Some automakers are testing car infotainment ads as pop-up ads on infotainment screens, and as you can guess, it’s not well-received by customers.
How do you handle pop-up ads and commercials? For some, recording shows that air live and watching them later to skip the ads has become the norm. For others, it might be blocking pop-up ads during gaming and online scrolling. Many streaming services offer ad-free options for a little more money, and consumers have jumped on this option in a big way. It’s obvious that most people don’t want to be bothered with ads, especially pop-ups, which can show up at the most inconvenient times. Why then have some automakers begun to push them to infotainment systems?
Car infotainment ads could be part of a dealership retargeting strategy
Subaru and other automakers are testing pop-up ads on infotainment screens, and drivers aren’t happy. But there’s a bigger lesson here for dealers about the fine line between staying visible and annoying customers. When you’re retargeting shoppers or using onsite popups, frequency matters just as much as the message. Car infotainment ads might not be a minefield you want to enter for your dealership marketing, but your OEM brand may have already done this for you.
How do you tow the fine line between annoyance and marketing?
Too many ads can seriously annoy consumers, and the same goes for poorly timed ads. If an ad for a popular music streaming service appears on your infotainment system while you’re driving on the highway, you might not be pleased about it, especially if you need to look at the screen for directions. A few ads here and there might not be so bad, but most consumers are familiar with how far pop-up ads have gone. You can click on the “do not show me again” button for one ad, but that doesn’t stop other ads from appearing on your screen. It happens regularly while scrolling online, but should it be part of your driving experience? This might be crossing the line from marketing into annoyance.
Are OEM advertising mistakes really happening on your infotainment screen
Car infotainment ads could be the worst idea that any automaker has ever had, but it seems that Subaru and Stellantis are towing a hard line. Both push pop-up ads to their infotainment systems, and Subaru claims they haven’t had any backlash, while Stellantis claims there’s a glitch because users have complained they can’t opt out of the ads on their screens. This could be a huge problem for a car dealer focused on its brands and the safety of drivers. A driver on the road shouldn’t be suddenly interrupted with ads, especially when they should be focused on driving and not the sudden changes of the infotainment system.
Should automotive digital advertising extend to your car’s infotainment system?
If you want consumer trust in your marketing efforts, you have to be cautious about pushing your advertising at the wrong times. Automotive pop-up advertising while driving on the freeway is probably a step too far. Imagine driving on the highway, enjoying the music from your streaming service or radio station, and suddenly you’re hit with a pop-up ad on your infotainment system. Worse than that, what if the ad shows up when you’re attempting to navigate through an unfamiliar city? This could be a serious problem for you during your driving experience. Advertising on infotainment systems seems to be a safety risk, an extreme annoyance, and simply unnecessary.
Does this reek of desperation?
Before consumers were given options of seeing ads or not and provided with the ability to skip ads when they desired, watching television meant sitting through commercial breaks. While that advertising reached households, what did many people do? If you’ve seen the online memes, you know that many TV watchers used the commercial breaks to get a snack, drink, or use the restroom. They weren’t even in the room to see the ads. While it seems that some advertisers are getting desperate to get their message shared wherever they can, a car’s infotainment system should be off limits.
Car infotainment ads seem like a terrible idea and will hopefully go away quickly. It’s bad enough that the screens in cars have grown to massive proportions, and they now control nearly every aspect of a vehicle, requiring drivers to navigate screens while driving to find what they want; now advertising could show up at any time.
What do you think of car infotainment ads showing up while you’re driving?
