This is the Colorado ZR2 Bison testing sans heavy camo in Metro Detroit.

The ZR2 Bison originally debuted in 2019, and took the Colorado ZR2 to another level through its collaboration with American Expedition Vehicles (AEV). The original ZR2 Bison comes equipped with steel front and rear bumpers, boron-steel skid plates that protect the truck’s oil pan, differentials, fuel tank and transfer case, which provides an additional level of protection compared to the base ZR2’s aluminum plate. The Bison also features a faux Raptor inspired grille, bigger fender flares and unique 12-spoke wheels.

Looking at these shots, the all-new ZR2 Bison will stick to its original formula, with a higher ride, bigger tires and exclusive looks. The Bison will ride on a set of 12 spoke beadlocked rims, which are finished in black and are wrapped in Goodyear Wrangler Territories. This tire setup appears to be larger than the current ZR2 Bison (which has a 31-in. tire), and is most likely a 35-in. tire, similar to what's found on the Ford Bronco Sasquatch.

The third-gen Colorado is powered by a 2.7L turbo engine, which is available in three different tunes depending on the trim. The Chevy Colorado ZR2 features the most powerful tuned 2.7L turbo, with power coming in at 310 hp and 430 lb.-ft. of torque.

Expect an official debut in the coming months.

Photo credit: Brian Williams, SpiedBilde

 By Joe Dysart

Marketers are using “all-seeing” databases to help ensure their marketing newsletters are hyper-personalized.

Marketers looking to hyper-personalize their newsletters to customers are using new technology—enhanced Customer Data Platforms (CDPs)—to ensure the personalized details they have on each customer is maxed-out.

The solutions are here.

Says Chris Jones, chief product officer, Amperity—a provider of an enhanced CDP: “As a brand, you need to capture the memory of your customers as data—and then make that data available to everyone at the company.

“Your CDP should be the data infrastructure that not only touches every customer-facing system in your company, but delivers unified data that brings all the systems to life.”

Unlike traditional customer databases, enhanced CDPs work overtime, drawing in details about each customer from multiple databases that are scattered throughout an organization—databases that used to exist as single-use, limited access silos.

A best-of-breed, all-seeing CDP, for example, can automatically import personal details about customers as they interact with a business by email, chat, text, phone, social media, clicks in newsletters, clicks on websites, in person—and virtually every form of customer interaction that is either digital, or can be digitized.

Prior to the advent of the CDP, amalgamating all that insightful data was extremely tough—if not impossible—given that so much data was locked in siloed databases.

Meanwhile, aggressive users of CDPs are also continually experimenting with ever more novel ways to record ever more insights about customers.

Those include tasking trusted chat and phone reps to add their own insights about customers and how they interact with them, for example, or encouraging customers to fill out detailed profiles about themselves in exchange for a chance to win a gift card.

The result? CDPs brimming with insights about each customer, can be continually analyzed by AI to identify lucrative opportunities for marketing and sales, such as:

• Which customers are responding most favorably to my hyper-personalized newsletters?
• Which customers have made purchases after viewing videos embedded in my newsletters?
• Which customers have made purchases after they read a detailed, long-form article on my product or service?

And those insights are just for starters. Essentially, once marketers amass a hyper-detailed, continually evolving, all-seeing view of each customer, they can use AI analytics to ask as many questions as they’d like about that data from virtually every perspective.

In a phrase, marketers armed with AI-powered CDPs have a perpetual-motion marketing machine—collecting ever more data on each customer, using that data to create an ever more personalized marketing newsletter for each customer, studying customer interaction with that ever more personalized newsletter, implementing refinements to create an even more personalized newsletter, studying the results of that even more personalized newsletter—and so on.

Take Accenture’s Consumer 360 Platform, for example.

Using Accenture’s CDP, a manufacturer was able to stream data from 35 different databases scattered across its organization into a single master database.

That capability enabled marketers there to simultaneously analyze what videos a customer viewed on their products, what that customer said about the company’s products on social media to their friends and acquaintances, what retailers the customer visited online to learn more about the product and how that same customer interacted with marketing for those products on the company’s website.

Consequently, based on those insights, the manufacturer was able to use the Consumer 360 Platform to predict when that customer would make a purchase, along with the specific product they would most likely buy.

That’s valuable information if you’re looking to hyper-personalize a newsletter promoting a service or product you think will most likely result in a purchase.

