Radio Sales Café

We need an IDEA for our local Toyota/Honda Dealer. Something unique and/or off-the-wall.

Something that will get his attention. He has a new state-of-the-art facility and a lot full of vehicles.

 

Thanks for any ideas or thought-starters.

 

Taking a page from P&G's playbook, he could pit Honda against Toyota for some sort of new car sales promotion.  Either way it goes, he wins.  Could do a variant of the same thing in his service department.  Or have Honda customers talk about why they love their Hondas, Toyota customers the same.  Internal competition creates tension and interest that could be exploited in an ad campaign...

We in the U.S. are facing, and will continue to face a dwindling supply of these two nameplates,  There is a large Toyota dealership in my area that is selling plenty of product, but struggling to keep inventory. Thus, they are saying no to advertising, and buying up every used car in the area to prevent lot from getting sparse, a kiss of death for a dealership. Allocations for car dealers in north America are not keeping up with number of vehicles being sold and won't thru 2010. I have a Honda dealership wanting to cancel right now because they are hurting for product. If you have a brand new Toyota/Honda dealership with lots of metal on the ground, you have a goldmine. Consumers are interested in those products, and this interest will only increase as news of choked supply continues.  In your creative, mention the famine of new Toyotas and Hondas being delivered to dealerships resulting from the earthquake. Contrast this with how much new product this new dealership has available. Instantaneous, authentic built-in urgency, beautiful!

Guitar Hero Playoff.  Beattles, Rock.  Take something like this or maybe a racing game from off road to MarioKart.  Some sort of listener interaction with a Wii or other game system that is the latest tech toy.  This ties the fun and newest entertainment technology with automotive technology.  

This will attract a younger crowd to play the games so put a lower end age limit on it.  Stage this over a number of weeks building up to the Championship tournament around the time of a newer vehicle release that targets a younger demographic.  Then make sure the sales staff of the dealership works to get test drives.  This worked well in Aberdeen...Aberdeen Washington that is. 

We work with a dealership, and now the wife of the owner does all of the commercials. They have had GREAT results from this. There have been numerous women who have come in and specifically said it was because she was the only woman voice for car dealerships. They wanted to meet her, and she made them feel more comfortable about buying a car, which can sometimes be intimidating as a woman. She portrayed the woman's side and concerns in her commercials.

Wow, what a good idea!  I may pass this along to some of my clients.  Thanks, Laci!