Garage regulation is an entirely new area for the UK’s motor industry. The formation of Motor Codes, as the garage regulation arm of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), was a direct result of the industry’s recognition of the need for a self-regulatory body for the automotive sector. Committed to raising standards across the service and repair industry and with over 6,200 subscribing garages nationwide, Motor Codes asked Weber Shandwick to bring its brand to life with consumers. 

The challenge was to highlight the organisation’s position as the industry’s ‘guardian angels’, giving its stamp of approval to great garages and clamping down on the more dubious of traders. Success would be measured by an uplift in website traffic, leading more consumers understanding the services Motor Codes offer and driving more garages to sign up to the Code, for a small fee.

In addition to building consumer awareness, an additional challenge was to show the regulation industry as a whole, in particular the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), that Motor Codes is a growing, credible and responsible organisation which is being enthusiastically taken up by motorists across the UK.

Strategy

Weber Shandwick worked closely with the client to persuade it that PR would be the best value-for-money way to reach a large amount of consumers and garages, delivering measurable results that would drive brand recognition and encourage buy-in from garages. Once engaged, a campaign was developed that recognised the potential pitfalls of Britain’s garages, but also sought to tap into the love that people have for reliable neighbourhood workshops. Online media was chosen as a highly targeted way to reach engaged, younger motorists who have yet to choose the garage they will stick with throughout their adult lives, based on consumer patterns identified by client data. A campaign was created which could live both online and offline, to become a fully ‘inline’ campaign, which drove brand awareness and understanding of the range of services that Motor Codes can offer to consumers.

Implementation

The first stage of the campaign was to create the ‘mechanic’ for consumers to engage with. A new website was branded in a more consumer-friendly way to the previous Motor Codes site, where consumers would be able to nominate their favourite local garages – their ‘Golden Garages’. A recognisable face was needed to front the competition to consumers and the trade. From a shortlist of eight, the Fifth Gear presenter and respected motoring journalist Vicki Butler-Henderson was chosen.

Next, the problem of unreliable garages was highlighted with a piece of consumer research that asked motorists how much they had been ripped-off. The results were astounding – over 14 million motorists had been ripped-off, by over £2.4 billion between them.

Weber Shandwick launched the campaign to consumer news and motoring pages of national newspapers and online media with the hard-hitting results of the survey, including an endorsement from Butler-Henderson. This initial launch gave over 4,000 nominations of favourite garages from across the UK, narrowed down to a shortlist of ten garages, one in each of the regions and nations of the country. Tailored regional releases were produced as well as a national motoring release and a radio tour with Vicki Butler-Henderson and Chris Mason, managing director of Motor Codes. Following the launch, an anonymous RAC visit was arranged to each garage to assess its qualities, which alongside the public endorsements from the first round was used to judge a final winner, Kingham’s of Croydon. Finally, the winner was announced with a photocall with Vicki Butler-Henderson and owner Keith Kingham.

Throughout the campaign, online traffic was encouraged through online media relations and via a bespoke Twitter feed. The feed was set up at the start of the competition, linked to the official SMMT and Motor Codes feeds, and followed all target media – and later several of the garages nominated.

Results

The initial launch of the story received eight national pieces of coverage, and over 40 pieces of regional and online coverage. With 2,000 local garages registering themselves across the whole of the UK, 4,000 people across the country registered their votes in the first round, with the whole of the campaign attracting 9,000 unique users in total. A shortlist was announced during a radio day with Vicki Butler-Henderson, which received 12 national and regional radio stations, as well as another 50 pieces of regional coverage. In total, the campaign achieved:

129 pieces of coverage: 16 national and over 100 pieces of regional and consumer affair coverage

12 national and regional radio station interviews

100 followers on Twitter within the first three weeks alone

More importantly, the campaign not only drove media coverage but also drove online traffic to the client’s website. In February, the Motor Codes website traffic was 330 per cent higher than the same period in 2009. During February and March, the campaign resulted in a direct uplift to all the website stats in comparison to the previous year, driving an extra 5,000 unique users to the site, with an increase of over 60 per cent in usage of its main consumer tool the 'Garage Finder’. Golden Garages generated a total of over £200,000 in advertising value equivalent, an outstanding return on a budget of under £25,000.

The campaign struck a chord not only with consumers but also with the trade – garages were so enthused by the competition they have been signing up to the code, and consumers were so eager to enter their favourite garages that several handwritten letters were received from people who didn’t have internet access, but who had seen or heard the coverage.