How A Website Turned Into A Mantra

September 13, 2018 – A little over a year ago, we made the strategic decision to merge our Association and Foundation’s websites. We found that people knew of both organizations but didn’t know of their relationship to each other. And more significantly, few knew that they were connected to our most notable entity—the Philadelphia Auto Show.

So, after many hours, meetings, pitches and even a few healthy debates, we finally “built” the new electronic home of our Association and Foundation—MoreThanAutoDealers.com. We were thrilled with the birth of our new URL but more importantly, we realized we gave life to something else—a new mantra.

While surveying individuals in our industry as well as the public during our website revitalization process, we realized there were gaps. There were gaps in people’s knowledge of all that we do under one roof, and I mean that physically and metaphorically.

We learned that the public knew that we produce the Philadelphia Auto Show but had no idea that we are the same organization that also runs a new coat program every fall that benefits hundreds of thousands of local children, because our dealer members believe in the power of giving back.

We also learned that people were aware of the Black Tie Tailgate at the Philadelphia Auto Show and that it benefits Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia but didn’t realize those efforts are conducted by a dealer-led Foundation that is responsible for selling tickets to the event (friendly reminder from Marketing—it’s open to the public), hosting online fundraising pages and more to help generate the approximately $600,000 donation made every year. And further, we found that people who actually worked in our industry, even at our member dealerships, had little idea their employer was a part of all of this and did way more than just sell cars.

And that’s where More Than Auto Dealers turned into more than our web address. It’s now our new mantra around here.  I’ve been with the ADAGP for more than 20 years. I’ve seen it go through many phases, and the evolution of More Than Auto Dealers is one of our biggest ones. We are fully committed to making sure that people know exactly who our members are and what they do. Why? Because it can benefit all of us.

Our dealer members in the five-county Philadelphia region alone employ directly and indirectly more than 30,000 local residents and pay more than $1.9 billion in wages and benefits. They provide major horsepower (excuse the pun) to the local and state economies. Impressive, right? But they are also so much more than that. They are small businesses that sponsor your local little league teams, food drives, toy collections and the list goes on. They are places of work at which thousands of area residents have chosen to make life-long careers because it offers them great opportunities. By supporting them, you are supporting our communities.

And we are the organization that’s going to remind you of that. Over the next year, you will see, well basically, more from us. More reports on automotive retail numbers in our region. More thoughts on major headlines like ridesharing and autonomous vehicles. And more on how you can help the small businesses in your area continue to do good. So stay tuned, there is so much more to come.

-Kevin Mazzucola, Executive Director

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