King Auto: All-Around PR Smart

02 Apr King Auto: All-Around PR Smart

Recently we were asked to judge King Auto Center’s “School Commercial Contest.”  They made it easy for us. All we had to do was log on to www.kingautocenter.com and view each of the commercials (you can go there yourself to check them out), and then judge them using the score sheet they emailed us. Smart.

Now think about this in the larger context.  King Auto launched a school contest to create a :60 TV commercial for their company.  The commercials were to be made by Kaua`i students.

How many targets did they hit through this one tactic? They got local kids and their families invested in their company.  Where do you think they’ll shop for their next car?  Smart.  King Auto Center also engaged the general community in the contest by allowing them to vote for their favorite commercial online for the “Kaua`i Choice” category.  Smart.  They ended up with a great selection of TV ads for which they didn’t have to pay any production costs.  Smart.  The one cost to King Auto Center was the monetary prizes given to the winning schools, so this money actually went right back to benefit education in our community.  Smart. When the winning spot airs, it will engage the friends and family of every child who participated in making the commercial. Smart.

Next time your company has a need, think of a win-win way to achieve your goal.  Be creative, think at a grassroots level, and figure out how you can get as many people as possible involved in a fun, positive way.  That’s smart public relations.  Kudos to King Auto Center for being all-around smart.  And, kudos to all the students that worked so hard to produce the ads!