Cobalt and Edmunds.com Partner to Provide the Industry's First Comprehensive View into Online Automotive Shopper Behavior

SEATTLE and SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan.22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cobalt, a business unit of ADP Dealer Services, Inc. (a division of ADP^®) and the global leader in digital solutions for automotive manufacturers and their dealer networks, and Edmunds.com, the premier car shopping destination, today announced a strategic partnership to bring insights into consumer behavior and in-market advertising, delivering significant value across all the major types of internet properties visited by automotive shoppers during their shopping process.  This will be the first time that the behavior of anonymous in-market consumer behavior will be analyzed across advertising networks, search engines, independent research sites, as well as manufacturer, regional and dealer websites.

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In another first, consumer behavior will be analyzed across these properties as consumers interact with different types of branded and unbranded content, not simply measured as clicks or visits.  The joint research will guide marketers to understand the advertising value attribution of different content and offers in contributing toward a sale. This further leverages Cobalt's closed loop analytics capabilities.  Models developed with these insights will dynamically optimize consumer advertising and website experiences. 

The collaboration intends to share its findings with the automotive industry to advance digital marketing practice as well as to inform the design of dynamic consumer experiences and audience acquisition to optimize marketing performance.  Other researchers into automotive shopper behavior lack visibility into all of these properties, have limited insight into the content viewed by consumers, and lack a marketing platform able to personalize consumer experiences across properties based upon consumer intent.

According to a Datalogix study, 59 percent of all new vehicle shoppers use Edmunds.com during their car shopping experience, providing Edmunds valuable insights into shoppers' vehicle purchase intent and cross-shopping interest. 

Cobalt has built the automotive industry's most comprehensive warehouse of automotive shopper behavior, observing interactions of millions of shoppers with billions of advertising impressions, over 500 million inventory searches, and the industry's largest network of dealer and regional websites.  Over 85 Cobalt business intelligence professionals research what customer experiences convert to automotive sales and use these insights to guide Cobalt's dynamic marketing platform and personalized consumer experience engine to serve each consumer with the right content, at the right time, on the right media property and their device of choice to advance their purchase decision. 

Edmunds and Cobalt are already collaborating to understand the experience of these shoppers as they go between Edmunds and the Cobalt dealer network.  This research has found that consumers who visit both properties purchase at more than three times the rate of the average dealer website visitor.  By optimizing consumers' experiences as they cross properties the companies expect to serve consumers better and significantly improve conversion.

Cobalt and Edmunds will be inviting manufacturers to participate in this initiative, helping manufacturers and their agencies understand the role their audiences and properties play in the overall consumer journey so they can better link their brand marketing execution with consumers' in-market journeys.

"It is part of our culture to innovate new ways to apply and share our vast and growing collection of car shopping trend data," said Brian Terr, Edmunds.com Vice President of Business Development. "Our collaboration with Cobalt is part of our continuing effort to provide car buyers with a richer and easier shopping experience.  Our dealer and OEM partners will also benefit from a better understanding of consumer engagement with their brands and as a result have a greater ability to make more strategic marketing decisions."

"Cobalt's prime focus is on how we can improve the auto buyer's experience to the benefit of the consumer, manufacturer and dealer", said Max Steckler, VP of Global Advertising Solutions/Business Intelligence. "Edmunds.com's unmatched insights into cross-brand consumer vehicle research combined with Cobalt's research and dynamic consumer experiences platform will give our clients a profound competitive advantage in serving the rapidly changing automotive consumer."

About Cobalt
Cobalt, a business unit of ADP Dealer Services, provides digital marketing solutions to a majority of US automotive dealers and manufacturers, and is North America's leading provider of automotive marketing services.  For over 18 years, Cobalt's mission has been to help automotive dealers and manufacturers increase their retailing effectiveness and profitability. The company offers a comprehensive set of highly effective and efficient marketing solutions and services, delivering  seamless shopping experiences to consumers, and high quality sales opportunities to dealers.  Visit Cobalt.com.

About ADP
With more than $11 billion in revenues and more than 60 years of experience, ADP^® (NASDAQ: ADP) serves approximately 620,000 clients in more than 125 countries.  As one of the world's largest providers of business outsourcing and Human Capital Management solutions, ADP offers a wide range of human resource, payroll, talent management, tax and benefits administration solutions from a single source, and helps clients comply with regulatory and legislative changes, such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  ADP's easy-to-use solutions for employers provide superior value to companies of all types and sizes.  ADP is also a leading provider of integrated computing solutions to auto, truck, motorcycle, marine, recreational vehicle, and heavy equipment dealers throughout the world.  For more information about ADP, visit the company's Web site at www.adp.com.

The ADP logo and ADP are registered trademarks of ADP, Inc.  All other marks are the property of their respective owners. Copyright © 2014 ADP, Inc.

About Edmunds.com
Edmunds.com is a car-shopping Web site driven to make car buying easy. Almost 18 million visitors use our shopping tools every month to connect with over 9,500 dealer franchises across the U.S.  Shoppers can browse our inventory listings for available cars and trucks, and with Edmunds.com's Price Promise(sm), they can get an instant, upfront price on those same vehicles. Recently named by Maritz Research as one of the most trusted online consumer review sites - and the only automotive site listed in the top ten - Edmunds.com is also home to comprehensive car reviews, shopping tips, photos, videos and feature stories. Even when you're at the dealership, we're always by your side. Just call our free Live Advice Line at 1-855-782-4711 or use our acclaimed Edmunds.com  iPhone and iPad apps or Edmunds.com Android App. We're based in Santa Monica, Calif., but you can connect with us from anywhere by following @Edmunds on Twitter or by becoming a fan of Edmunds.com on Facebook.

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SOURCE Edmunds.com