CAUSE MARKETING
Photo courtesy of Honda.
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Saving Small Businesses’ Big Screens Honda boosts its brand perception with a cause marketing campaign to save America’s endangered drive-in theaters BY CHRISTINE BIRKNER | SENIOR STAFF WRITER
cbirkner@ama.org Goal Successful cause marketing efforts pair brands with causes that match the brands’ purpose and promise, and allow executives to humanize their brands through personal interactions with customers and cause beneficiaries. Torrance, Calif.-based American Honda Motor Co. Inc. found its cause marketing match last summer when it launched an online campaign to help preserve a summertime institution: the drive-in theater. “Drive-ins are a huge part of American car culture. There used to be 4,000 or more and now we’re down to less than
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400 around the country,” says Alicia Jones, manager of Honda and Acura social marketing. Drive-ins have been closing at a rapid clip since their heyday in the 1950s, but their extinction now is accelerating because the film industry plans to stop producing traditional 35-millimeter movie reels over the next few years and many drive-in owners can’t afford digital projection systems. “Most of these drive-ins are mom-and-pop businesses, and they’re all facing this huge financial burden of trying to convert to digital by the end of the year,” Jones says. “We thought, Who better than Honda to help them out?”
Action In August 2013, Honda launched Project Drive-In, an online campaign to save drive-in theaters across America, funding the installation of the digital projection systems, which cost about $75,000. Honda reached out to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association to invite drive-in theater owners across the country to sign up for a contest on ProjectDriveIn.com in which nine drive-ins would be chosen by the public to receive new digital projection systems. Honda also set up a page on crowdfunding site Indiegogo to raise money to help other drive-ins. The effort launched with a YouTube video that showcased drive-ins as a piece of American history. “Drive-ins are as American as apple pie and baseball,” one voiceover said. The promotional video explained drive-ins’ plight, with owners and patrons discussing their love of the drive-in experience. “Our strategy was to take a storytelling approach, so we led with the ‘why’: Why would I care?” Jones says. “We were able to relate it to people and why they were interested in it.” The video encouraged people to vote on ProjectDriveIn.com to save their
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favorite drive-ins, to post about the effort on social media using the hashtag #SaveTheDriveIn, to donate to the Indiegogo fund and to patronize their local drive-in theaters. Honda also sent participating drive-ins marketing kits with posters, buttons and digital assets to promote the effort at the local level. “The drive-ins really rallied their communities. They would submit photos and videos to us. They had kids who had hand-drawn the Honda Project Drive-In logo on posters, and people did bake sales at the drive-ins,” Jones says. “One of the communities that won, in Texas, essentially has a bowling alley and a drive-in, and that’s the only entertainment in the town, so it means a lot to these folks.” Honda ran the campaign online to maintain its grassroots feel, Jones says. “The intention was to start a social media program that put genuine fan engagement first and tried to rally conversation around this issue. We also enabled these theaters to rally their own support.” To generate donations to help driveins nationwide, Honda auctioned off an Odyssey minivan on the Indiegogo site, and held a Twitter Vine auction hosted by movie critic Leonard Maltin with Disneyland tickets, concert tickets and autographed memorabilia from the band Maroon 5. Culver City, Calif.-based Sony Pictures Animation collaborated with Honda on the campaign, donating plush toys from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 to the auction and hosting free screenings of the movie at pop-up drive-in events at Honda dealerships. The voting period lasted for a month and at the end of September, Honda’s marketing team visited the nine winning drive-ins, masquerading as news crews so that they could capture the owners’ reactions on camera as they learned that they’d won. Honda posted a video of the winners’ reactions on ProjectDriveIn.com and YouTube to prompt people to donate on the Indiegogo site through the end of the year. “The reactions were fantastic,” Jones says. “We would put it up on their marquee that they won, and people in
these really small communities would drive by and honk and wave, or stop by and congratulate them. It was very cool.” Ry Russell, general manager at the Saco Drive-In (pictured on facing page) in Saco, Maine, cried when he found out that his drive-in had won. “Without this, we would have closed. We had tried everything in terms of fundraising and there was no way for us to get there. For us, this was not just the golden ticket, but the only ticket,” he says. “During the 30 days [of the contest], our website was getting 30,000-plus visitors, our Facebook page was reaching half a million people a day through organic and paid advertising. It was so big that, when I found out we won, I wanted to have a little party with our
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projectors through the Indiegogo fund, which raised a total of $57,000, and through donations from Honda. The campaign garnered 682 million media impressions, 120.2 million Twitter impressions and 1.76 million YouTube views during its run, according to Jones. The campaign’s success online is emblematic of the impact that it had on Honda’s brand perception, Jones says. “It generated a lot of positive sentiment and enthusiasm for Honda around the country and in these small communities.” Toby Southgate, CEO for the Americas of Brand Union, a Londonbased global branding agency with clients such as Time Warner Cable and Coca-Cola, says that the cause marketing effort was a good match for
COMPANY
American Honda Motor Co. Inc. HEADQUARTERS
Torrance, Calif. CAMPAIGN TIMELINE
August-September 2013 RESULTS
Saved 13 drive-ins, raised $57,000 on Indiegogo, and garnered 682 million media impressions, 120.2 million Twitter impressions and 1.76 million YouTube views.
staff, so I ran out to the grocery store and got 15 bottles of champagne. I’m in the checkout line, and the checkout lady looks in the cart and says, ‘Having a party?’ I said, ‘We’re celebrating,’ and she looked at my drive-in polo shirt and said, ‘Holy shit, we won.’ All five lines around us, everyone started going nuts. People were that invested. It was cool to be a part of something like that and bring the entire community into it.” Results Project Drive-In saved 13 drive-ins: the nine winners plus four additional driveins that received funds to buy digital
the Honda brand. “It sits comfortably with much of Honda’s longstanding brand attributes: a great product that’s a little quirky, a little off-the-beaten-track and a little unexpected.” The effort humanized the brand, Russell says, because it prompted face-toface interactions with Honda executives and local consumers. “They were at these parties. They were interacting with customers. You got to see that these ad executives and car manufacturers are no different than the lobstermen in downtown Portland. They really gave a personable identity to their brand. They gave a face to a huge company.” m
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