"It's time," Gigi Ho, VP of Tech, Data and Strategic Initiatives, declared.

"Product data has become the lifeblood of commerce," she continued, "and the Scorecard is intended to guide and coach everyone to continuously improve the product data we make available for the industry. We need to meet the growing needs of the market. It's time to set a new benchmark for Data Excellence." 

With that, Joe Sepeda, Product Catalog Manager, took the stage and walked the audience through the changes in requirements and scoring for the SEMA Data Scorecard v3. A few squirmed or took in air through gritted teeth as he laid out the rules for 100% coverage on images, videos, GTIN, product attributes, features & benefits, and other fields. And that was just to get to Gold.

The new Platinum level will be scoring on qualitative standards. That is, it wasn't enough just to "fill the bucket with data" anymore. For Platinum, that data will now be scrutinized for data QUALITY such as file names, image quality assessments, PAdb usage, missing or conflicts in vehicle fitments, and more. All-in-all, 16 quality checks will be performed across 6 data segments.

Hands raised up for questions and discussion on some of the highlighted requirements.

By the end of the meetup, the air was no longer one of apprehension but of determination.

Many in the audience were current year SEMA Data Excellence Award recipients and the challenge to keep their status for the next year revived the room with energy. There was a camaraderie that formed as everyone regarded each other as fellow adventurers about to scale a mountain together. 

By the end, no one in the room thought the new heights were unachieveable. It was a challenge and many reached out to get started right away to get ahead of the February 1 Go Live date.

For those of you who were not able to attend, please reach out and we can share with you the changes as well as schedule an initial assessment of what your current data score would be for v3.

As always, the SEMA Data team is committed to help and guide everyone on the journey of creating and utilizing the best product program for the industry, by the industry.