By Jeff Sanford
Brantford, Ontario — July 31, 2015 — The staff of CSN Collision Centre-Brant County recently took part in the 11th annual Brantford Powerfest Car show, in Brantford’s Downtown. The event sees downtown streets closed to traffic, where show cars line the streets. Busy crowds come out to take part, and the staff of the shop came up with a brilliant bit of marketing that did much to educate the local population about what goes on in a collision centre.
“It is the coolest largest car show in town every year,” says Nina Yanchus, Manager of the collision department at CSN-Brant County. “The very busy streets of down town are blocked off and over 300 cars line the main roads and side streets. The downtown turns in to a spectacle of beautiful cars.”
Officials expected up to 10,000 spectators. “This was a great opportunity for us to have visibility of the CSN brand,” says Yanchus. To connect with locals office staff set up a CSN tent and signage. But they also came up with a unique event.
“We wanted to have something different to catch the eyes of the public to come to our vendor spot,” says Yanchus. The solution? The staff came up with an activity, ‘Guess The Estimate’, where shop staff towed a rear-ended vehicle to the show and had it on site for people to view. Participants were given clip boards and an estimate form. They were then asked to put on their estimators cap. Participants viewed the damage and tried to guess how much the repair bill would be on the vehicle.
“The guess closest to the penny won a Summer Prize pack on display,” says Yanchus.
This is really smart marketing. Members of the public get familiar with the process of collision repair. Individuals take away a bit of an understanding of what goes on in a collision repair shop. The public was engaged. “Some people got right in to it kneeling and looking at the undercarriage of the vehicle to be as accurate as possible,” says Yanchus. “This was a great opportunity to educate the public of our services, what we can do for them in the event of a collision, and what sets our service apart from other facilities.”
By the end of the event the shop had approximately 370 entries, which is impressive. The first place winner was just $7.41 away from the total amount. The second place winner was just $11.23 away from the estimate total.
“People really enjoyed seeing a vehicle disassembled and having the opportunity to learn something about the repair process,” says Yanchus.
For more information, please visit csninc.ca.