And those insights are also extremely handy if you’re looking to personalize a newsletter with text, images, audio and video of related services or products that customer may also decide to purchase.

For the company that used the Consumer 360 Platform in this way, customer engagement with company marketing materials jumped 25% and average revenue earned per visit shot up 10%, according to Accenture.

Need another example? Consider Amperity, another CDP vendor, which reports similar results with Alaska Airlines, after it worked with the business to stream data from databases in various departments at the company into one master database.

After all that information—from bookings, reservations, customer interactions on the airline’s smartphone app and customer interactions with the airline’s loyalty program—was centralized, it was simply a matter of unleashing analytics on the master database to come up with insights.

Alaska Airlines’ specific analytical goal was to use data insights from Amperity to send customers personalized marketing messages to upsell them before their flights. For instance, marketers tapped Amperity’s insights on their customers to send those customers upgrade offers, such as invitations to join the airline’s loyalty program, cabin upgrades and similar upgrade opportunities.

The result: The business saw a 198% jump in sign-ups for its loyalty program and a 61% jump in message open rates, according to Elliot Pesut, director of marketing, Alaska Airlines.

Fortunately, if you’re looking to explore the idea of CDP platforms further, market research analyst Forrester released an in-depth report earlier this year that offers a complete rundown on who’s who in CDP, entitled “Now Tech: Customer Data Platforms, Q1 2022.”
(https://reprints2.forrester.com/#/assets/2/644/RES177030/report).

In the report, you’ll find Forrester’s take on 34 CDP providers, including providers that specialize in centralized databases that are specifically designed to use insights for newsletter personalization and similar message personalization.

Meanwhile Adobe—another provider of enhanced CDPs—has a handy checklist you can use when shopping for the ultimate CDP solution (https://business.adobe.com/blog/how-to/choosing-the-right-cdp-for-you).

While Adobe’s CDP product excels at all the features considered critical on its list (surprise, surprise), the list will nevertheless be useful as a conversation starter with any CDP vendor you’re considering.

The following are Adobe’s take on the top features to look for in any CDP:

Real-Time Data Streaming and Data Ingestion: For maximum efficacy, ensure that the database consolidation you use offers real-time updates from all data streams you’re sourcing.

Purpose-Built as a CDP by a Trusted Organization: Many CDPs in the marketplace are cobbled together from disparate technologies. Make sure you choose a solution from a reliable company that built the CDP from the ground up.

Complete, Unified User Profiles: One of the principal benefits of a CDP is personalization on an individual basis. Make sure this is standard with any system you’re considering.

Robust, Native Data Governance Tools: Your CDP should make your data governance simpler, not more complex.

Real-Time Data Activation: Ensure that any data you use for newsletter personalization or other tasks is always the latest available.

Easy for Marketers to Use: CDPs democratize data. An ideal CDP will be built for marketers, with an interface, tools, and workflows structured to work seamlessly with marketing departments.

Scalable, Flexible and Extensible: Your CDP should integrate seamlessly with your existing marketing and advertising technology stack—without putting extra strain on IT.

Joe Dysart is an internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan

646-233-4089

joe@customtechadvisor.com

www.dysartnewsfeatures.com

SEMA Show exhibitors and attendees preparing for the 2023 SEMA Show can lock in the guaranteed lowest hotel rate now by booking in the SEMA Show Block.

Making hotel reservations in the Block provides you with the most affordable and convenient options for a wide range of hotels located on and off the Strip.

All of the hotels available through the SEMA Show Block come with a low-price guarantee. To help ensure that your price remains the lowest, SEMA will price-match lower advertised rates, even after your reservations are set. Whether you're looking for your favorite place to stay, or for a hotel within close proximity to the Show, you can book with confidence knowing you will get the rooms you need at the the most affordable price available.

The SEMA Show also provides shuttle service to and from the Show for the hotels listed that are not within walking distance to the Las Vegas Convention Center.

There are nearly 50 hotels available in the block. For more information on the hotels listed below, including rating, price per night and distance from the Las Vegas Convention Center, visit www.SEMAShow.com.

