“This business used to be fun.”
Those words were uttered to me by a long time journalist covering the automotive beat. I was working as a Public Relations Manager for an automotive company at the time and, consistent with industry practice, we were hosting him on an extended, overseas press conference where the participants dove deep into the brand’s latest flashy bit of news.
We’re not saving lives, we’re talking about cars all day…
The trip involved a tour of a modern car manufacturing facility, a design shop, an engineering centre, a 20 minute media scrum with very senior global executives, and an all-too-short test drive of recently released vehicles.
For those not experienced, these trips may seem like relaxed, flashy affairs and while there certainly is an element of poshness as automotive companies endeavour to present their best face, they can be gruelling for the attendees. Schedules are jam-packed and incredibly long since organizers often must balance the interests of the incoming journalists with internal departments eager to show-off their chops. Add in the human need to eat, oppressive jet lag, ever-tightening deadlines for stories, and a major industry of companies all doing the same thing, you have burnout always right around the proverbial corner.
That stark statement was made by a veteran who attended two or three of these trips per week, 50 weeks out of the year in a bid to generate the income his family needs.
While it may have been said in a fit of exhaustion, it also wasn’t the first time I’d heard someone say those words. I had spent a considerable amount of time working on my contribution to the press conference, but I didn’t feel deflated, I felt concerned.
He was right. We both worked in the car business. We weren’t saving lives, we were talking about cars and trucks all day; it was supposed to be fun.
That led to an idea: what if we could bring a bit of fun back to this part of the business?
Since most of these events were tightly scheduled and controlled to the smallest detail, my team and I put an event together that went the other way. Journalists were invited to a local racetrack where they could test drive a wide range of my employer’s vehicles (compact sedans, SUVs, sports cars, luxury vehicles) on a variety of environments (racecourse, off-road trail, city streets, closed course environments). Sprinkled on top was access to executives for interviews.
It was an opportunity for the attendees to find their own stories, on their own time, in their own way.
The event goal was three-fold:
Provide an opportunity for journalists to discover a wide range of product stories for their outlets, generating incremental media coverage for my employer.
Differentiate the brand from the competition by responding to feedback from its audience.
Create an automotive playground and bring an element of fun back into the car business.
The response we received was strong. Attendees were appreciative of the opportunity to pursue their own, individual agendas, and many asked if there would be a second event (in fact, we did quite a few of them). The company also saw a bump in coverage of some of its products that had been on the market for a few years at a time when when the brand as a whole was out of the spotlight.
What's more, we were able to glean lessons from this type of unscripted event to add flexibility whenever we were expected (or asked) to put a more traditional program together by the company’s leadership.
For me it was an example of how inspiring audience feedback can be.
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