Automotive Promotion
PR Case Study

GMC Terrain Charity Challenge

OUR WORK | GMC Terrain Charity Challenge

PROMOTION GOALS

• To gain exposure for local dealers and the all-new GMC Terrain

• Drive traffic to the dealership for consideration/sales 

• Offer easy execution 

• Provide options for GMC dealers to extend the promotion through individual dealer outreach 

• Maximize limited advertising dollars 

PROMOTION CONCEPT

• A social media campaign that drives awareness and consideration for the all-new GMC Terrain and local dealers via: 

  • Loyal commitment that prospects feel for their favorite charities

  • Individual touch of mobile marketing

  • Radio reach 

  • The emotional impact of PR 

Representatives from three Dallas-Fort Worth charities were selected to drive the all-new GMC Terrain for a month and compete via social media to win cash for their favorite DFW charity during the $20,000 GMC Terrain Charity Challenge.

Ambassadors encouraged their Facebook friends to become fans of GMC DFW (Facebook.com/GMCDFW) and vote for the ambassador's selected charity on a third-party application. The charity with the most votes won that percentage of the $20,000. 

WHY FACEBOOK? 

• General Growth - 300 million active users, 50% log on daily, the fastest growing demo is 35+

• User Engagement - Average user has 130 friends, 70% are local

• Applications - Monthly: 2 billion photos, 14 million videos, 2 billion pieces of content, 3 million events, 34 million active user groups 

• Mobile - 65 million users access through mobile devices

PROMOTION PHASES

<—Charity Overlay. Digital and Radio Promotion, PR, Promotional Partners —>

CAMPAIGN ELEMENTS

A Facebook Contest that awards:

• A total of $15,000+/- to three charities

• The charities were awarded a percentage of the total dollars based on the number of votes they received during the sweepstakes

• Grand Prize: one randomly-selected voter will receive a $1,000

A designated representative (that mirrors the demo) from each charity drove a custom wrapped GMC Terrain during the promotional period to show off the Terrain features and solicit votes for their charity.

• They posted daily status updates on Facebook, promoting the features and benefits of the all-new Terrain and how it was helpful to them

• Vehicles had custom wrapping that said: “The All-New GMC Terrain Charity Challenge” with the charity’s logo and the Facebook URL

  
  

Test Drive - Optional Overlay

• A gift with test drive offer that enabled the dealers to conduct outreach programs at targeted locations and charity events with instant fulfillment capability.

PUBLIC RELATIONS & PAID MEDIA EXECUTION

Radio

• Multi-station buy directs prospects to register and test drive

• The lead station included a station personality to voice "live" spots and chatter about the promotion.

Promotional Press

• We wrote relevant human interest stories around the promotion that included information about the all-new GMC Terrain and the local dealers.

• Example Media Pitches

• Charity recruitment press release

• "Win Win Win"

• Nonprofits and for-profits team up for social networking splash

• How dealers are adapting

• Each week's events

• The new face of advertising

AMBASSADOR SELECTION

The charities included: 

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas, with Big Brother Adam Rivon

• The SPCA of Texas, with volunteer Steven Cartwright

• Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, with volunteer Brianne "Bri" Crum.

AMBASSADOR ACTIVITIES

Each of the three Ambassadors was given weekly activities to complete to earn additional donations. Each of the activities was designed to:

• Spotlight the benefits and featu

• res of the GMC Terrain

• Raise awareness for their charity

A Facebook Scavenger Hunt featuring the roominess of the GMC Terrain

• At the beginning of a select week, ambassadors posted a list of items and requests and encouraged their fans to bring them to a scheduled appearance.

• Scavenger Hunt drop-offs were held in a promotional partner's parking lot with built-in traffic.

• The first person who shows up with the item for each ambassador won a gift card from the promotional partner.

• The first ambassador, who collected all the items and packed them into the vehicle, then posted a picture of the loaded vehicle on Facebook, won $500 for their charity and a gift card for themselves.

Creating a music video about the Terrain using the vehicle's sound system

• The music was played using Terrain's USB port.

• Judges awarded a cash prize to the best video.

• Ambassadors held a rally for their charity in a promotional partner's parking lot.

• The ambassador posted video interviews of attendees saying what they like about the Terrain and the charity.

• The ambassador who had the most people sign in at the event won an additional donation to their charity.

Additional driver duties included:

• Ambassadors were encouraged to get as many friends as possible to follow Terrain on Facebook. The ambassador with the most followers received an additional donation to their charity and a gift card from a promotional partner.

• Ambassadors were encouraged to post daily content on their Facebook page, including:

  • Their thoughts about the GMC Terrain and how it helped with everyday challenges

  • Videos of themselves and the GMC Terrain

  • Pictures of friends and their GMC Terrain

  • Invitations to their weekend events

Facebook Execution

We created a Facebook fan page for the Terrain (i.e., facebook.com/TerrainDFW) in each market that featured:

• A sweepstakes entry form that is open to fans and non-fans that includes:

• Vote for your favorite charity

• When are you in the market to buy a vehicle?

• What are you currently driving?

• The ability for prospects to suggest the contest to their Facebook fans

• Links to the ambassadors’ Facebook pages

• Links to the existing Terrain real estate on Facebook.com/GMC

• A chart that showed how many votes each charity has earned to date

• Daily giveaway gift card opportunities from promotional partners to fans

• Information about the Gift with Test Drive

TEST DRIVE EXECUTION

• All entries were emailed acknowledging their entry and invited to test drive the all-new Terrain for a TBD gift card.

• Each dealership had a password-protected online portal where they filled out a short survey whenever a person took a test drive for the gift.

• Information was downloaded from the portal to fulfill the gift cards via email.

OUTCOMES

Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children’s ambassador Brianne Crum won 37.6 percent of the vote. She won big in the competition's weekly challenges, raising her total winnings for the hospital to $8,491.70.

In a close second place, Steven Cartwright, who represented the SPCA of Texas, won 38.75 percent of the votes and $6,907.37 for his charity. 

Adam Rivon, representing Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas, rounded out the GMC Terrain Charity Challenge competition with 23.6 percent of the vote. Rivon earned his charity a total of $4,595.15.

The five-week competition featured the ambassadors participating in various challenges while campaigning on facebook.com/GMCDFW. Challenges included a scavenger hunt, a famous photo and music video competitions.

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