The world of automotive tech is moving fast, especially when it comes to how automotive dealerships collect and use customer data. In a
recent blog post and video, industry expert Brian Pasch laid out the current state of first-party data and Customer Data Platforms (CDPs).
However, he acknowledged that gaps remain when it comes to completing the modern retailing framework, and he looks to Gubagoo’s Curator, the industry’s first Unified Intelligence Engine, as the ultimate solution.
CDPs Have Come a Long Way…
Over the past few years, CDPs entered the automotive software space to help dealers collect, clean, and activate their data. When set up properly, these platforms can automate messages, build audiences based on shopper activity, and trigger outreach to reengage clients.
Some even use identity resolution to track anonymous website visitors—turning unknown traffic into sales opportunities that convert at higher rates.
While CDPs are still relatively new in the industry, there are some significant limitations that prevent dealerships from taking full advantage of their valuable first-party data.
The Three Glaring Gaps of CDPs
Pasch points out that CDPs, while powerful, still operate mostly in silos, leaving dealership sales teams in the dark. Here are a few of the key gaps:
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CRM Disconnect: Most CDPs don’t talk directly to the CRM. That means salespeople never see or act on the rich behavioral data marketers are using. Without that data, sales processes remain uniform, leading to follow-up that is often stagnant and indistinct for shoppers.
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Limited Predictive Modeling: Without automotive-specific business intelligence, many CDPs rely on simple logic (e.g., people who viewed a page) instead of smart, personalized recommendations that come from analyzing inventory, loan/lease term dates, and other metrics that are more sales-based rather than marketing-based.
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Attribution Blind Spots: CDPs don’t really fit into a marketing team’s process, so they aren’t always feeding performance data back into the CDP, which makes it hard to tie audience-building efforts to actual sales outcomes when evaluating vendor performance.
The solution?
Enter Curator: A New Class of Platform
With
Curator, Gubagoo looked to close the gaps left by CDPs by creating a completely new platform—a
Unified Intelligence Engine—that connects marketing, sales, and data hygiene all in one place.
Here’s how it’s different:
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Full CRM Integration: Clean first-party data is finally usable in the CRM, flowing directly from Curator, giving sales agents a 360° view: lifetime value, garage info, marketing touchpoints, website activity—even if the shopper never submitted a lead.
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Sales Enablement: Curator meets salespeople where they live—in the CRM—and uses AI to generate intelligent follow-ups for every interaction (texts, emails, chats) based on customer behavior in order to maximize engagement and dramatically improve the customer experience
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True Attribution: Measure the performance of your marketing vendors by analyzing sales outcomes and lead generation for the entire lifetime of the lead,
not just the first click.
Why You Need a Unified Intelligence Engine
This isn’t just another software layer—it’s a brand new class of tool that completely rethinks how dealerships can actually use their data to drive better conversations and see real results.
As Pasch says, Curator doesn’t just manage data—it activates it to power your entire dealership. That’s the promise of a Unified Intelligence Engine—and how it takes you beyond a CDP.