Our Story

How Dealer Ignition came to be.

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Chapter 1: Starting from somewhere

In 2006, frustrated with manufacturers versus dealers for online customers I left Ford Motor Company to create Dealer Ignition. At first I thought someone would have already built an online tool that enabled a company to co-op some of their Paid Search spend.

After looking for more then a year for a solution and talking with a number of vendors I came to the conclusion that no-one had or was going to. In that year I realized the following was happening, $50 Billion dollars is budgeted each year for co-op marketing use. Less then 50% of that money is used by retailers, dealers or brokers. There are currently 4,000 plus co-op marketing programs from different companies. Less then 1% allow for online marketing. Traditional media is declining and people spend more time at work and home using the internet. So why doesn’t Co-op programs allow for it?

In the Fall of 2007 I set out to develop Dealer Ignition using my own money to pay for the development. I was convinced that the future holds a more collaborative model. 90% of customers are searching first when they shop. 73% of visitors to manufacturer’s websites still use the Google search to find a local store.

Our goals when we created Dealer Ignition:

  • 1. Simplicity
  • 2. Complete Solution
  • 3. Dealer Buy-In

Chapter 2: From Concept to Solution

We are just in this chapter of our company. In the fall of 2008 we rolled out Dealer Ignition to a Fortune 100 client’s insurance agent group. Since then we have add a promotional network that enables promotional spots to run on dealer’s websites and an email system. One client has already seen a 15:1 return on their investment with Dealer Ignition.

In the spring of 2009 Larry Blackwell, former CEO of Datastream joined our company as an investor. Larry’s background and guidance will allow us to expand the products and services to our customers.

Chapter 3: The Future

The future is very bright. As more businesses begin to collaborate with their dealers to harness the power of the internet we see nothing but great waves. Come join us at our Our Blog and Twitter to see what’s next.

This is always a team effort, and I am very blessed to have a great group of people on our team. We would love to add you as a customer.

Steven Wagner, Founder and Head Ignitor