Grounded Elegance: Campaigning During A Pandemic (2020 - 2021)

Grounded Elegance Car Club, established in 2016 and known as "Nite Life Hooligans" until September of 2020, is a classic vehicle club in Randolph County, North Carolina, that focuses on teaming up with local charities and promoting their causes during annual cruise-in events in downtown Asheboro. Success during these events varied, with the bulk of the monetary donations coming during the height of summer in June, July and August.

In May of 2020, GECC approached Brightside Gallery, an art and tea house in Asheboro, to assist in promoting the charities and "cruises," which take place on the last Saturday of every month. The COVID-19 pandemic was in full effect, and marketing an event had become difficult--but GECC saw the opportunity: still being able to donate to charity while getting out of the house, but without getting out of your car.

Brightside Gallery, in turn, approached South Triad Broadcasting to work out promoting the cruises on-air. GECC has an extremely limited social media presence, and given the age range of most members (70-75+), they were understandably not interested in promoting their own brand online more so than the charities.

The bulk of the advertising campaign was to raise awareness of events and not necessarily to grow our pages (as in, the two South Triad Broadcasting station pages, GECC or Brightside). I began by making a string of advertisements, using both bought stock photos and my own photos from a previous side job in a garage, and modifying them with Photoshop and Canva. I also began highlighting key SEO terms pertaining to cars, vintage fashions, music more than 40 years old, and themes that envisioned summer and safety. Finally, I encouraged both station DJs to begin promoting the cruises at least twice during their four hour shifts leading up to the events, and three times the day before the cruise.

An example of a Cruisin' For A Cause ad in 2020, made in Canva and with the association of Happy Hills Animal Foundation's no-kill shelter.

The first ad that was run in May of 2020 met little success, but still had a modest turnout for the charity event. I reworked the SEO to revolve around more "old-fashioned" themes, harping on ideas of nostalgia and being more specific with bands and songs within my optimization options.

As the season wore on, more views began to amass between Facebook and Instagram, the two avenues I had decided to advertise on given the circumstances. While Instagram's audience tend to skew younger than what was the target audience, I felt it was still important to highlight that there was a charity event (that had COVID precautions in mind, no less) during a time of agitation.

The 2020 Holiday Cruisin' Poster; made in Photoshop with light alterations in Canva.

Because we had no primary worries about growing pages, it was easier to attract attention using photos and not having to be as concerned with engagements so much as pure views count. The cruise season of 2020 wore on much the same as it had in previous times, but with a mix of advertising and COVID fatigue, the turnout -- and by extension, donations -- had been more steady in each month than in years prior, according to Brightside Gallery.

When the season resumed in April of 2021, I was surprised at the success of the numbers on the first ad that was published. As you can see from the screenshot taken from WZOO's Facebook page, the combined views and engagements vastly surpass the expected turnaround for the month, a trend that, while not as intense, would continue throughout the cruise season of 2021, resulting in another spurt of donation growth and interest.

Final Results

While GECC had no interest in growing any social media, it was clear they understood the power that having access to social channels represents. Even a small exposure to social media, bolstered by grassroots advertising and radio broadcasts, had a consistent increase in donations, according to Brightside Gallery.

Analytics report from the first half of 2021. Note the peaks and valleys towards the end of months, indicating spikes in radio and web latency post-cruises.

Several unforeseen advantages were shown to South Triad and Brightside as well; with the information acquired from group and audience testing, plus the keywords used for SEO, we were able to find easier ways to access our own audience and cultivate more interest, resulting in more steady listenership via the TuneIn app and both South Triad websites.