Year of Change: Cars Go Virtual
And yeah, I know, the cracks are too easy: "Cars go virtual because they aren’t selling."
But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the car communities. The people who are into cars. If you check out the stats on car buff magazine subscriptions, or attendance at car shows, or some of the high-profile aftermarket parts companies who are in receivership, it’s easy to conclude that the whole community is dying.
But it’s not. It’s just moving.
Take a look at the Quantcast numbers for Autoblog or Jalopnik, and you’ll quickly see an upward trend for both properties. As the magazines fail, the blogs grow and prosper. The younger audience isn’t about flipping pages, they’re about pageviews. They aren’t about waiting a month for stale news, they’re about getting the spy photos on the same day they appear. They aren’t about sitting down and writing letters to the editor, they’re about posting a comment the second a new article appears—and arguing heatedly with other commenters about their particular point of view.
And yet how many mainstream auto brands are paying attention to these sites? Currently, Subaru and Honda are the leaderboards on Autoblog and Jalopnik—which coincidentally happen to be the brands which posted the smallest sales declines during the month of February. Or perhaps not so coincidentally?
In terms of aftermarket companies, nada.
In terms of other, car-related products and services, nada.
It’s a new world. And as cars go virtual, it’s time to look beyond print. At least for those who want to target young, vibrant communities.
