Fueled By Tech and Driven By Data, Octane Marketing Is Getting It Done

 “We are more than an agency; we are an experienced team of automotive marketing professionals totally committed to driving measurable results for dealers across the nation.”

The only constant for today’s business owner is change. Automotive dealers around the country are not only challenged by the rapid pace of change in the products that they sell and service, but also keeping up with changing consumer behaviors and finding the most effective ways to communicate with and market to in-market consumers. The days of advertising in the newspaper and blasting the airways are largely over and to compete in today’s marketplace dealers must be able to execute a multi-channel marketing strategy that includes SEM, SEO, on-site optimization, content, social media, reputation management, online video and more.

Having extensive experience working for automotive OEM’s, retail dealerships and auto ad agencies, the trio of Adam Stone, Dustan Turner and Roger Cobb identified a clear need, and founded Octane Marketing in 2016. It is a full-service marketing agency focused on the automotive vertical. Founded with a focus on helping dealers drive real ROI through a multi-channel approach, Octane Marketing today is one of the most trusted firms in the industry.

How it all began

Early on in the journey Octane was fortunate to find like minded dealers that believed in integrated marketing and after a thorough vetting process was hired by Penske Motor Group (which includes two of the largest dealers in the country, Longo Toyota and Longo Lexus), the Friendly Automotive Group (Poughkeepsie, NY) and McGovern Automotive Group as a full service marketing firm managing almost all aspects of consumer marketing.

Since the launch of their first full service clients, Octane has launched a more streamlined package of integrated digital services call Octane Digital Pro. The package was designed to incorporate the most important elements of a multi-channel approach that every auto retailer can and should implement at their stores.

Quickly, Octane’s Digital Pro package became very popular and put Octane Marketing in the driver’s seat. With the Digital Pro package as the core offering, the company has also developed a complimentary marketing communication (direct mail) strategy that utilizes its client’s data, along with proprietary 3rd party data sets to better brand the dealer in their marketplace, reduce trade cycles, put digital leads in dealer CRM’s through custom PURL landing pages, and increase service retention and profits.

In addition to their growth in direct mail, the next signifcant area of growth for the company has been online video marketing. Utilizing sophisticated behavioral data sets from Oracle and procuring media from Adobe’s Ad Cloud DSP, Octane Marketing is able to deliver high impact video creative to highly targeted audiences unmatched by other verticals.

Experience Can’t Be Replaced

When talking with CEO Adam Stone, it is clear that the defining differentiator for Octane is its staff. In a short two years, the team has grown from the founding trio to 23 employees with a combined over 125 years of automotive experience (OEM, retail and auto agency). “All of our clients interface with multiple team members with significant industry experience. It’s something that are competitors cannot match and truly an advantage for Octane,” according to Stone.

Another difference when working with Octane is the transparency in the services they provide. Octane prides itself on clearly separating their fees from the cost of the media that they run so clients never question where their marketing budgets were spent. Due to this, the company has built strong bonds of trust with both its employees and clients.

In addition to a tremendous team, Octane has also benefitted by being recognized by some of the top companies in the industry. Currently they are both a Google Premier Partner and part of the Bing Partner Program. This is not only recognition for the excellent results that Octane gets for its clients, but also provides the company with the ability to always be on the cutting edge of the latest offerings from both Google and Bing.

The Future View

Octane Marketing maintains consistency in growth as an organization. Having doubled in size in each of its first two years, 2018 looks to be no different. While high customer retention levels and referrals have always been the foundation of the company’s growth, the addition of a new dynamic sales team has already started to pay dividends. Together again, after being the first two employees at DealerRater and successfully charting the companies unprecedented growth in thousands of car dealerships across the nation, VP of Sales Heather MacKinnon and VP of Business Development Matt Lamoureux have found a new home.

“There were a lot of different opportunities for us in automotive, but Octane stood out from the rest because of the experience of their leadership team, the integrity of the founders and the proven results of their strategy,” according to MacKinnon.

In the near future, not only will MacKinnon and Lamoureux represent Octane’s Digital Pro package and other marketing services to dealers, but also will help the company launch new technology that will help auto dealers convert their leads into new customers. The future is bright for Octane Marketing.

Meet the Chief

Adam Stone, Co-founder,and CEO of Octane Marketing: Adam is an entrepreneur, marketer, public speaker, and C-level automotive executive with over 18 years of industry experience. After a highly successful 11 year career at Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Adam cut his teeth in marketing working for the award-winning automotive marketing firm, Tier 10 Marketing. From there, 3 years before founding Octane, Adam was handpicked to build an in-house agency at Prime Motor Group where he helped the company to become one of the fastest growing privately held retail automotive groups in the country.

“In the world of marketing, there are a lot of companies with incredible strategies, brilliant vision and spectacular technology. But without the best people, it is difficult to be successful.”