The faces behind the Auto Dealers Against Distracted Driving campaign
By Derek Chu, Marketing and Communications Assistant (Co-op)
This year marks the end of LGM’s third-annual Auto Dealers Against Distracted Driving campaign. From March 1-31, hundreds of dealerships joined forces to end distracted driving in Canada. We ended our campaign with a record-breaking 18,509 pledges!
As a Co-op student, I joined LGM in September 2016 during the early planning stages of the campaign. I had never been involved in a nationwide campaign and was astonished to see the amount of care and attention that went into every detail. My coworkers poured countless hours into strategizing and refining the messaging and campaign material.
So, irrational though it may be, when the launch counted down from minutes to seconds, a stagnant worry hung in the air: “Will people care?”
Then we received our first pledges. It was exciting, people were actually getting involved. And as the pledge count continued to rise, ultimately doubling our goal, the satisfaction that the team felt was palpable.
All of the work that went into the campaign was definitely worth it.
Dealers had heard the call to action and were responding in full force. They were committed to making a difference in their communities.
In this blog post, I want to lift the corporate veil and showcase some of the faces behind the campaign. I want to give kudos to the 60+ LGMers who contributed to the success of the Auto Dealers Against Distracted Driving campaign because without them, none of this would have been possible.
The 2017 campaign was spearheaded by LGM’s Marketing and Sales departments with Cherry Morgan, Marketing Specialist, and Marc-Andre Lefebvre, Vice President of Sales for Quebec, heading the charge. Their objective this year was to provide exceptional support to engaged dealerships and to personalize the campaign through customizable kits and social media pledges.
A great deal of attention went into creating the campaign collateral. All of the items in the physical, digital, and social media kits were designed in-house by LGM’s Creative Services team and then translated into French to ensure our campaign was fully bilingual. We wanted to give dealerships the tools to set their stage, making the campaign their own. And dealers embraced the cause wholeheartedly.
Members of LGM’s Marketing team committed to taking the wheel at employee pledge day.
Thanks to our Communications team, we were able to broadcast the campaign across the country. Dealers knew how to take control and make full use of the resources at their disposal. Our frontline support, Dealer Development Managers and LGM Ambassadors (employees who volunteered to support individual dealers and their efforts), ensured that the message was crystal clear. If there were any doubts, questions, or concerns, dealers had a personable point of contact to discuss and collaborate with.
Our Dealer Development Managers were out in the field every day during campaign month, visiting dealerships and spreading the word.
We were all on the same page, a tightly knit community. Because despite the amount of work that it took to make the campaign a reality, the cause is worthwhile; distracted driving is still a global issue. And as members of the automotive industry, we have the opportunity to stop it at the source.
If the passion that I’ve seen is any indication, next year’s campaign will be even better.
Thank you to all involved, employees, dealers and sponsors alike, for your support in this annual industry cause.
For more information on 2017 campaign results, be sure to check out some of the media coverage.
