General Motors: “Educator Thank You”
Corporate Name of Client: General Motors North America: Educator Discount Program
Agency Group Account Directors: Lori Sullivan/ Liza Roach
Agency Account Director: Melissa Blomquist
Agency Account Group: Jillian Brennan/Caitlin Livengood /Michelle Marinos
Agency Strategy Director: Jessica Perry
Agency Strategist: Racquel Ankney
Agency: MRM/McCann, Birmingham Michigan
Chief Creative Officer: Jeff Cruz
Group Creative Director: Tiffany Moy-Miller
Associate Creative Director: Diane Campbell
Senior Copywriter: Candice Pollock
Art Director: Gary Kunkel
Agency Producer: Wiebke Engel
Production Company: Former co., Detroit
Director: Tony Wolski
Executive Producer: Michele Swanson
Producer: Kellee Cragin
Director of Photography: Aaron Jones
Editor: Randall Kupfer
Color Company: Cathel Color Company
Colorist: Chuck Klatt
Sound Mix Company: Goldsound
Sound Engineer: Marc LaRochelle
Published: September 2018
Synopsis:
In support of the most comprehensive discount for educators on the purchase or lease of a new vehicle, MRM//McCann Detroit created a message for General Motors that focused on gratitude — rather than a discount on a vehicle. The result: A video that shows just how much educators mean to the students they teach every day. It was a natural fit — since the GM Educator Discount already acts as a “thank you” for all of their hard work and dedication, it made sense to continue that gratitude with a campaign that was both sincere and heartfelt.
The team found five schools with grades ranging from first through twelfth and interviewed teachers under the guise of “creating a video about the teacher community.” Then, they secretly interviewed their students and asked them why they loved their teachers and what impact they made on them. Finally, the teachers were surprised on-camera with visits from their students and two words they seldom hear, “thank you.” There were tears. There were hugs. There was gratitude. And most importantly, it was genuine.
The resulting shareworthy video is featured on the GM Educator Discount website as well as in email and OLA.
And it is definitely gaining steam and helping create awareness. Since the video’s launch, visits to the GM Educator Discount site have gone up by 31 percent, translating into an additional 12,339 visits. Consumers have engaged with the video more than 3,400 times, and the new appreciation page created by the team to house the video represents the second-most visited page on the Educator Discount site after the home page, yielding over 15,000 visits so far. While it's still less than two months post launch, it’s clear that the video is having a major impact on consumers.