Why automotive marketing operating models are accelerating
Automotive marketing used to be built in a predictable way: model launches, minor changes and sales events, broad reach, dealer co‑op, a lot of linear TV, lower funnel PPC, paid social and CRM. That rhythm has broken. Totally. The industry is being reshaped by a stack of forces that move faster than product cycles: policy volatility around electrification, geopolitics and tariffs, the connected-car data trust gap, and an advertising marketplace that is fragmenting and being rebuilt by AI.
A few datapoints capture the momentum. The IEA estimates global electric car sales exceeded 17 million in 2024 and expects sales to exceed 20 million in 2025, representing more than one-quarter of total cars sold. [1] At the same time, growth and adoption patterns diverge sharply across regions: China is projected to reach around a 60% electric-car sales share in 2025, Europe around 25%, and the U.S. around 11% under current policy direction. [2] These differences are not just “market context” they have massive implications for global OEM’s, they drive different product mixes, different claims and compliance constraints, different retail economics, and different advertising, media and data strategies.
Meanwhile, the media system that historically gave OEMs mass reach is being re-baselined. In the U.S., Nielsen reported that streaming hit 44.8% of total TV usage in May 2025 surpassing broadcast and cable combined for the first time. [3] Automotive marketers have to re-wire planning, creative, and measurement for a reality where “TV” is not one channel, and the path from awareness to lead is no longer linear. Is TV now more like a CRM tool?
And, what of the creator economy? IAB projects creator ad spend (brand-directed spend on creators) to reach $37B in 2025. Edelman’s 2025 Brand Trust study, influencers score 58% “trusted to give accurate information about a brand”, below friends/family (84%) but comparable to CEOs (58%). With 51% of automotive spend now on search and Social (WARC) it is clear that the reach and credibility of Influencers and the creator economy for automotive marketers is set to grow.
These are just some of the reasons why transformation of the marketing operating model is accelerating. It is a shift in both what marketing does and how it does it.
The trend stack reshaping automotive marketing
The trends below range from macro forces (policy, geopolitics, economics) to micro shifts (how buyers want to buy, what they expect inside the cabin, and where they discover brands). For each trend we’ve shown the marketing operating model implication: what a future-fit automotive marketing organization needs to be able to do consistently, to win.
| Trend impacting automotive marketing | Operating model impact on marketing (people, data/tech, process, agencies) |
|---|---|
| Geo Politics, Tariffs & EV uncertainty drives stop-start agility | Upgrade marketing operations, processes, agency scopes and fees to support fast reallocation of budget and creative. |
| New “brand arrival” moments where new brands are launching | OEM marketers need to build rapid brand launch and localization capabilities (or defensive campaign ability if they are existing brands). Speed and efficiency will trump scale. Do you have agile marketing processes for rapid response? |
| Buyers are comfortable with digital research and buying steps, but may still want hybrid confidence | Build omnichannel journey operations with AI based queries at the heart. This requires coordinated OEM + retailer experience design, not parallel efforts. Whoever joins their data to get the best CX wins. |
| Redefining CX measures, KPI’s and outcomes | Re-architect marketing roles, skills, data, and incentives across OEM, retail partners but also agencies. What is the best measure of CX by channel? What should be the right measure for each agencies success in 2030? Will it really (still) be about reach and awareness? |
| Media fragmentation forces automotive reach to be rebuilt across streaming, social, retail media, and search | Modernize media planning and buying measurement. Each impression or GRP is not equal across platforms and devices. Attentive reach based upon a manufacturers own response curves are now immediate requirements. New video taxonomies to determine what video channels ate working and how and new media mix modelling (MMM) solutions to drive media planning are required. |
| Search becomes “answer led” as generative AI rewrites discovery | Build content and data structures for AI discovery: structured data, authoritative content hubs, PR/earned strategies, and rapid content refresh. (See the Flock Associate whitepaper on GEO for more details) |
| The creator and influencer economy comes of age | PR, Social and Influencer teams are coming together. New skills, processes, measurement and KPI’s are needed as creator reach and influence increases, replacing the role of paid advertising in many instances. |
| Premium sponsorships & sports teams keep getting more expensive, whilst branded content costs are reducing | Motorsport involvement and participation comes at a high price, as does premium sponsorships of sports and other cultural events. Many brands are defining new skills, functions and agency rosters to create their own content taking advantage of reduced costs and multiple platform distribution. Are you paying more to get less, or paying less to get more? |
| Software releases and the connected-car & service data economy collides with privacy expectations | Marketers need to be able to harness the connected car data by creating better marketing data taxonomies & better personalized experiences – it’s a new set of marketing data skills and requires integration with other functions. |
| Used cars has become a digital, data-driven battleground (not a backwater) | Use used-vehicle marketing data as a growth engine; add capabilities in pricing analytics, remarketing, and omnichannel conversion. The online shift in used cars has accelerated transparency and hybrid online/offline sales behaviors that the smart OEM can harness. |
A practical playbook for marketing leaders
As shown above, automotive marketers have to transform their marketing operating models significantly and urgently.
At Flock, we create integrated and holistic change programs using our V-PRODUCT framework below. The framework captures all the fundamental aspects of the marketing operating model and allows us to orchestrate workstreams of change to build better more effective and efficient marketing models.
If you would like to see case histories of our historical work with many leading OEM’s then please let us know. You can fill in the form below and we’ll be in touch.
About key sources
This article’s evidence base draws on: IEA’s Global EV Outlook for electrification trajectories and regional disparities, [4] Deloitte’s Global Automotive Consumer Study for consumer and connectivity differences, [11] EY’s Mobility Consumer Index for online buying behavior, [14] WARC and WPP Media for advertising investment shifts and the role of AI in marketing transformation, [35] Nielsen for media fragmentation signals, [3] Google for the expansion and behavioral impact of AI Overviews, [20] and official regulatory sources (FTC, USTR/Commerce) for privacy and trade dynamics. [36]
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