AutoPlay - The PlayBook
Support

Welcome to The PlayBook

AutoPlay's home for tips, tricks and best practise in the automotive industry

Autotrader.co.nz are proud to announce the launch of their brand new website

29/5/2020

 
Picture
Launching at the perfect time to help dealers bounce back from COVID-19 restrictions, Autotrader.co.nz have launched their brand new website.  Read the full press release below - including a special launch offer for a limited time.
​12 months after purchasing the business from Bauer Media, Auto Trader’s new Kiwi owners Richie East and Ross Logue have delivered on their promise to provide a state-of-the-art online experience for buyers and sellers.
 
“It was important for us not only to include the features our dealers need today but to go above and beyond with tools they will want in the future. We’ll also be adding many more integrations and updates in the coming weeks.” says Ross Logue, Managing Director.
 
“We are really excited to see our dealers utilise the new features such as videos and 360° photos for virtual tours to boost sales and reach customers in new ways. We have added brand new sections to the site such as our “New Car Showroom”, “Electric & Hybrid” and “Commercial”. All of this is available at no extra cost to our dealers. And for our customers, they can now book test drives and receive valuations on their trade-ins from dealerships all through a simple portal.” continued Mr Logue.
Picture
“This is just the beginning of our innovation-lead future at Autotrader.co.nz. We’re excited to continually bring market leading innovations to dealers and Kiwi car buyers.”
 
The new website soft-launched on the 19th of May with a refreshed logo and brand before a national marketing campaign begins in the weeks and months to follow.
 
Autotrader.co.nz receives 200,000 unique visitors per month and the new platform has showed very encouraging site statistics so far with time on vehicle page listings doubling immediately.

Auto Trader has been a trusted brand in New Zealand since printing the first edition of the buyer’s guide in 1981. Later in 2005 the first iteration of the website was launched with the mobile site following in 2008. The new website will continue to offer dealers industry leading ROI and trackable results on a new dedicated responsive platform.
 
When asked about the effect Covid-19 may have on the website and industry, Ross says: “It’s certainly a strange time for the new website to launch, but our lead tracking and analytics have shown the public has been quick to return to their old buying habits at level 3 and 2”.
 
“Our research shows that buyers are more than ever considering all options when it comes to making a car purchase decision and after extensive analysis, we are confident we have the best buying experience available for Kiwis”
Picture
Dealer Discounts
Auto Trader were quick to support all its dealers through the lockdown, offering free advertising in April, 50% off advertising in May, 30% off June, 15% off July, extended payment terms and 50% off upgrade packages.
 
These discount packages are also available to all Auto Play dealers who are currently not online with Auto Trader. We offer rolling contracts with no long-term commitment required.​
AutoPlay can export your data to Autotrader quickly and easily (requires AutoPlay's Data & Web Tool Package).  Contact Autotrader on dealersupport@autotrader.co.nz to sign up.

List on needacar.co.nz for FREE!!!

24/3/2020

 
Picture
AutoPlay and our friends at Need A Car are pleased to be able to offer free listings on needacar.co.nz from 1st April, 2020 for any dealership currently a customer of AutoPlay.

With dealerships closing for 4 weeks from 25/03/20 due to COVID-19 it's going to be impossible to continue to do business the way that we are all used to.  With no face-to-face contact it's more important than ever to get as many eyeballs on your vehicles as possible.  The general public will shift to searching online to find vehicles in preparation for when the time is right for them to buy - making every electronic lead more valuable than ever.

