Rick Sage, vice president of marketing and brand strategy for Honest-1 Auto Care, says that, throughout the year, his team tries to come up with seasonally appropriate messages to promote the company's shop owners and reach its core audience.
But "the automotive industry and Valentine's" Day is often a tricky pairing.
“Trying to somehow connect that to a vehicle is not an easy thing to do,” Sage says. “In the past we had done showing love to your car, but this year we wanted to do something different.”
He noticed that seven franchisees in the Honest-1 system were married couples. So, ahead of Valentine’s Day, Honest-1 Auto Care built a “Love in the Shop” campaign centering around married throughout its system, and how they “maintain a marriage while maintaining vehicles.” Sage says it was just a simple way to promote Honest-1’s family friendly shop atmosphere.
“It’s more of just an awareness campaign,” Sage says. “The underlying theme is that the franchisees are just like you and your families.”
In the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day, Honest-1 has promoted the stories of its married repair shop owners on Twitter and Facebook. After Valentine's Day, however, Honest-1 will continue to promote its married franchisees through shop’s individual social media accounts and boost them locally.