The following hotels are located within one mile of the Las Vegas Convention Center:

• Courtyard by Marriott – Las Vegas Convention Center (0.7 miles)
• Embassy Suites by Hilton – Las Vegas Convention Center (0.6 miles)
• Hilton Grand Vacations – Las Vegas Convention Center (0.7 miles)
• Las Vegas Marriott (0.9 miles)
• Residence Inn by Marriott – Las Vegas Convention Center(0.7 miles)
• Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino (0.1 miles)

Book your hotel now!

To reserve your booth for the 2023 SEMA Show, visit www.SEMAShow.com/buyabooth.

The deadline to submit SEMA Show Booth Applications to participate in the Priority Selection Process—where companies choose a Show-floor location based on exhibitor seniority—is April 3.

Companies that submit 2023 SEMA Show Booth Applications after the April 3 deadline will select floor space during the Priority Selection Process, May 1–17, on a space-availability basis. The selection process provides exhibitors with the opportunity to secure the best location for their Show display.

On April 24, each company will be contacted via email with a booth selection date and time range. The email will be sent to the person listed as the exhibitor’s primary SEMA Show contact.

How to be Prepared. About an hour prior to their selection time, exhibitors are encouraged to prepare by viewing the 2023 Show’s online floorplan. Updated every 30 minutes, exhibitors can see as the Show begins to take shape and monitor their desired section to gain a general idea of where they want to display.

When to Check Email. On April 24, each primary contact should take time to check their email, including their “junk” folders. Companies that have not received a correspondence by April 26, or that want to change the primary Show contact listed on the application should email sales@sema.org or call 909-396-0289.

Make the Pick. During the exhibitor’s time to pick, a SEMA Show account representative will call the primary SEMA Show contact and help locate and assign the exhibit space that best suits the company’s needs.

The 2023 SEMA Show is scheduled for Tuesday–Friday, October 31–November 3, in Las Vegas. For additional information about exhibiting at the SEMA Show, visit www.SEMAShow.com/exhibitor.

Are you hunting for a new job? The SEMA Career Center has a comprehensive listing of automotive-related job openings around the country. Here are some of the latest jobs posted to the website.

Latest Jobs Added to SEMA Career Center

Customer Service Representative
Aftermarket Performance Group

Aftermarket Performance Group is hiring a customer service representatives responsible for providing high-quality customer service to external customers via offering information in response to inquiries about products, pricing and other product related questions. This position also manages and resolves customer general questions and problems, complaints or concerns, as well as processes orders received from customers through phone, email, internet and fax. Finally, this position will work with other departments to resolve customer questions or issues, and work with business partners to determine product availability, shipping pricing, problems and tracking. One to two years of demonstrated customer service experience in a call center environment is preferred.

Product Manager
MagnaFlow

MagnaFlow is hiring a product manager – performance exhaust responsible for the creation and execution of an overall product strategy. Candidates must use knowledge and learnings to help prioritize and guide approved product development through a cross functional phase-gate process. This position will take primary ownership of facilitating and conducting product-focused market research and observations to obtain information required to inform product road map and project prioritization. A bachelor’s degree or five years of automotive aftermarket experience is required.

Auto Parts Catalog Specialist
ECS Tuning

ECS Tuning is hiring an auto parts catalog specialist responsible for maintaining the company’s existing product listings with correct vehicle fitment, product categorization and product descriptions; ideation, onboarding, and merchandising of new products, service kits, and brands; and providing product support to customer-facing teams.

By SEMA Editors

Dates and locations have been scheduled for several upcoming SEMA-sponsored shows, measuring sessions and activities.

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

Massachusetts' Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced plans to enforce the state's expanded “right to repair” law, which was passed overwhelmingly by Massachusetts voters in 2020, starting on June 1, 2023. Right to repair has been on hold in Massachusetts for over two years as the result of a decision by the state’s former Attorney General to delay enforcement of the law pending a federal lawsuit from automakers, where U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock has delayed ruling on the matter six times.

The right to repair law will take effect in June as a result of Attorney General Campbell filing a “notice of intent to terminate non-enforcement stipulation” of the law, which expands the categories of information that automakers are required to make available to independent repair shops, including telematic data, which is wirelessly transmitted from the vehicle to the manufacturer. The 2020 law requires automakers selling vehicles in Massachusetts to equip 2022 and newer vehicles that use telematics systems with a standardized, open-access data platform. The law also provides vehicle owners and their independent repair shops of their choice with access to real-time telematic information, such as crash notifications, remote diagnostics, and navigation.

