🇺🇲 Honoring Our Heroes

TOGETHER WITH

Today is a juxtaposition of remembrance, sorrow, and celebration. Memorial Day brings people together in many different ways.

Whether you are on the lot serving customers or at home serving up burgers, take a moment today to remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to provide and preserve our freedoms!

Keep Pushing Back,
-Paul, Kyle, & Chris

DEALERS

Holiday Hype

If you haven't started optimizing the sales buzz around Memorial Day, well…we have some bad news.

You kinda blew it. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200.

Thankfully this opportunity comes around every year, and David Long’s All Things Used Cars community had some incredible advice for effectively implementing strategies to maximize Memorial Day for your dealership.

So, whether you're an early bird or always late to the party, these expert-backed tips will help you make the most of any holiday rush:

⏰ The Earlier, the Better — Set a recurring reminder at least one week before all major holidays to establish your game plan in advance and allow sufficient time for preparation and promotion.

💞 Align Your Messaging — Ensure consistency in your messaging across all touch-points. From the front desk to your website, everything and everyone should reflect the same objective to create a cohesive experience for customers.

🐝 Ramp Up Promotion — Allocate plenty of time to generate buzz, like sending email blasts, producing ads, promoting on social media, leveraging marketing calls, and creating personalized mailers.

✅ Optimize Your Inventory — Fine-tune pricing, verify the accuracy of vehicle information, update vehicle detail pages (VDPs), and ensure all photos are current to enhance the appeal and credibility of your inventory.

🥳 Bring the Hype — Create as much excitement as possible around your Memorial Day event. Consider incorporating out-of-the-box elements such as live bands, DJs, and food trucks to enhance the customer experience and attract more visitors.

📏 Measure Your Results — Consider meeting the day after holiday events to discuss successes, areas for improvement, pain points, and strategies for growth.

Telling it like it is – Though today may be one of the biggest sales holidays, it's important to honor its true importance — remembering those who have given their lives to protect our freedoms.

Our deepest gratitude goes out to those who have or continue to serve our country, and Happy Memorial Day to all! 🎇

TOGETHER WITH SPRIG

Don’t Guess, Ask!

"There are really only two ways to know what a customer wants. Since genies only exist in fantasies, our options narrow to one: asking them.

Sprig gives you a direct line to your customers, so you know your data is backed up by living, breathing, and maybe most importantly, buying people! Sprig's platform offers real-time researchable data you can use to test consumer reactions to concepts even BEFORE they launch.

Check out Sprig today to take the guessing out of offering the best customer experience possible!"

AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

Last week, Paul and Kyle chopped it up with Jim Fitzpatrick of CBT News about the vision behind our new docu-series “More Than Cars” and how YOU can help. 🎬

🔁 Check out the full story and replay here! 🔁

AUTOMOTIVE

Motor Morsels: New Friends, Half Motors, Side Eyes, and Top Spots

🤯 Talk about a twist in the EV plot! Ford and Tesla just pulled a shocker of a deal on electric vehicle charging tech, giving Ford drivers access to over 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across the U.S. and Canada. Next-gen Fords will even sport Tesla's charging plug. If that's not a game-changer, we don't know what game we are playing. The deal has automakers like GM in a right pickle, forcing them to choose between quick charging or sticking to their slower standard. Meanwhile, Ford and Tesla's stocks did a little happy dance, climbing over 7% and 6%, respectively.

⏰ Whoa, hold onto your batts (that's a cool way to say batteries), folks! Rivian just cranked out their first customer-ready, dual-motor R1T, packing their self-engineered Enduro drivetrain. Rivian's cutting middlemen by bringing these bad boys to life in their factory in Normal, IL. Rivian's DIY style will slash costs and pump up production. The dual-motor R1T is $8k cheaper than the quad-motor version, so it's like Rivian just declared happy hour on their electric trucks.

😡 Well, well, well. Toyota's got itself a spicy controversy! Proxy adviser Glass Lewis is urging Toyota shareholders to give Chairman Akio Toyoda the boot from the board, accusing him of a major party foul - a lack of board independence. Glass Lewis says only three of the 10 board nominees are independent, falling short of their one-third requirement. Toyota says, "nuh-uh!" claiming four nominees are free agents. The disagreement left a sour taste in everyone's mouths ahead of the annual meeting on June 14th.

🥳 Grab your party hats and electric car fans! The Tesla Model Y has raced past Toyota's RAV4 and Corolla, screeching into the top spot as the world's bestselling car in Q1 2023. Who said being expensive AF means you won't be popular? The 69% YoY increase means Tesla's underdog title among the big car manufacturers is just a title and matters when the rubber hits the road, like CEO, Birthday Boy, or Fish Whisperer.

TL; DR - Ford and Tesla made a deal to normalize charging tech, Rivian is going to start delivering Dual Motor R1Ts soon, Toyota’s incoming Chairman is under attack, and Tesla outsold Toyota in Q1.

CULTURE

Robots, Ninjas, and Influencers

🤖🤖🤖 

Transformers Turbulence - A Georgetown neuroscientist sparked a legal fracas with his Transformers sculptures. Despite enlisting the original Transformers voice actors to plead their case, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee lost to city zoning laws, deemed a violation of historic codes and public safety. The saga, much like the Transformers series, continues.

🤠🆚📱 

Montana vs. TikTok - TikTok sues Montana, the first state banning the app, for violating free speech. The ban stops app stores offering TikTok from 2024 but spares current users. TikTok asserts the ban oversteps national security powers, following a similar claim by five content creators.

🥷🥷🥷 

Indiana Unleashes Ninja Stars - This summer, Indiana's ban on throwing stars lifts under Senate Enrolled Act 77. Businesses are capitalizing on the change, launching throwing star leagues with safety measures in place. Watch out. Indiana's ninjas return on July 1!

Telling it like it is – If Optimus Prime gets his hands on some of those ninja stars and the footage doesn’t end up on TikTok, can we live with ourselves?

Quick Hits

• YouTube is ditching YouTube Stories starting June 26th. 📚

• Spending and inflation jumped in April. 🦘

• Yellow Bus maker opens electric bus factory. 🚌

• The Barbie movie drops a new trailer. 🎥

History

• 1946: Frazer begins production. 🏁

• 1996: Superman actor Christopher Reeve suffers a permanent neck injury after falling off his horse. 🦸🏻‍♂️

• 2015: One World Observatory at One World Trade Center opens. 🕯️