Sargent Joe Friday’s famous line, “Just the facts, ma’am. Just the facts.” is just the way some people like it. Give it to me straight and hold the fluff. I can relate: I really don’t like to take the scenic route in conversations (apologies to my dear wife). But I can’t dispute the studies that show we learn better when the content is fun and engaging.
Each month, we put together a new episode of Lobby TV – about 4-hours in the Digital Lobby TV program. We know the value of the segments we produce on the benefits of taking care of vehicle maintenance – we spend a lot of time and money to get it right. We know these segments are what benefit consumers the most and support your business. We also know that if the viewer isn’t paying attention to the educational content none of that happens, so we have a mix of entertaining segments to engage the viewer and get them in the right mood for a little learning later on.
We realized this early on and devote a great deal of energy into providing a wide variety of family friendly entertainment content (and that’s not easy these days) in the AutoNetTV Lobby TV program. We have pieces from Rachael Ray, CBS sports, movie reviews, money tips, technology trends, medical issues, news features from the Early Show and 60 Minutes as well as behind the scenes looks at popular TV shows. The objective is to relax the viewer, shorten their perceived wait time and have them paying attention when the “money shot” segments on service and repair recommendations come on.
This program format is more engaging and less intrusive than it would be if we only aired automotive educational segments because it’s familiar to your customers – more like “regular” TV. Now, we still get automotive center owners who think it would be better to eliminate the entertainment and just have non-stop education. They reason that when the customer is not watching educational content they aren’t going to be empowered and motivated to follow service recommendations. In a round-about way they are right – and proving our point at the same time: if the overall program isn’t entertaining (worth watching) customers will not be paying attention to the educational segments and will miss out on all the benefits they provide.
The entertainment actually increases attention to the educational content and makes it far more effective at getting the customer to respond positively to your recommendations. As the song goes, “Let me entertain you. Let me make you smile” – all the way to the bank.
AutoNetTV produces video content for digital signage automotive lobby TV applications and on automotive websites aimed at educating consumers on proper car care and improving automotive center CSI.