As part of both AutoPlay and Need A Cars commitment to helping dealers minimise the impact of the COVID shutdown, AutoPlay will export your listings to, and Need A Car will display your listings for free on needacar.co.nz.
  • Free Basic Listings package with Need A Car for 12 Months from 1st April 2020 - no term, no commitment - just list your vehicles!
  • Your listings can easily be fed from AutoPlay to Need A Car via AutoPlay's Listing API - to sign up just email support@autoplay.co.nz and tell us which yards you want us to export
  • Any leads generated from Need A Car will be automatically captured back to AutoPlay Sales Pipeline
  • ​Offer is valid until May 2020
​
needacar.co.nz is a purpose built vehicle listing website with circa 50,000 unique visitors per month.  Engagement of browsers on the site is great - with each visitor spending an average of 6 minutes browsing the site each session.  AutoPlay will take care of all the on-boarding after we get dealer agreement so it is well worth the effort to list your vehicles on the site.

AutoPlay feels strongly about not sharing your listing data anywhere you don't want it, so we will NOT automatically opt you in to this initiative.  As such please contact our Support team on support@autoplay.co.nz and we'll get it set up for you.

If you have any questions about this initiative please email matt@autoplay.co.nz 

Trade Me - Update to Trade Me Image Policy

20/1/2020

 
Picture
 If you advertise your vehicles on Trade Me you would have recently received communication from them on their new image policies which will take effect from March 9th, 2020.  This will impact the majority of the dealers listing vehicles on Trade Me as you are no longer allowed to include dealership logos watermarked on your images.

Below is a quick guide for how your images should look on Trade Me Motors.  Note - these images and text were supplied by Trade Me Motors and any mention of "we"/"our support"/"contact us" refer to Trade Me Motors and NOT AutoPlay.  AutoPlay are sharing this information as a helpful resource to ensure your listings meet Trade Me policy.
You can read the full set of image guidelines HERE.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
If you export from AutoPlay and your listing photos currently include branding watermarks it is possible that your listing will not appear on Trade Me after 9th March 2020.  As such, as of March 9th, 2020 AutoPlay will remove any dealership logo watermarks that are currently being applied by AutoPlay to your listings.  This will ensure that your listings remain on Trade Me and are not blocked from being returned in Trade Me search results.  Due to the effort involved in this AutoPlay will not individually engage with each dealership - we will automatically remove them from your Trade Me export from 9th March on-wards.

  • Trade Me allow an exception for approved branding so AutoPlay will not remove watermarks for Honda Certified, Toyota Signature Class or Toyota Certified, or Audi Approved.  See guidelines HERE.
  • AutoPlay will not be able to edit any watermark that is supplied to us already embedded on your listing photos.  If you send photos to AutoPlay via your DMS or another source please check that they do not have watermarks on them or you risk your listing being blocked from Trade Me.
  • AutoPlay will not be able to ensure the background signage in your listing images meets Trade Me requirements.  It is the dealerships responsibility to review your images to ensure they meet the new standards.
Please note that these standards are not an AutoPlay initiative and are required by Trade Me in order to list on their website.  We are communicating these changes with you to ensure a smooth transition and that none of your listings are blocked from appearing on trademe.co.nz.  If you have any issues or questions regarding the image requirements please contact Trade Me Support HERE.

Driven NZ -SIGN UP TO YOUR PREFERRED DRIVEN LEAD GENERATION PACKAGE TO WIN A $15K NZME MEDIA PACKAGE

29/11/2019

 
Picture
Hundreds of dealers have already signed up to receive leads via DRIVEN's new lead generation packages, don’t miss out on yours.
 
Select your preferred DRIVEN lead generation package, and as a thank you from the DRIVEN team, you’re in the draw to WIN a $15,000 NZME advertising campaign for your dealership.*
 
Check out the packages below and choose the one which is best for you.

Standard Lead Generation is available as Driven's fixed rate package, all you’ll pay is a small monthly subscription, up to 80% cheaper than what you'll pay elsewhere. This covers having your listings promoted to Driven's motoring audience of 133k monthly** and unlimited email enquiries.
 
Enhanced Lead Generation package is Driven's performance based pay per lead model for dealers who want to accelerate their growth faster. This package gives you access to the full dealer toolkit of lead generation options.
Picture

​Furthermore, Christmas has come early, you won’t pay anything until 2020 - with extended free access right until the end of the year.

