Publishing Dynamics' VP explains how branded desktop applications create a one-stop center for a comprehensive automotive shopping experience.

In today's accepted sales cycle, prospective car buyers shimmy their way from educational portal sites to brand sites, eventually landing at local dealer sites when they are ready to make a buy. Take a step back, and look at how the content breaks down into two pieces: 1) Information from auto brands 2) Information from education-based automotive sites.

These elements of education and brand are kept as separate as possible, with the education channel fading as a user's search narrows, to then be picked up by the dialogue of brand and dealer marketing.

In theory, these discreet identities were developed to build the online educational brand's integrity as an independent third-party. Now these brands have matured to the point of syndication and line extension, where a few educational sites propagate content for the vast majority of the web.

The next logical step for both research site and automaker is to start playing together in Web 2.0, which can be accomplished through branded desktop applications (BDAs).

Convenience is king
So the old adage went "content is king." But now you have these well-oiled content machines. Brands and educational portals have strived to create comprehensive content libraries. So now, the focus has shifted to the challenge of delivering the content where it's most convenient to the audience.

Enter the desktop. Is there anything more convenient for an automotive shopper than having dealer inventory and pricing alongside the latest reviews and videos from educational sites, without having to open a browser and search for the appropriate web page? Instead of simply pouring budget into ad buys on portal sites, it has become more important to bring this content to users of brand and dealer sites. When the dynamic ability of all these content players work in a single context, everyone wins.

Brands win with captivation
Going to one of these educational portal sites is a bit like being dropped off in Times Square: there's just too much to see in every direction. Even when I want to look at one ad, I'm often forced to watch another first from a competing make or model. This is the price advertisers pay in such a competitive landscape, right?

But if you present this information in the context of your own BDA, not only are you giving prospects the education they need to feel confident about a buying decision, you're stopping them from opening a web browser, and exposing themselves to a distracting automotive version of Times Square. More like a small town: they could travel a few clicks to a larger store, but they have most all of what they need right here. Why bother?

Educational sites win with new content channels
While automakers are enjoying the captivation of their customers using educational site content, edu-content sites are winning by continuing to deliver highly relevant information to exactly the audience interested in it. Content providers continue to build brand equity in the far more intimate space of the desktop. As an awareness tool, educational content sites are getting exposure at times in the process they're normally not a part of, repurposing the content already created anyway. 

Old worries of muddying portal site perception as independent must be fading away after a decade of investment. Now these educational brands are strong enough to survive alongside -- as opposed to being swallowed by - the voice of the auto brand itself.

Michael Leis is VP of Publishing Dynamics. Read full bio.