Chrysler CMO: 30 Percent Goes to Digital

Chrysler CMO Deborah Meyer said the auto and truck maker has dedicated 30 percent of its advertising budget to digital.

"We think it's a good number. Now the challenge is to optimize on digital and what's in other media as well," she said in an interview with ClickZ after addressing the Interactive Adverting Bureau's Mixx conference in New York. She declined to disclose Chrysler's annual advertising and marketing budget.

Chrysler, she said, uses an assortment of technologies including Specific Media's targeting tools and Vibrant's in-text video.

Chuck Sullivan, director of Chrysler Interactive, said the company's investments in search engine optimization are paying off, too. "The better we do with SEO, the more effective we can be with our ad dollars," he said.

So what success metrics does Chrysler track? They include a dealer's performance on closing leads, response times to customer inquiries, and more. Chrysler has tested these metrics for several months and is about to expand the initiative soon.

Automakers have been hard hit by tightening consumer credit, and automakers are tightening their belts, too.

"Every dollar has to work 10 times as hard as it used to do. This is why [the shift to digital] is moving at an incredible rapid pace. There's no fat left in the system," Meyer said.