Contact Driven via support@driven.co.nz to have one of the DRIVEN Specialists get in touch with further information.
 
*Competition drawn 16th December 2019. **SOURCE: Nielsen Online Ratings October 2019

DRIVEN Introduces Enhanced Lead Generation

22/10/2019

 
Picture
At AutoPlay we strive to keep dealers aware of the different marketing options in the marketplace, as well as highlight any changes in the marketplace that might affect kiwi dealerships.  We've recently met with DRIVEN who are making some changes to their model to deliver higher quality leads to their customers.  You can read about the changes in their comms below.
DRIVEN is proud to update you that we’re launching the next leg in our road trip to be New Zealand’s most effective digital car showroom - and we are excited to have you along for the ride.

Since we launched DRIVEN we’ve been proud to offer you both listings and leads free of charge for two years. We’ve worked hard to grow our audience and credibility as the preferred platform to connect you with car buyers and importantly as the ultimate site for turning passive buyers into active ones.

Our journalists are specialist motoring writers; we’ve been attending global vehicle launches; we’ve road tested, reviewed and written about thousands of vehicles. DRIVEN is also the place that Kiwis turn to for credible, trustworthy car information. Research shows 60% of site visitors say DRIVEN is their platform of choice for car buying advice and recommendations.

We’ve recently re-platformed our listings engine and introduced several enhanced lead generation tools including a DRIVEN concierge service and DRIVEN call tracking. You will now start to reap the rewards.
From September DRIVEN will be introducing a charge for leads delivered from the platform.

A fee focused on leads means we are totally driven to deliver you what you need most - credible, reliable leads. We believe this approach gives you greater confidence and certainty that you are paying for results and it’s this alignment that makes DRIVEN the most compelling market offering.

With our growing audience and credibility, enhanced lead generation toolkit, combined with greater transparency and reporting DRIVEN will deliver even more quality and credible leads to help you deliver your sales targets.
DRIVEN is powered by NZME, Connecting Kiwis with their next car by keeping them in the know is our mission.
​
If you’d like to know more about how you can get your share of leads, please contact us at support@driven.co.nz and we will arrange a call with one of our DRIVEN Specialists. 
If you have any questions about how to export your listings to Driven you can contact AutoPlay on support@autoplay.co.nz

Introducing HouGarden Motors - New Zealands Newest Online Platform For Chinese Car Buyers

20/5/2019

 
Picture
Kiwis love their cars. In fact, our roads are home to around 4 million of them. New Zealand is also a proudly diverse nation, with hundreds of ethnicities and languages spoken on our streets. It makes sense, then, that consumers be able to find and buy a new vehicle in their own language. ​

AutoPlay are always looking to share good news with our customers and HouGarden represent a opportunity to target a specific audience.  AutoPlay have worked with HouGarden to make this easy for AutoPlay customers as we have a direct connection via an AutoPlay Data API.
Introducing HouGarden Motors
Founded in 2011, HouGarden is the largest Chinese-speaking property portal in New Zealand. The HouGarden team is proud to launch HouGarden Motors, New Zealand’s first online auto trading platform dedicated to a Chinese-speaking audience. Featuring thousands of vehicle listings presented to a Chinese audience in their native tongue, HouGarden Motors offers car dealers a unique opportunity to get their listings in front of a highly-motivated, affluent audience that’s ready to buy.
Why HouGarden Motors?
Picture
Picture
Picture
Anytime, Anywhere
​
​The HouGarden Motors platform has been designed to work optimally on both desktop and mobile, while smart new iOS and Android apps meet the demand of today’s on-the-go users. 
Elite Customer Base
During HouGarden's eight years of running New Zealand’s largest property portal for the Chinese market, HouGarden has dealt with thousands of elite professionals, including real estate agents, lawyers,bankers and developers. These same people are potential clients for your own business.  
Affluent, Highly-Motivated Audience
The New Zealand property market is very attractive to Chinese buyers who have a lot of disposable income. HouGarden Motors enables you to put your listings in front of an audience that’s very motivated to buy.
NZ-Based Support Team
The HouGarden team combines our Chinese backgrounds with local knowledge to develop online products for a New Zealand-based Chinese-speaking market. Their head office is located in Central Auckland.
How Do I Get Started?
Keen to improve your marketing results bylisting your vehicles on HouGarden Motors for FREE*? 
Visit https://nz.hougarden.com/motors 
Contact the HouGarden team on +64 9 377 5666 
or support@hougarden.com for  more information.
 
