Despite all the economic doom and gloom that surrounds us at the moment the final sales figures for new cars in 2010 are expected to show real growth over the previous year with sales exceeding 50 million vehicles worldwide. Even the recent concerns in the EU about Greece’s problems and the potential bailout of Ireland has seemingly not dampened our voracious appetite for new cars.

Flash Drives Used By The Motor Industry

Of course the car manufacturers work incredibly hard to encourage to keep sales buoyant and this is reflected in the scale of their global advertising and marketing spend which runs into billions of pounds every year.

What has changed recently is the way in which advertising, marketing and promotional budgets are spent. Historically it was very much a combination TV and print advertising combined with the sales skills of the staff in the showrooms all of which of course has to be underpinned by a great product.

USB Car Fobs

Today car manufactures have to embrace all forms of communication including on-line advertising, on-line ads, YouTube videos, posts on social networking sites, iPhone Apps, Twitter and so on. By virtue of these multiple channels consumers are better informed, have access to reviews on the cars posted by other owners and access to huge amount of comparative data at their fingertips. Consequently when today car buyer arrives in the showroom he/she often does so armed with as much information about the cars on show as the salesperson.

In the car showroom and at the major motor shows the manufacturers are also reducing their reliance on traditional printed brochures, instead expect to be able to download content to your iPad, mobile phone or notebook or alternatively to take all of the content away in a digitised format on a printed USB flash drive.

USB Credit Cards - Motor Industry

Printed USB flash drives are still in their infancy in the car showroom but they are already popular at trade shows where they are being used to attract customers to the stand and to send them away with lots of electronics brochures, specifications, prices, video clips, reviews and web links but without the need to print or carry anything.

The flash drives range from standard factory models to the more sophisticated USB credit cards or in some cases to fully bespoke USB flash drives in the shape of key fobs or the cars themselves.

USB flash drives also help motor manufactures with their “eco friendly” status because pre-loading brochures etc. on the flash drive significantly reduces print and transportation costs and great for the consumers as they are not burdened with lots of heavy brochures to carry around all day at the show.

The lions share of advertising spend is still going to be on TV and Print advertising in the short term but new communication channels and USB flash drives will be a growing part of the mix.