By Duane Sprague

Why would you want to hold a special event of any kind at your dealership? I can think of several reasons. A special event and the unique promotional activity that goes with it, can separate you from the competition, and cut through the competitive advertising clutter.

A special event can bring people into your facility that normally may never have come. It can increase floor traffic by up to ten times your normal traffic count. A great promotion, well executed and planned, can even provide tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free media publicity. A well-crafted promotional event can also drive tremendous amounts of traffic to your web site. And there are many opportunities for creating a list of “in the market” prospects from a good promotion.

And of course, a great promotional event will sell cars… lots of cars.

One east coast promotion for example, generated 3,742 ups at an auto-mall in 5 days, and sold 631 cars as a direct result, in February! And that was just the beginning. We sold nearly 470 additional vehicles over the following six months as a direct result of the prospect database we built during the event, and the follow-up process afterward. The residual sales can be as impressive as the initial event. We ran the same promotion for years, with very similar results.

And to put it into perspective, without the event, the mall would have sold approximately 300 vehicles in the same month, and would never have built the prospect database for the additional sales in the following months. The combination of initial sales and directly attributed residual sales generated 800 additional units sold, or $2,240,000 in additional gross profit front and back. Not bad for an investment of $180,000. A 1,246% return on investment.

Another promotion in the rocky mountain region generated $498,000 in free advertising from radio, TV, and web site banner ads and links. The web site traffic alone increased by 2,300% during the three-month promotional period, which built a massive database of prospects with emails to follow-up with. Although this campaign did not necessarily sell a tremendous amount of vehicles that could be directly attributed to the promotion itself, it did allow the dealership to dominate the media and build massive name awareness for the entire summer, for pennies on the dollar. The campaign also created an advertising mechanism that will continue to build name awareness for years to come, at no additional expense.

In yet another situation, we created a promotion for child safety, which generated over $80,000 in media exposure over a three-day period on all the network TV news broadcasts, as well as the morning and afternoon radio drive-time talk shows. The dealership was positioned in the media and news coverage as a community hero, and mothers were showing up with their children literally in tears of gratitude for what we were doing. And show up they did, over 1,420 people in a single day. What is the value of that kind of positive media coverage and ultra positive foot traffic?

The principal concept was to create a very positive and community oriented image for the dealership, drive traffic to the facility and get more people familiar with it, and gain a lot of positive free media news exposure. All three objectives were met beyond expectations. Although this was a non-sales event, and increased unit sales were not part of the core objective, additional sales were certainly made as a result of the increased traffic.

With another promotional event, the core objective was to increase traffic, gain media exposure, and raise money for a non-profit organization. Throughout the day, over 1,600 people attended the event. As for free media coverage, a full color, two-page center spread article was written in one of the two daily newspapers, and a front-page article with color photo was published in the other. Along with eight other smaller articles in the daily and weekly papers leading up to the event. And what’s more, money was raised for the non-profit, and car sales were up by 22% for the day.

Again, car sales were not the primary objective, but when you drive that kind of traffic, and gain that much media exposure in the news, you are going to sell more by default.

And of course, there’s the pure sales event. In September we promoted a dealers 40-year anniversary sales event, where we sold 149 vehicles in four days (a 59% increase over normal). With a $60,000 advertising investment, and a gross profit of approximately $417,200 front and back, the dealership made a 596% return on investment. Sure beats the stock market over a four-day period.

The question is, what do you want to accomplish? Is it increased name awareness, a positive community image, raise money for a non-profit, increase web traffic, build a database of prospects for future sales, drive traffic to the facility, introduce a new product, or just sell more cars? All of these objectives can be accomplished with special events and promotions.

Special events and promotions can be a huge success, or a financial black hole. The outcome depends on the planning, the promotional theme itself, the timing, the advertising, the in-store merchandising, the data capture methods for prospects, the web site, and the PR or news coverage obtained.

I have spent many years planning, managing and executing special events for dealers from coast to coast, and the one thing I can say for sure, is that you have to plan and execute with razor precision in order to maximize all the varied opportunities for news coverage, traffic increases, data capture, follow-up, and community good will. The common reason I see promotional events fail, or fall short of their potential, is the lack of planning, experience in all the various areas, and poor execution.