You can start to take the above benefits with HouGarden Motors by just signing a form (Dealership Data API Access Authorization) and send back to our email support@hougarden.com
*HouGarden already has long-standing partnerships with many local leading brands,including NZME,Barfoot &Thompson,Harcourts,Bayleys and Ray White.

List on EV Sales now and get your first month free

11/12/2018

 
Picture
For a limited time sign up to advertise on EV Sales with the promo code "AUTOPLAY" and get your first month free.  You can sign up HERE 
Picture
EV Sales recently launched in NZ to give dealers and buyers alike a dedicated place for all things Electric Vehicles.

As an AutoPlay customer we've made it easy to advertise on EVSales.nz directly via the AutoPlay Studio.  Once you are signed up your Electric vehicles will automatically be sent to EV Sales via our API - simply load your listings as per normal and your EV listings will appear on the site.
​
EV Sales were recently an exhibitor at EV World South and report that they experienced overwhelmingly positive feedback from the public, saying how great the idea was and confirming the need for a central place for buying EVs.

Interest, site traffic, and listings are growing, and its the place you want to be!
To find out more about EV Sales visit the site at https://evsales.nz 

Export Via AutoPlay To A New Dealer Listing Site - The Dealership Network

14/11/2018

 
Picture
​AutoPlay customers can now export their listings directly to The Dealership Network - the newest dealership exclusive listing website. Their Feature Finder introduces a completely new concept for users to find their next vehicles. Sign up now to take advantage of their initial launch pricing packages.
Once you have signed up to list on The Dealership Network they will contact AutoPlay to enable access to your listings.  The Dealership Network (TDN) have hooked up to AutoPlay’s listing API so the moment you load a listing, it will be live on www.thedealershipnetwork.co.nz – with no need to manually select listings for export.

The Dealership Network introduces a completely new concept to help users find their next vehicle. With their Feature Finder they provide an alternative to the standard make, model, year search criteria, allowing their users to search by, feature, function, technology and other criteria to find all the makes and models from around the country that suit what they want from their next vehicle all from one simple search enquiry.
​
The Dealership Network is proud to only work with dealership listings, to give their users the trust and confidence when looking at any listing on their website. By integrating with AutoPlay they enable their users to "Book a test drive" or "Request a call back" that feeds straight into your lead API, connecting their users with your dealership and stock. The Feature finder search function incorporates the needs based selling approach onto an online platform. Allowing users to search from a combination of requirements and being able to recommend the specific makes and models that suit their needs. The refinement feature then makes it even easier to narrow these results for the user to find exactly what they are looking for
Join all the other dealerships today and together we can make this a success. 

​Contact TDN today to take advantage of their initial launch pricing and group discounts. 


Simply call Daniel Johnston on 0220902813 or email your dealership details to advertise@thedealershipnetwork.co.nz and Daniel will be in contact to discuss a package tailored to your dealership or group.  

Watch the short video below showing how the search functionality works on www.thedealershipnetwork.co.nz
The Dealership Network is a privately owned business and is not affiliated to any other business or entity. They are proud of this and are committed to supporting their dealerships with online marketing and listings, to provide you with a trusted alternative to the market dominators of today.

