"Brand Safety" — Why Your TikTok Guy is Costing Your Dealership | Exec Dir. of Marketing, Murgado Automotive
Is your dealership encouraging team members to "go viral?" You might be seeing the spike in clicks, but are you seeing the real cost? In an age where everyone's a content creator, maintaining brand integrity and a consistent message is harder than ever.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
Why relying on individual salespeople to create "viral" content can undermine your dealership's long-term reputation.
How to communicate brand guidelines to your team so they become brand ambassadors, not brand liabilities.
The critical difference between short-term engagement and sustainable dealer growth through consistent brand messaging.
How to evaluate marketing partnerships to ensure they align with your dealership's values and community standing.
Don Moss, Executive Director of Marketing at Murgado Automotive Group, shares his expertise on brand safety and the hidden implications of content strategy in "automotive retail".
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:44 Why Brand Safety Matters
01:39 Social Video Risks
04:19 Setting Content Guardrails
06:50 Personal Accounts vs Brand
08:27 Influencers and Scandal Risk
10:51 Who Owns the Standards
14:13 Simplify for Growth
15:30 Connect and Wrap Up
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Episode Transcript
[0:13] — Introduction
Michael Cirillo: All right, gang, here we go live. I am here with my new friend Don Moss, who is the Executive Director of Marketing at Murgado Automotive Group. Don, thanks so much for joining me on the Dealer Playbook.
[0:23]
Don Moss: Absolutely, glad to be here.
[0:25]
Michael Cirillo: I am excited to chat with you because you have a lot of experience that I want to draw from. The first one is this. I know that you have worked in media, I know that you are a marketing professional, and you have so much data looking at your dealer group.
[0:42]
But the first thing I want to know is: what do you see from a media perspective that dealers should be considering as part of their marketing mix?
---
[0:53] — Why Brand Safety Matters
Don Moss: That is a great question. You know, I will tell you something that I think a lot of times people overlook. Maybe it is brand safety.
Michael Cirillo: Ooh.
Don Moss: So, you know, we go quick to the ads and how to structure the right messaging. Sometimes we forget about how important it is to consider what that message is really saying about our company. Is it on point with our brand? Are there any considerations we should be making bigger than just, did it get a click?
[1:20]
Michael Cirillo: And so when you are looking at it, which is interesting, because that is often what people can see. They can see the click, they can see the traffic, they can see the impressions, or what we typically call the vanity metrics. But from your vantage point, talk to me about the safety piece. What are you thinking about from the seat that you are sitting in?
---
[1:39] — Social Video Risks
Don Moss: Oh, wow. You know, the world is changing quick, but everything is recorded on video now. Everybody is watching video. We spend hours scrolling and scrolling. And so it is natural for our teams to think, man, I have got to get in the mix. I have got to start making videos.
[1:56]
In fact, the industry is encouraging every salesperson at every store: the only way you are going to be successful is if you get on TikTok, you get on Instagram, you do these videos. And I do not know that that is wrong. I think that is probably right. The problem is, how do you execute that?
[2:14]
And I am not just talking about the quality of the videos. I am not saying, is my lighting right, do I have the perfect camera? It is more about, am I saying something that makes sense, not just as a salesman, but does it make sense for the person that owns the building? Does it match his values? Does it match what the store as a group is trying to do? That is a fine line to walk for a young salesman who is just trying to make a car deal by posting some videos.
[2:40]
Michael Cirillo: You are bringing something to my mind that I have not thought about in this way. You drive past the billboards on the freeway that say Murgado Automotive Group, family owned and operated for however many years, and you go, well, why is that a USP?
[2:56]
But now you are bringing something to my mind and I am like, because this is a real person. This is a real family that really lives in this area. And the throughput here that I am hearing you say is, we have to be more thoughtful about what we are putting out there, because ultimately there is a real family name we could be tarnishing.
[3:21]
Don Moss: You are so right about that. And they have mothers and wives and daughters, and they are involved in our communities. You know, dealers are some of the most philanthropic, community-involved businesses in our communities. And then you pair that to the content that might be being created in their name, and there is a real chance that it is not aligned.
---
[4:19] — Setting Content Guardrails
Michael Cirillo: So how do you position that properly? Is it, hey, we do not want you creating content? Or do you have to be more intentional in creating standard operating procedures? How do you safeguard, really?
[4:33]
Don Moss: That is a good question. So probably the safest way to be absolutely safe is just to say no, we are not doing any of this. But how shortsighted would that be?
[4:44]
So you cannot say no. You have got to be very clear about what the expectation is. You have got to applaud the effort. Hey, the fact that you have built a business where a whole bunch of young people want to get on camera and promote it on their own free will, that is a good thing. Why would you ever want to squash that? You just have to help them understand that what they are doing reflects more than just themselves.
[5:05]
And yes, you might actually get a car sale out of this. You might get a whole bunch of clicks and sell some cars. What you do not always see is how many people just turned away, maybe even in disgust. So I am happy you sold a car, I am happy you got a hundred clicks. But what you did not see was that there are ten families now that do not look at us the way they looked at us before they saw your video, and now they are going to go tell their friends and family.
[5:36]
Michael Cirillo: Which is the most powerful marketing, right? Word of mouth. Measuring that impact. I had this conversation yesterday. Somebody asked me, what is the most valuable metric you think people should be paying attention to? And I said impact, which also happens to be the hardest thing to measure.
[5:58]
And I think that is it, because how are you thinking about the ripple effect? The implication? The impact? In a digital age where things are moving so fast, when it has almost become faux pas to not be on social, to not be making videos constantly. How do you really advocate for this understanding that because of all of these things, your team is an ambassador for this business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?
