. I mean, you talk to any Eevee owner, and they're like these things eat up double that in, like half the time of what the normal tires do. So tire rotations are all that more important so that you don't get uneven tire wear and all those types of things. And that's even going to be a consumer education piece, right? So many people don't even rotate their tire. So just saying like, hey, look, if you get this car and you're not rotating your tires, you're gonna be spending hundreds of dollars more than you absolutely should be. Yeah,

Paul Daly  11:30

tire rotations. Also, it's nice that they're not subject to increase in oil prices. You know,

Kyle Mountsier  11:35

what's also interesting about oil changes were 1599. What, what's the margin? What's the percentage of margin on tire rotations?

Paul Daly  11:44

It's whatever the labor rate is, and

Kyle Mountsier  11:45

what's the one typical percent labor? It's all labor. Like, think about that? Do you know that the majority of oil changes actually lose money when they're sold? Now lost on your entry point instead of losing money actually makes money in service. Think about that, how that changes the overall scope and scale of a fixed ops department. Like most people aren't talking about that, that the entry point is a 100% labor entry point. And you have the opportunity to make money on the loss leader.

Paul Daly  12:19

People, actually people I can I can see them doing lifetime tire rotations, right, as a giveaway that people back in, because Because alignments are going to be also super important. And again, like the education standpoint,

Kyle Mountsier  12:31

for some reason, actually, I was talking to Ben about this because he has a test that we were writing in a couple weeks ago when I was visiting him. Ben Hadley, who many of you know, I was like, Why is every single Evie curbed? When it comes in for trade? Literally all four wheels occurred. And he was like, well, there's a couple of reasons. One, because a lot of them are lower to the ground. They have, you know, the low profile tires, which a lot of those wheels stick out just a little bit so you get like there's just something natural in the car. But he said actually a lot of the early Evie adopters, which will still be the early Evie adopters over the next three to four years especially are not your drivers driver. They're not like they're not like real car people. They're technologists, people that wouldn't go buy like a driver's car. First off, and so there's actually like a different driving Profile we're seeing that's an issue. So you think about like tire rotations, alignments, wheel repair, things that are like low cost on supplies, high costs on labor. Here you go.

Paul Daly  13:31

But wheel repairs, but the other two while we're sure I assume that you have to be real savvy to be in that game. Anyway. Yeah, people that can capitalize on rekan Like cosmetic reconditioning just crush it. Just Yes, but there's not that many because it's not easy, but the ones that do it make a lot of money as they go on in this panel they talk about retention is likely to increase even if revenue per vehicle or visit declines according to panelist Peter Kahn, Senior Director of Research and insights for dealership management system CDK global. Some other comments Melissa best service director like this are an actual service director for Pearson Hyundai. In what is that? In lofi in Midlothian, Virginia it sounds like a fake name. Notice that the extended warranty terms on the batteries she says the extended warranty terms on evey batteries are significantly longer, which means people are coming back to the dealership right we know the dealership loses a lot to third parties. Other discount discussed opportunities include like hey, let's get into home charging. Let's be good at that. Let's offer the service. Let's advise people well emergency road service as an added kind of like let's lean into that. And yeah so I like the fact that they're saying like okay everyone's saying the services that's fine

Kyle Mountsier  14:45

doesn't read other revenue streams. They are there guarantee it.

Paul Daly  14:49

Service is different. I guess we can say that. Service is different and there's also like the research shows that are very disproportionate amount of people because this is new technology. They he trust factory trained technicians, over third party trained technicians and honestly, there's probably just like, who I can't I mean, maybe it's just because I'm in Syracuse. Do you have any service centers that are like talking about TV service in Nashville?

Kyle Mountsier  15:16

I mean, some of the franchise stores are

Paul Daly  15:18

no but I mean not not franchise store not

Kyle Mountsier  15:20

non franchise. No, no family's not out here like Evie service,

Paul Daly  15:24

or Evie service here. Right, right. Yeah, Valvoline definitely is it's the name of

Kyle Mountsier  15:30

Brandon. Yeah, none of that. Yeah,

Paul Daly  15:31

they have a Valvoline has a branding thing they got to figure out because novelty is just the name of a new imagine.

Kyle Mountsier  15:38

Can you imagine you're like you're named after an oil product, their brand departments just

Paul Daly  15:43

like do. Let's outsource this one. We need a fresh perspective. So the rules are a little different. But the principles are the same. relevant services, great communication, plus excellent delivery. Sounds like a sustainable business. Speaking of sustainable businesses, it's a good segue. All right, Kyle, the idea is stolen from your wife. What is it? Well, here's

Kyle Mountsier  16:11

why. So now in this new partnership, Walmart locations, we'll be adding a Netflix hub in time for the holidays where customers can can buy this like little merch thing that includes concession kits and bundled snacks, a little gift card to get your Netflix first month's subscription on the whole new Netflix Netflix plan. So all of the like virtual stuff is coming to the retail environment with Walmart Walmart keeps pairing up these these like subscription services with some of their opportunities like Walmart plus with Paramount plus, but here's why. Because my wife whenever she's like, I don't know what to get these people over the last like seven years. We're always like, movie box, right? So we go get the popcorn we get three movies, little sour patch kids, but you get a little basket you get a little bucket you hand them over to it date night you know you put a little like date night card in it and they're like this is the greatest thing ever right and so it's a great gift don't tell it's a great way

Paul Daly  17:15

concessions because well now it's gonna seem cheaper, right? When you buy the box that's already pre packaged, you're like, okay, but apart from this has gone kind of. So I mean, like, I love I love this play. Because Walmart obviously competing with Amazon Amazon has prime Netflix competing with Amazon, Amazon has prime Walmart Netflix saying like, hey, let's actually bring the online streaming experience and the brands that Netflix has spent a lot of time energy money to build very successfully right Stranger Things, there's gonna be a sequel to knives out, which I got excited about. And now they're making a sequel to that squid game, right? These are kind of like cult favorites, which it just naturally translates to retail swag, you know, people that want to show that they're affiliated with it, that they care about it, find the other people, Walmart's like we happen to have a lot of stores where people are going to shop for a lot of things. Let's just do a little still a little mashup, you know, Walmart also added Paramount plus to their Walmart plus bundle. So this is one of those like back and forth, kind of like little fights on a fight. It's like a It's a friendly competition.

Kyle Mountsier  18:20

Everybody's trying to figure out the online to offline and figure out how to provide value on both ends. And I think this is a great like tiptoe into how can that be successful, especially with collaboration between brands?

Paul Daly  18:32

Yeah, and Walmart, just this, I don't know if it's just because the only

Kyle Mountsier  18:36

thing Walmart has done poorly is is, is make a digital retailing platform for OEM manufacturers. But other than that, they're doing great.

Paul Daly  18:47

That's the only thing they've ever done. He did said he did say it. Probably

Kyle Mountsier  18:54

that one out. Don't cut that. Someone again. I'm sure they're working on it.

Paul Daly  18:59

So again, we're gonna say again, culture and commerce are intimate, lead tied. Listen, we have a fifth Saturday to go tomorrow. If you're not excited about a fifth Saturday of the month and you're not in the car business, we hope you go out and crush it. Think about culture, think about commerce, and think about content. The best advertising is actually constantly

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