Welcome to 2019!  The December results are in and with public holidays and the general December slowdown it was a quiet month across the board for AutoPlay customers.  Overall the volume of leads captured or loaded by AutoPlay customers was down 11.3%.  There were 9.7% fewer Test Drives and Sales were down 11.2%.  Given AutoPlay has a significant market share of franchise dealers in NZ, this represents a pretty sizeable downturn for the month.

‘Web – Classified’ was the only Lead source that bucked the trend with an increase of 0.9% in the number of leads captured in December 2018, vs November 2018.  This is to be expected as whilst the discipline of manually loading leads can lapse around the holiday period, electronic leads from the likes of Trade Me, AutoTrader and Driven are automatically captured to dealers AutoPlay Sales Pipeline.  The ‘Web – Dealer’ source dropped by 9.8% and although still accounting for the third most leads, ‘Brand’ leads dropped by 38.8% as head office marketing drove fewer leads to dealers.

With the overall volume of Test Drives recorded dropping by 9.7% month to month, it’s not surprising that in December Test Drives attributed to most sources took a hit.  Test Drives from ‘Web – Dealer’ decreased by 1.3% and ‘Direct’ Test Drives fell by 3.2%.  As with Leads, the ‘Web – Classified’ source again bucked the trend an increased by 1.6% in December.

​Mirroring the slowdown in Leads and Test Drives, dealers recorded fewer sales across the board in December 2018.  ‘Web – Dealer’ continues to be the number one source of sales despite decreasing by 4.7% from the previous month.  ‘Web – Classified’ decreased by 7.2% and sales attributed to ‘Repeat’ customers also fell by 12.9% in December.

​Make sure to check back in February to see whether the volume of leads bounced back in January 2019.  To find out more about the range of reports available via AutoPlay contact us on sales@autoplay.co.nz or +64 9 361 1505.

2018 is almost in the books.  From everyone here at AutoPlay we'd like to wish you all a happy holidays and best of luck for the new year.

AutoPlay will officially shut down for the year on Friday 21st December at 3pm. 

The office will be reopening at 8am on Monday 7th January, 2019. 

Over the official shutdown period you will be able to email support@autoplay.co.nz for any emergencies - this email will be manned and one of our Support Team will get back to you as soon as possible.

We have officially started our development freeze for the year so any new set ups or improvement requests will need to wait until the team return on Monday 7th Jan, 2019.

If you have any questions about AutoPlay Support over the holiday period you can reach us on +64 9 361 1505.

From the team here at AutoPlay 
Merry Xmas and Happy New Years!

After an up and down last few months saw strong growth in Lead and Test Drive volume in October 2018, November bucked the trend with decreases across all 3 KPI’s for AutoPlay customers.  Leads decreased by 2.5%, Test Drives by 5.2% and Sales by 4.1%.

Reflecting the overall trend of a decrease in Lead volume, most sources decreased in the month of November.  ‘Web – Dealer’ leads decreased by 6.8% from Octobers high, and whilst ‘Web – Classified’ still accounted for the second most leads across AutoPlay customers, dealers also saw a decrease in the number of leads from this source by 2.5% from month to month.  ‘Brand’ generated leads continue to provide dealers a reliable source of leads and were one of the few sources to buck the trend – increasing by 4.7% from October to November.

As with Leads, the overall number of Test Drives decreased in November (vs October 2018).  Test Drives from ‘Web – Dealer’ generated leads decreased by 7.8%, but dealer websites still remain the most fruitful place to generate Test Drives.  ‘Direct’ Test Drives continue to firm as the second most popular source of Test Drives with a small 2.0% increase from October to November.  As with October, Test Drives generated from ‘Brand’ leads accounted for the 3rd most Test Drives, but decreased by 11.7% from the previous month.

Sales across all Lead Sources decreased by 4.1% from October to November 2018.  The same three sources accounted for the most Sales in November with ‘Web – Dealer’ decreasing by 1.5%, ‘Web – Classified’ decreasing by 0.5% and ‘Repeat’ decreasing by 3.3%.

​Lead Source reports are just one of the reports available to dealerships and OEM’s who use AutoPlay Sales Pipeline.  To find out more about the range of reports available via AutoPlay contact us on sales@autoplay.co.nz or +64 9 361 1505.

​​​To ensure your website changes or email campaigns are completed before the end of the year you need to ensure you submit all your requests by the following deadline;

AutoPlay will officially shut down for the year on Friday 21st December at 3pm.  The office will be reopening at 8am on Monday 7th January, 2019.  Over the official shutdown period you will be able to email support@autoplay.co.nz for any emergencies.  

AutoPlay founder Craig Brown is stepping out of his comfort zone to take on the New York Marathon – all for a good cause.

Brown, whose company provides dealers with digital sales tools, wants to support the family of his friend Mark, who died last year, after a long battle with mental health problems.

