When Content Becomes the Conversation: How GMC Is Redefining Automotive Engagement

The sales conversation doesn’t happen between people anymore. It happens through content.

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Today’s buyers don’t want to be guided step by step through a purchase. They want to discover on their own. When consumers can explore without interruption, they commit faster, and brands gain earlier insight into what’s resonating.

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According to Think with Google, 95% of vehicle buyers use digital sources before visiting a dealership, and twice as many start their research online versus at a dealer.

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“As the first generation of digital natives become first-time car buyers and lessees, expectations for personalized, digital-first technology – and concerns over prices, existing buying and leasing processes – are poised to disrupt the industry,” reads a 2025 Salesforce article.
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“For automotive CIOs and leaders, understanding and acting on these generational shifts is crucial for developing successful customer engagement and product development strategies.”

What Changes to the Industry Look Like

Historically, the automotive industry has been synonymous with in-person connection: test drives, showroom visits, face-to-face negotiation. But the next generation of car buyers doesn’t begin their journey in a dealership. They begin it online, often through video.

A 2024 Urban Science/Harris Poll looked at Gen Z’s auto buying trends and found:

• 38% of Gen Z auto buyers are open to purchasing a vehicle entirely online.
• 68% still value personal vehicle ownership. This is lower than Boomers, but is significant in proving that cars remain aspirational, they are just redefined.
• Nearly half (49%) believe dealers are essential – up 14% from 2023 – showing a rebound in appreciation for human guidance when it adds value.
• 70% of Gen Z say they wouldn’t buy without a test drive, showing that tactile validation still matters.
• Only 41% believe dealers are keeping up with educating buyers about EVs, considered a major knowledge gap.
• 87% would visit a dealership for as little as a $35 incentive to test drive, indicating they can be motivated, but not persuaded by traditional selling.

The bottom line: The consumer journey for younger generations has significantly changed. They don’t need a salesperson to tell them about trims, colors, or configurations.

They expect to see it, click it, and learn instantly.

GMC: Redefining discovery through interactivity

That change challenges one of Detroit’s most established industries to rethink how it reaches people and how it listens to them.

For brands like GMC, that evolution is already underway.

GMC’s latest digital campaign gives car shoppers exactly what they’re looking for: control.

Working with Clicktivated Video, GMC created a library of interactive videos that allow viewers to explore vehicles directly inside the content. Each click opens details on trims, models, and features without ever leaving the video.

It’s clean, intuitive, and built for how people actually shop.

Behind the experience is something even more valuable: insight.

Every interaction reveals what viewers care about most:

• which vehicles catch attention
• which features spark interest
• what paths people take next

That’s the kind of data that used to arrive months later in sales reports.

Now it’s visible in real time, through the viewer’s eyes.

It’s how a century-old industry learns to move with today’s consumer.

Built in Detroit, driving what’s next

This collaboration between GMC and Clicktivated isn’t just a marketing evolution, it’s a Detroit story. Both companies were born here.

One built the cars that shaped a century of motion.

The other is redefining how video connects brands to customers, both instantly and interactively.

Detroit has always been about building – building vehicles, building tools, building what comes next. The same spirit that powered the assembly line now powers a new kind of connection between brands and audiences.

That’s what makes this moment significant: two Detroit innovators proving that engagement can evolve just as fast as the industry itself.

Why it matters

The future of automotive marketing isn’t about louder storytelling or bigger media buys. It’s about creating experiences that let people act on curiosity seamlessly, instantly, and measurably.

The brands leading this shift are the ones turning content into conversation.

And one day, Clicktivated will make it possible to buy a vehicle straight from the video, turning curiosity into conversion in a single click.