Keeping the
Drive Alive

U-Pull & Pay

The junk yard just got way cooler.

What we did:

  • Audience Research + Insights
  • Audience Segmentation + Targeting
  • Persona Development
  • Market Assessment
  • Brand Strategy + Development
  • Digital Transformation
  • National Creative Campaign
  • Loyalty Program

Rebuilding a car is a lot like rebuilding a brand. That’s why we gave U-Pull & Pay a strong alignment of target, communication parameters, and a big idea to propel them to a record breaking year of in-store visits and ad engagement.

Human Insights

Audience research gave us the human insights we needed to create a breakthrough communication strategy powered by brand planning, strategy, analytics and creative for the underdog of a junkyard with a regional portfolio of locations.

We discovered brand distinction among junkyards was very flat – giving U-Pull the opportunity to really stand out within the category. We also found our audience trusted each other more than brands, paving the way for U-Pull to create an emotional connection with customers by letting them feel like experts and ambassadors. Finally, we learned our audience wanted to be as self-sufficient as possible, which meant that U-Pull could win them over by providing the resources they needed to make their jobs easy. 

Digital Transformation

In refreshing the U-Pull website, we transformed it into a one-stop content resource for everything our audience needed, including an easy inventory search, a cross-referencing system for thousands of parts, and tons of DIY tips on everything from blown head gaskets to failing alternators – giving a huge boost to brand affinity along the way. We also fine-tuned their VIP Club to reward a growing group of U-Pull brand loyalists. 

National Campaign

Using these insights as fuel, we crafted a series of creative brand executions across multiple mediums, all informed by a governing campaign mantra: Keep the Drive Alive, which celebrates the spirit of U-Pull & Pay’s audience. The centerpiece of our “Keep the Drive Alive” campaign was a series of national television commercials, supplemented with print, outdoor, digital and social content, all with a highly distinctive visual style.

Together, our national video commercials helped generate a 112% increase in ad recall lift rate, 431% YOY increase in non-paid Facebook traffic and a 35% increase in sell your car web form submissions.

Activations and Loyalty Program

To activate the new creative campaign, we deployed tactics like social media, OOH, connected TV, POS collateral, apparel, and more to help each unique persona interact with the brand in ways they never had before. We also developed an SEO and content strategy for the brand and engaged in paid media on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, Google Ads, Google Display, and Google Discovery.

The “Keep the Drive Alive” campaign gave the brand a solid foundation to introduce new programs like Parts Perks Texts (loyalty and marketing automation), Recruitment and Event-Based Marketing. 

Results

By honoring the brand’s history but elevating it for the modern world, we found new ways to help U-Pull & Pay keep the drive alive. Leap Group’s collective efforts in the first year of the new brand and campaign helped U-Pull & Pay connect with their audience, driving 1.9M users to U-Pull & Pay’s online properties generating 12.2M page views and over 4M sessions.

There were over 600K inventory searches, 320K store visits, 52K sell car form submits and 77K calls from the website. We increased mobile traffic by 4.5%, and 25% of all store visits were attributed to one of our marketing initiatives.

We found that restructuring our campaigns around the target markets and serving new creative aligned to our personas increased conversion rate by 400%.

And maybe the best result? Both our client and customer were pleased with the changes and we were able to drive a 14% increase in sales the first year of the new brand and campaign.