Planning encompasses the who, what, when, where, why and how. Including the prospect tracking, the follow-up processes and systems, and the expected results in terms of traffic and sold units. It includes staffing, inventory, parking, hours of operation, operator phone scripts, contest rules, legal issues, and disclaimers.

The promotion itself needs to be very strong in one or more core areas, depending on what the objectives are. These areas may include an event that is interesting, fun, intriguing, convenience oriented, a cost savings to the consumer, contest oriented, an anchor concept or central theme, premium gifts, door prizes, grand prize, or a fund-raiser.

A sale event does far better when it revolves around a fun event with contests, games, entertainment, food and prizes for the entire family. Is all this fluff and fanfare really necessary? No. But if you want to drive the needle into the stratosphere it probably is. I have always seen far better sales results when the sale event includes a fun family event.

Why? Because you will increase the traffic by many times what it would be if it were just a sales event. Traffic begets traffic, and the more bodies you have, the more excited and competitive the actual buyers become, and the faster and easier they close. It’s simple human nature. The masses of buyers are practically bidding up the price in a competitive frenzy, not knowing how many of the hundreds of people present are looking at the same car. And that is the whole principal behind a live auction. The nature of auctions drive the price up, not down.

Also, a fun and entertaining event for the whole family brings in all the decision makers and influencers. Now how convenient is that? It’s a dream is what it is. How many more deals can you close if everyone is present? A lot more.

In addition, a fun filled event puts the buyers more at ease and relaxed. They are having fun, their kids are having fun, and nobody is motivated to rush home. Can you sell more cars if your prospects are willing to spend hours at your dealership, and fall more in love with your products with each passing minute? Of course you can. Spending time and falling in love is a core component of the sales process.

Now here is another advantage. It’s called the law of reciprocity. When someone gives you something, you feel compelled to give them something back. In terms of a fun event, you are giving the prospect entertainment, food, fun, etc. They in turn are more compelled to give you courtesy, time, consideration, information about themselves, a test drive, and a write-up, and even a purchase in return. An event of this nature lowers the resistance barriers, and softens the prospects adversity to sales people.

An event of major magnitude beyond just a sales event also increases the probability of getting news coverage in print, radio and TV. And this can be a huge advantage, beyond what you could ever buy in paid advertising. And the smaller your market, the more news coverage you can obtain. My biggest successes with the highest ROI have been in mid-sized to smaller markets.

Another reason I like this type of event, is that it always creates a massive database of prospects who are going to buy, but are not in the market today. These names always generate a large number of additional sales in the near future, at a very low cost per sale. This is a huge opportunity that is so rarely capitalized on.

Timing is also an area for consideration when planning an event. Seasonality, weather, market conditions, product availability, local community interest or hot buttons, sporting events, availability of cheap media time, availability of entertainment or anchors, what other dealers are doing or have just done, all must be considered in the timing equation.

And a big consideration, is advertising. Which includes PR, direct mail, TV, radio, print, and merchandising. Merchandising includes signage, banners, lighting, entry box, lawn signs, balloons, antenna flags, vehicle signage, pricing, etc. Lead time, total audience reach, frequency of event ad impressions, and the optimal media mix all have to be considered. Not to mention your web site, and media partner web sites.

The advertising equation is driven by budget, timing, market conditions, market size, the availability of media options, the type and size of the event, and the potential for a newsworthy angle.

In order to hit the big ROI numbers, the media advertising must be purchased extremely effectively in terms of the cost per impression, the audience reach, and the frequency. The cost per rating point for TV and radio must be the lowest in the market during the quarter you are buying. The reach should be a minimum of 60% of the adult population, and the average frequency of impressions for the average adult must be a minimum of four to five times during the week in which the promotion falls.

The two most deadly sins that can destroy an event, are an ill-conceived theme that does not interest or attract people, and poor execution of the advertising and PR.

Duane (D.J.) Sprague is an automotive marketing and advertising expert, and Vice-President of Marketing over a group of marketing companies, including Dunning Sprague Marketing and Advertising, the OCT Group, On-Target Direct, and On-Target Promotions. Duane can be reached at 800-443-8937, or 801-556-5922.