Brown’s goal is two-fold – to raise about $25,000 that will help provide Mark’s daughter with an assistance dog, alongside boosting awareness about suicide prevention.

“My mate Mark was an absolute champion,” Brown says.
“He had been suffering from mental health issues, but we all thought he was in a good space.”

Brown says he made the decision to run the marathon at Mark’s funeral, along with fellow friend Isaac Piper.
“I have never been a marathon runner and never seen myself as one.
“But we thought what could we do to support Mark’s family
“We thought ‘stuff it, we’ll run the New York marathon.’
“Running the marathon means we can make it an annual event.”

Training for the event has been tough on Brown’s knees after years of martial arts participation, with 24km the longest distance he’s managed so far.
“But all the pain will be worth it if we can raise enough money to get the assistance dog for Mark’s daughter,” he says.

Brown and Piper are also covering their own entry costs and flights.
“Every cent we raise will go to the family.”

If people are struggling with their mental health, Brown says they shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help.
“Once it gets hold of you, it can be pretty relentless.“
“There’s lots of support networks out there for people. It’s quite a big step to go to a support group.
“Or if you don’t want to go to a support group, talk to your mates.”

WATCH A SHORT VIDEO ABOUT CRAIGS TRAINING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d76D-3yu90&feature=youtu.be
 
TO DONATE TO THE CAUSE VISIT THE GIVE A LITTLE PAGE 
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/marathon-for-marks-family-and-mental-health

As many of you will be eagerly awaiting, we've been rebuilding our existing Silverlight based Desktop Studio in HTML5.  This will give our customers huge benefits including the ability to run the Desktop on any browser (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge, Safari etc), as well as on any device (iOS, Android, Windows tablet and devices).  This obviously means that installs are easier, and it becomes a lot more flexible for our users to jump on and manage leads at any time.

We've been working diligently on this project on/off from January, but it's been a while since we last updated all our customers on our progress towards completing this massive project.  Where possible we are pumping as much resources into this project as possible, and we are making good progress.  At present we are working on the most important part of the system - the Dashboard of the Sales Pipeline.

As you can see from the screenshot above we are making good progress on this.  The Dashboard is much faster loading and has had a few subtle improvements, whilst still maintaining all the amazing features our customers are used to.

The HTML5 version of the AutoPlay Studio for Desktop is our number one development priority.  At this stage we are hoping to get an early release BETA version out to selected customers at the end of Q1.  If this changes then we will advise you as soon as possible.

If you have any questions about the HTML5 version of the AutoPlay Studio then please feel free to email matt@autoplay.co.nz with your questions.

Last week we launched a refresh of the AutoPlay website.  The new site does a better job of showcasing the full range of products and features that AutoPlay can offer.  In addition there are now separate versions of the site for New Zealand and Australia that include customised content for each country, that more closely reflects our product offerings in each respective market.

Feel free to take a look via the links below.  We'd love to hear your feedback.

For New Zealand customers - https://www.autoplay.co.nz/ 
For Australian customers - https://www.autoplay.com.au/​

The weather may have taken a turn for the worse recently, but Lead, Test Drive and Sales activity remains buoyant.  Following a strong May, June 2018 saw the number of Leads generated increase by 6.2%, Test Drives increase by 5.9% and Sales by 1.2%.

For the second consecutive month the number of leads from the ‘Web – Dealer’ source decreased – by 1.2% from May to June.  As expected with Fieldays activity we experienced a 30.8% increase in the number of leads generated to dealers by their ‘Brand’.  After a significant increase in leads from ‘Web Classified’ sources last month, this source again accounted for the 3rd most leads and increased by 5.7% from May to June 2018.

After the volume of Test Drives from the ‘Web – Dealer’ source decreased in May, the source rebounded to increase by 17.3% from month to month.  Test Drives attributed to the ‘Direct’ source again occupied second spot and increased by 7.8% from May to June.  Test Drives from ‘Brand’ generated leads did increase – by 4.9% - but perhaps less than expected from the higher volume of Fieldays leads.  This potentially means that Fieldays activity has been a bit slow to translate to Test Drives, and potentially means we may see a proportionate increase in Test Drives from the ‘Brand’ source in future months.

In June 2018 there was a change in the status quo for Sales tracking.  Whilst ‘Web – Dealer’ retained the top spot and increased by 8.9% from May to June 2018.  However, whilst in May ‘Repeat’ and ‘Direct’ accounted for the 2nd and 3rd most Sales by source, these sources were overtaken by ‘Web Classified’ (up 27.4% from May 2018) and ‘Brand’ (up 32.9%) respectively. 

Make sure to check in next month to find out the top sources of Leads, Test Drives and Sales for kiwi dealers in July.  Lead Source reports are just one of the reports available to dealerships and OEM’s who use AutoPlay Sales Pipeline.  To find out more about the range of reports available via AutoPlay contact us on sales@autoplay.co.nz or +64 9 361 1505.