[6:41]
Now, in a world where people say, you pay me to be here from nine to five. How do you reconcile that?
---
[6:49] — Personal Accounts vs. Brand
Don Moss: You know, it is a fine line. Because often the content is not even being created on the social accounts that we own or that carry our name.
[6:58]
Often it is being created on a person's own account. And then how, as a business, am I going to say what you do on your account? The fact is, I can. You are filming on our location. You are using our name and brand. You are asking people to do business with, not you, but with us. All of that turns your personal account into our shared activity.
[7:32]
Michael Cirillo: It is sticky. It is a little tricky. How do you enforce that, without, like you said in the beginning, completely discouraging the fact that you have people who are willing to be ambassadors for your name?
[7:51]
Don Moss: You know, you cannot get everything right. You are going to discourage some people. Some people are just going to say, if they will not let me do what I want, I am not doing it. But I think most people are pretty logical. I think if you sit them down and really take the time to teach them and show them the why, look, we are not just trying to sell one more Honda Accord. The owner is trying to buy three more Honda dealerships, and all of this plays into that. I think if you can help people see that, most people are going to say, yeah, I get it. Thanks for explaining that to me.
---
[8:27] — Influencers and Scandal Risk
Michael Cirillo: And now I am thinking of an adjacent lane, which is how much money we spend, or invest. If it does not work out, it is spend. If it works, it is invest. But how much money do we spend on an agency that then goes out and finds local celebrities to peddle a message, which, depending on the situation, may or may not be a great reflection of your brand.
[8:56]
For example, the celebrity who is well loved one week, on whom you have spent an exorbitant amount of money, who two weeks later is caught up in a scandal. But you have already spent all of that marketing money.
[9:15]
Don Moss: Look, that is another real-world thing. And not just in automotive, every industry struggles with that. If you tie your brand to someone else's brand, you are in the same boat now and you are along for the ride wherever they are taking you.
[9:38]
For automotive specifically, are there really all that many influencers who are specific to automotive? There really are not. So you are pushed to find people who are adjacent, or maybe have nothing to do with automotive at all. And I think that is where things get a little lost. I live in Miami. There is a lot of wild content in Miami. The crazier, the wilder, the more eyeballs on it.
[10:09]
And look, that kind of activity gets a lot of eyeballs and a lot of interest. But that does not mean it is the right fit for what we are trying to accomplish. You have got to ask, is this person really going to help me move my brand forward? Are they going to help me be seen better in the community? If you can at least say this is helping me move my image as a legitimate member of this community in the right direction, then I think that is the right person you are going with.
---
[10:51] — Who Owns the Standards
Michael Cirillo: From the seat that you are sitting in now with Murgado Automotive Group, who needs to be included in that conversation from the beginning to make sure that we do not lose focus along the way?
[11:08]
Don Moss: You know, the easiest decisions are made by one person. But that is not very practical if you are a single rooftop store. The owner can make that decision. As you get bigger and more diverse geographically, you have got to establish really clear guidelines: this is what we are willing to allow, this is what we encourage, this is what we do not allow. And then you have got to empower the leaders at each rooftop to know the standards and uphold them.
[11:37]
Michael Cirillo: I love this. And I genuinely think, Don, this is the first time ever on this podcast in over a decade that I have had this conversation. And we are at NADA, everybody is talking about AI. We are talking about something I have never talked about on the show before, and you are really surfacing for me how incredibly important this conversation is because of the far-reaching implications.
[12:24]
Maybe you are a single-point store in a small rural town, but you are an integral part of that community and that reputation either works for you or it really works against you. I find so many businesses that are forced to overspend and cannot figure out why their leads are so expensive. Is it because maybe ten years ago something happened that was never addressed, and it has been causing a brand equity problem ever since?
[13:03]
Don Moss: Sure. Look, we sell cars and we know there is some stigma to it. There just is. We are not starting at a level playing field. We are starting below that. And we have got to shine a little bit brighter than other people just to get to level. And I think that has to be part of what we are thinking about as we are doing content.
---
[14:13] — Simplify for Growth
Michael Cirillo: What are you looking at for the next couple of years? What is on your mind as you are looking to acquire more stores and increase your footprint and impact?
[14:35]
Don Moss: You know, for us, and I think a lot of people can relate to this: as you are adding more and more stores to a group, you have got to make things simpler. You cannot keep bolting on more and more. The ability to have a few less people in the conversation really helps put it all together. It is a matter of how do we build processes? How do we assemble the right collection of people to help us move the next step forward? The next step might be a really big step, which means it really needs to be a little less complicated and a little more boiled down.
[15:12]
Michael Cirillo: I love that. It is not a return to basics. It is enforcing a foundation. I love it. See how quickly this goes when you are having a good time talking about brand safety? I genuinely cannot believe we have never had this discussion on the show.
---
[15:30] — Connect and Wrap Up
Michael Cirillo: I would love to have you back sometime because I have a million and one questions. But until next time, how can those listening and viewing connect with you?
[15:39]
Don Moss: You can reach out to me on LinkedIn. That is a great way to find me. Don Moss. Happy to talk to anybody. I love this business and love talking to folks in it.
[15:46]
Michael Cirillo: You are the man, Don Moss. Thanks so much for joining me on the Dealer Playbook.
Don Moss: Thanks, brother. You are the man.
[15:52]
Michael Cirillo: Hey, thanks for listening to the Dealer Playbook podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in, please subscribe, share, and hit that like button. You can also join us and the DPB community on social media. Check back next week for a new episode. Thanks so much for joining.