EV Sales – New Electric Vehicle Listing Site Now Available To List Via AutoPlay

15/10/2018

 
New Zealand's place for all things EV - EV sales, parts and accessories, news and articles and user reviews.
Picture
The awareness of electric vehicles is growing throughout the subconscious of NZ, and with this increase in consideration of electric vehicles the need for a specialty site dedicated to electric vehicles is growing.  To meet this need EV Sales has launched a new listing site dedicated to EV.
AutoPlay are pleased to announce that AutoPlay customers will now be able to export their listings to EV Sales directly through AutoPlay Studio.  Simply click on the link below to register for an EV Sales account.  Once we’ve set you up you won’t need to do anything extra to get your listings on EV Sales – every vehicle you load with the Fuel Type = Electric will automatically be exported from AutoPlay to EV Sales.
EV Sales have hooked up to our AutoPlay listing API so the moment you load a listing, it will be live on EV Sales.  The site has been built fully responsive, so will work on all devices and is tailored specifically to showcase electric vehicles.  EV Sales will also post your listings to their social media channels – further gaining exposure for your EV stock.  The cost of listing on EV Sales starts from as little as $15 per month.
Picture
​​​​You can register your interest in advertising on EV Sales via https://evsales.nz/account/register
For a limited time enter the promo code “AUTOPLAY” and get your first month free
In addition, to further show our support for the electric vehicle movement, when we launch our new HTML application in the first quarter next year it will include new fields specially suited to Electric Vehicles such as ‘Range’ and ‘kwh’
To find out more about EV Sales visit the site at https://evsales.nz/
To register your interest in advertising on EV Sales visit https://evsales.nz/account/register

​

Trade Me 101:  What do I need to do to get my Listings on Trade Me?

17/8/2018

 
Picture
Despite dealership websites overtaking Trade Me as the number one source of Leads, Test Drives and Sales – Trade Me is still NZ’s number one third party listing site and accounts for a reasonable portion of a dealerships online leads. 

The AutoPlay Support Team frequently gets calls from dealerships confused about why their listings have not made it to Trade Me.  Below is a quick checklist of things you need to know to make sure your listings get on to Trade Me first time, every time.

·         The listing must have a Year, Make, Model, Price, Transmission and Body Type
·         The listing Transmission and Body Type need to match Trade Me’s list of pre-defined options.  Trade Me do have a mapping table to map different Transmission or Body Types, but the further from their defined list the higher chance your listing will be frozen
·         The listing Make and Model must match Trade Me’s list of Makes and Models – if your Model doesn’t exist then you need to contact Trade Me to request it is added
·         The listing Body Type selected must match the Make/Model – you cannot load a Hilux as a Hatchback
·         The listing requires 1 of Chassis, VIN or Rego
·         The listing must not reuse a stock number
·         The listing Odometer cannot go backwards
·         The listing cannot contain special HTML characters
·         The listing cannot have any contact info/url’s etc anywhere within the listing – this includes on the images
·         The listing must have at least 1 image
·         If using Trade Me Super Feature the listing must have at least 3 photos

Follow these basic rules and you should find all your listings make it on to Trade Me at the first attempt and don’t get frozen.  If any of these rules are not followed it can cause delays with the listing making it to be live on the site, as Trade Me staff will need to get involved to review the listing.
​
AutoPlay offer a full range of Data Management services including populating stock pages on your website and exporting to third party portals.  If you have any questions about AutoPlay’s data management services contact us on +64 (09) 361 1505.
<<Previous
    Picture

    About Us

    AutoPlay Sales Pipeline is a pre-sales lead management tool designed for dealerships, dealer groups and automakers

    Archives +

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    February 2015

    Categories +

    All
    Best Practice
    Data Management
    Email Marketing & Live Leads
    General
    Reporting
    Sales Pipeline
    Updates & Releases
    Vehicle Display Pages
    Websites

    RSS Feed

Picture
AutoPlay NZ
​AutoPlay AUS
General
Sales Pipeline
​Reporting
Updates & Releases
Best Practice
Data Management
Picture
Picture
Copyright © 2018 AutoPlay
"AutoPlay Sales Pipeline is a pre-sale lead management tool"