Meta partners with FADA to upskill auto dealers to build social presence

Meta on Wednesday announced a strategic partnership with the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) to digitally enable thousands of auto dealers across the country to reach consumers digitally.

The announcement came at the Auto Expo 2023, where Meta announced the launch of ‘Move with Meta’, a skilling and enablement program in partnership with FADA to upskill more than 3000 auto dealers across the country to build a social presence and digitise using Meta Platforms. FADA currently represents 15,000 auto dealers across the country.

While explaining why Meta is training auto dealers, Saugato Bhowmik, director - Auto, CPG, and D2C, Meta India said, with people increasingly relying on digital touchpoints to decide on their automobile purchases, auto dealers have felt an urgent need to become discoverable to customers online. They were not able to reach their target audience.

“Over the last two years, we have enabled more than 2600 dealers to digitise their outreach and experiences through our unique solutions and tools. We’re thrilled to now be joined by FADA on this journey to further unlock growth for auto dealers and in turn for OEMs across India,” said Bhowmik.

Commenting on the partnership, FADA president Manish Raj Singhania said that Meta has done path-breaking work by helping dealers create a social presence and generate online leads with minimal investment.

“With digital penetration increasing, our endeavour is to help scale India’s auto dealers across geographies and demographics to connect with customers online. With Meta’s wide reach across the country including in smaller towns, and adoption by people across age groups, it’s among the strongest platforms for auto dealers to leverage and generate leads online, Singhania added.

The program will incorporate knowledge from global teams and provide dealers with easy and low-cost access to best-in-class global digital expertise. Meta will also leverage FADA’s scaled forums such as state-level dealership workshops known as Vyapaar and its initiatives for under-35 dealers to enhance the reach of the program.

Maruti Suzuki launched the Maruti Suzuki hyperlocal program in July 2018 for its dealer partners, where highly targeted marketing is done based on a specific geographic location of the dealer. At present, we have more than 2500 live outlets under this initiative and a majority of them are live with media, said Shashank Srivastava, executive director of Maruti Suzuki India.

Meta has partnered with Maruti, Hyundai and Hero Motocorp.  

“We collaborate with Meta to enable customers to discover dealers near them in their auto purchase journey, digitise dealerships, set up online storefronts, and set up a direct online lead generation channel for them and help dealerships build a local brand and engage with customers on Meta,” Srivastava added.

While applauding the initiative, Hero MotoCorp’s chief growth officer Ranjivjit Singh said that the dealer digitization initiatives by Meta in one stroke serve the consumers, dealerships, and OEMs equally.

“We have been partnering closely with Meta on the dealer digitization program and we are now enhancing this association by rolling out an AI-powered platform for the marketing needs of our dealers,” Singh added.