New Car IQ from Pearl Technology wins 2014 Innovation Cup Award and “YouTube Postal Service” from Robert Karbaum E-Commerce Manager, Weins Canada Inc./Don Valley North Lexus, wins the 2014 Dealer Best Idea Award; presented at 2014 DrivingSales Executive Summit  

Salt Lake City, Utah – October 20, 2014 – DrivingSales today announced the winners of the 2014 DrivingSales Innovation Cup and Dealer Best Idea Awards. “New Car IQ” from Pearl Technology won The Innovation Cup Award for the most innovative dealership solution of the year. Robert Karbaum, E-Commerce Manager, Weins Canada Inc./Don Valley North Lexus took the Dealer Best Idea Award for “YouTube Postal Service.” This is the second year in a row Karbaum has won the award. The awards were presented in Las Vegas on October 14^th at the sold-out DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES). Over 1,000 dealers and industry professionals attended the three-day event, which concluded on Tuesday.

“It always gives me great pleasure to announce the winners of the Innovation Cup and Best Idea awards, especially because they are judged and selected by dealers themselves,” said DrivingSales CEO and Founder Jared Hamilton. “This year’s finalists were particularly inspiring to our team and attendees. We congratulate Pearl Technology and Robert Karbaum for winning our 2014 competition – and for all the outstanding finalists for sharing their creative thinking and products.”

Selected by dealers from a competitive group of applicants, five finalists for each award presented onstage at this year’s DrivingSales Executive Summit. A panel of dealer judges asked questions of each presenter and scored each solution/strategy. The solution with the highest score was presented with the 2014 Innovation Cup Award. The dealership strategy with the highest score won the 2014 Dealer Best Idea Award, which was sponsored by CDK Global and included $10,000 in cash and prizes.

Pearl Technology’s New Car IQ™, a product that helps solve the complex puzzle of new car pricing by automating incentive integration, auto compiling vehicle competitive sets to trim and color and calculating real-time true market value of every new car, received the highest score in The Innovation Cup Award competition.

Other Innovation Cup finalists were (alphabetically): Lead Launch from CarWars; Mid-Interval Communications from DMEautomotive; Gubagoo Behavioral Engagement & Analytics Technology (BEAST), and Chat and Call Centers from Gubagoo; LotLinx Vehicle Display Network from LotLinx

Robert Karbaum, E-Commerce Manager, Weins Canada Inc. / Don Valley North Lexus, who took home the Dealer Best Idea Award, received the highest score for “YouTube Postal Service,” his strategy of embedding YouTube videos of salespeople in reply emails to lead submissions.

Other Dealer Best Idea finalists were (alphabetically): “Monetize your Digital Assets” - Bryan Armstrong, Internet Manager, VW SouthTowne; “Loyalty-Driven Sales Velocity: in-Store and vBDC” - Erich Gail, COO, Cardinale Automotive Group; “#MyRideYYC” - Shelly Hebert, Business Development/Marketing Manager, Glenmore Audi, and “Free Gas Friday” - Cathy Nesbit and Alyssa Safty, Director of Social Media/Comm.

The DrivingSales Innovation Cup and Dealer Best Idea Awards were part of an exciting 2014 line up that included high-profile keynotes from digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist Brian Solis; content, search, and social media guru Rand Fishkin, co-author the Art of SEO; and Professor of Marketing at Kellogg School of Management, Florian Zettelmeyer, just to name a few. Attendees were also able to choose from 30 breakout sessions featuring industry experts and dealers talking on topics ranging from the importance of mobile devices in today’s car buying, social media, SEO, dealership BDC strategies, workplace culture and its effect on profitability and more.

The DrivingSales Executive Summit is where the most progressive dealers gather to collaborate and learn forward-thinking trends in automotive operations. DSES features world-renowned experts on marketing, technology and retail operations from inside and outside the industry, who provide the most valuable and actionable insights for today’s dealership professionals.  The DSES agenda is dealer-driven, ensuring the content is 100 percent focused on the needs of progressive dealers. 

For more information about the DrivingSales Executive Summit, visit: www.DrivingSalesExecutiveSummit.com or contact dses@drivingsales.com. 

About DrivingSales

DrivingSales is a professional network serving the auto industry with dealer-driven news and information, online training, and performance data, all to enable dealers to make critical business decisions at their dealerships.  DrivingSales’ mission is to connect progressive dealership professionals to the people and information they need to maximize their success.

Founded by a third-generation car dealer, and opened up to the industry in 2008, today DrivingSales has a registered user in over 50% of new car dealerships in the US and is active in several other countries around the globe.  To learn more about the DrivingSales community, training or performance analytics visit DrivingSales.com, DrivingSalesUniversity.com and DrivingSalesData.com

DrivingSales Media Relations:
Melanie Webber (melanie@mwebbcom.com), mWEBB Communications, 424.603.4340