Client
Year
Deliverables
Media Relations
Situation
While the automotive industry is huge, those who play in the space know everything overlaps – including the small circle of top-tier automotive media outlets.
After years of working with automotiveMastermind to identify right-fit media partnerships for major company announcements, thought leadership content and lead generation campaigns, the Franco team was constantly searching for “outside the box” opportunities that would drive real results for the software-as-a-service (SaaS) company.
Franco identified ASOTU (Automotive State of the Union), an emerging and rapidly growing media outlet within the automotive retail space, as a promising partner for engaging a highly relevant and influential audience.
Recognizing ASOTU’s momentum and reputation for producing meaningful, community-driven content, Franco and automotiveMastermind initiated exploratory conversations in 2022.
automotiveMastermind ultimately attended and sponsored ASOTU’s flagship industry event – ASOTU CON – which laid the groundwork for deeper collaboration, including participation in ASOTU’s Edge Webinar series.
Approach
In December 2024, Franco supported automotiveMastermind’s first webinar with ASOTU, featuring one of the company’s subject matter experts and one of its most successful customers who could speak to best practices, tactical tips, industry trends and success stories.
Ensuring the conversation was geared toward helping other dealerships find success kept the webinar tactical and engaging for viewers. Having the topic directly correlate with one of automotiveMastermind’s strongest areas – data-driven, service-to-sales processes – and having live testimonials from one of its customers supported building credibility for the brand, while also increasing future consideration across the audience.
To ensure success before, during and after the webinar, our approach included:
- Event Activation: Establishing a presence with ASOTU and its audience at ASOTU CON in 2023 and 2024 set the stage for automotiveMastermind ahead of the webinar. Experiencing the event first-hand allowed us to better understand ASOTU’s vision and approach to serving as a resource for the auto retail community, which helped inform future partnership conversations.
- Collaborative Webinar Partnership: Franco supported a co-branded webinar, aligning messaging with the needs and interests of the ASOTU audience while showcasing automotiveMastermind’s expertise and insights. Franco worked with automotiveMastermind’s subject matter experts to ensure they were prepared ahead of the webinar.
- Integrated Promotion Strategy: To maximize webinar attendance and impact, automotiveMastermind distributed a comprehensive five-part email campaign (four pre-show emails and one post-show follow-up). Franco closely aligned organic social promotion during this period to increase visibility and maintain an integrated approach to promotion. Clips and insights from the webinar were used for several weeks following the event to maximize the reach of the thought leadership insights.
- Performance Tracking and Sales Enablement: Franco worked with automotiveMastermind to understand how webinar engagement metrics connected to pipeline movement and measurable business value to determine the overall value and impact of this partnership. This approach allows our team to make data-driven recommendations in the future for media partnerships.
Results
The webinar partnership with ASOTU delivered impactful results for both marketing and sales, including:
- Email Campaign Performance: A multi-touch email campaign managed by automotiveMastermind supported pre- and post-webinar engagement. The campaign achieved open rates well above industry benchmarks. Strong subject line performance and timely messaging drove high visibility for the webinar and associated brand content.
- Webinar Engagement & Revenue Influence: The webinar attracted nearly 300 viewers, demonstrating clear alignment between the topic and audience interests. A significant number of attendees entered the sales pipeline following the event, with a healthy portion progressing to closed-won status. The influenced revenue and conversion rates clearly showcased the campaign’s value in moving prospects closer to purchase.
- Demo Momentum: The post-webinar period saw considerable interest from engaged leads, with more than 40% of attendees progressing to product demos or scheduling future demos. This level of engagement signaled both marketing alignment and strong buying intent – reinforcing the power of thought leadership to drive tangible sales activity.
This collaboration underscored the importance of aligning media partnerships with both marketing and sales goals – delivering measurable impact and lasting brand credibility.
