Car dealerships have three big questions when it comes to television advertising these days, TVB President and CEO Steve Lanzano said during his Wednesday session on the NADA Live Stage. “What’s happen with media usage, especially television? Should I continue to advertise, and third, what influences people to go to the web and go to my site?”

On the first question, media, particularly television, has never been more popular, according to Lanzano. He cited a recent Nielsen study that found that people’s media usage, especially television and video, has gone up. “If they watch 5.5 hours of video, they watch 4.5 hours of live and time-shifted television,” he said.

Another surprise? With more people working remotely from home, watching video on smartphones is no longer the preferred medium, a trend Lanzano thinks it here to stay. “More and more people are going to work remotely even after we get out of this; those numbers should sustain themselves,” he said.

As for whether car dealers—who have had to amp up their digital platforms during COVID-19—should continue to advertise, Lanzano pointed to a Marketing Sciences study that found that businesses that continue to invest in advertising, even during an adverse event like a recession or pandemic, saw their market share increase by five times the average and sales increase by 200% after the adverse event had passed. “That’s why it’s so important. There are short term and there are long term benefits to continuing advertising,” he concluded.

TVB is a producing partner for NADA Show 2021. Watch more from Lanzano’s session, including his data on car buyers’ television habits, and be sure to catch our other coverage from the NADA Live Stage.