For more information, contact Eric Snyder at erics@sema.org.

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

Massachusetts' Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced plans to enforce the state's expanded “right to repair” law, which was passed overwhelmingly by Massachusetts voters in 2020, starting on June 1, 2023. Right to repair has been on hold in Massachusetts for over two years as the result of a decision by the state’s former Attorney General to delay enforcement of the law pending a federal lawsuit from automakers, where U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock has delayed ruling on the matter six times.

The right to repair law will take effect in June as a result of Attorney General Campbell filing a “notice of intent to terminate non-enforcement stipulation” of the law, which expands the categories of information that automakers are required to make available to independent repair shops, including telematic data, which is wirelessly transmitted from the vehicle to the manufacturer. The 2020 law requires automakers selling vehicles in Massachusetts to equip 2022 and newer vehicles that use telematics systems with a standardized, open-access data platform. The law also provides vehicle owners and their independent repair shops of their choice with access to real-time telematic information, such as crash notifications, remote diagnostics, and navigation.

For more information, contact Eric Snyder at erics@sema.org.

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

U.S. Representative John Joyce (R-PA) introduced H.R. 1435, the “Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act,” a bill designed to protect Americans’ right to choose the technology that powers their motor vehicles. The bill was introduced in response to the California Air Resources Board’s plans to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035. The Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act would restrict the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from issuing a waiver for regulations that would ban the sale or use of new motor vehicles with internal combustion engines. The bill is critically important to stopping CARB’s plans to ban ICE vehicles, which requires the EPA to waive federal preemption provisions in the Clean Air Act in order for California’s zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate to go into effect.

“SEMA believes that vehicle owners should not be directed toward a specific technology, but rather be allowed to choose the type of vehicle technology that best serves them,” said SEMA CEO Mike Spagnola. “While electric vehicle technology expands clean transportation options, SEMA will continue to advocate on behalf of the industry that has helped make the internal-combustion engine (ICE) a reliable, affordable and clean option for millions of consumers.”

It is critically important that the EPA does not permit CARB’s ZEV regulations to take effect, as it could lead to 17 other states that have followed all or part of California’s previous clean-car rules adopting similar proposals. California requires 35% of new cars, SUVs and small trucks sold to be zero-emissions starting in 2026, increasing to 68% in 2030 and 100% in 2035. In 2022, zero-emissions vehicles made up about 16% of new cars sold in California. The rule also sets durability, warranty and other provisions on zero-emissions vehicles. However, the rule does not impact the sale or use of used diesel- or gas-powered vehicles already on the road.

Click here to send a letter to your U.S. Representative that asks them to support the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act by cosponsoring the bill.

For more information, contact Eric Snyder at erics@sema.org.

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

U.S. Representative John Joyce (R-PA) introduced H.R. 1435, the “Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act,” a bill designed to protect Americans’ right to choose the technology that powers their motor vehicles. The bill was introduced in response to the California Air Resources Board’s plans to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035. The Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act would restrict the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from issuing a waiver for regulations that would ban the sale or use of new motor vehicles with internal combustion engines. The bill is critically important to stopping CARB’s plans to ban ICE vehicles, which requires the EPA to waive federal preemption provisions in the Clean Air Act in order for California’s zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate to go into effect.

“SEMA believes that vehicle owners should not be directed toward a specific technology, but rather be allowed to choose the type of vehicle technology that best serves them,” said SEMA CEO Mike Spagnola. “While electric vehicle technology expands clean transportation options, SEMA will continue to advocate on behalf of the industry that has helped make the internal-combustion engine (ICE) a reliable, affordable and clean option for millions of consumers.”

It is critically important that the EPA does not permit CARB’s ZEV regulations to take effect, as it could lead to 17 other states that have followed all or part of California’s previous clean-car rules adopting similar proposals. California requires 35% of new cars, SUVs and small trucks sold to be zero-emissions starting in 2026, increasing to 68% in 2030 and 100% in 2035. In 2022, zero-emissions vehicles made up about 16% of new cars sold in California. The rule also sets durability, warranty and other provisions on zero-emissions vehicles. However, the rule does not impact the sale or use of used diesel- or gas-powered vehicles already on the road.

Click here to send a letter to your U.S. Representative that asks them to support the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act by cosponsoring the bill.

For more information, contact Eric Snyder at erics@sema.org.