BACKGROUND

According to Subaru of America nearly seven out of ten Subaru owners have a pet, and Subaru customers are 1.3 times more likely to own a pet than those of Subaru’s competitors. In the fall of 2013 Bob Moore Subaru created an event, Dogapalooza, as a way to interact with their target audience and prove they were different from other dealerships. Overall the event was a success resulting in 100 dog washes, raising over $700 for a local charity and having 34 actual sales visits in one day.

OBJECTIVES

• To create an event that encouraged people to visit the dealership and not feel like they were being “sold” a new car.
• To align Bob Moore Subaru with a local charity that embodies the national “Love” tagline.
• To get at least 50 ‘dog-lovers’ to the dealership on a Saturday, the most popular car shopping day of the week.

STRATEGY

Our strategy was to develop an event that would appeal to the target (dog-lovers of the world) and allow us to begin creating a relationship with them. We want to tap into the emotional bond that people have with their dogs and associate that feeling with the Bob Moore brand.

TACTICS

On a Saturday in June 2014, Bob Moore Subaru held their 2nd Annual Dogapalooza. This event was promoted as OKC’s Largest Free Dog Wash” and benefited a local charity, Safe Haven Animal Rescue.  We invited local pet vendors, popular food trucks and News Channel 4 to set-up tents and sell/promote their business onsite. Additionally, Safe Haven had an animal adoption event in the showroom along with pet micro chipping for $20.  For approximately 15 days during June, VI Marketing and Branding ran a radio schedule to promote the event. We promoted the event on our social media platforms, which included Facebook posts and email blats. KFOR Channel 4 also produced a commercial that was ran during their daytime program the week leading to the event.

RESULTS

• During the one-day event over 245 dogs were washed, allowing us to quadruple our objective.
• VI Marketing and Branding was also able to collect 150 different emails to be incorporated into Subaru’s existing database.
• The event helped Safe Haven collect more than $2,000 that day in donations.
• Bob Moore Subaru had 18 actual sales visits during the event, beating our objective of 15 by 20%. This was also a 50% increase in sales visits when compared to the week prior.