Local car wash, Super Sudz, is located at the corner of Bandera and Poss in San Antonio, Texas. This October, soap paired with scares and bubbles became fun and friendly freight for Halloween.
Over the course of four weekends, we can estimate based on the number of cars - that Super Sudz, a small business carwash, saw around 10,000 people. At its peak, families traveled across the state (some four hours or more) and would wait even longer to experience the terror that awaited them.
Scare actors were dispersed all over the property: first greeting you as each car pulled in, again during payment, and of course throughout the tunnel itself.
The haunted experience was an opportunity to promote brand awareness and gather new business, but how does one event go from serving approximately 80 cars in its first weekend to nearly 800 a night for the final four? Better yet - with very little paid advertising...
The organic traction Super Sudz saw came from three key components of a cross-platform campaign: organic posts, influencers, and news stations.
For this campaign, our team utilized graphic design and static images to serve as organic posts for social media.
Creating appealing thematic elements was a fun and fairly simple task. However, we knew shooting this event would be tricky - understanding that our vantage point would be limited mostly to the interior of a car and additionally difficult due to the amount of soapy water in combination with heavy machinery spreading it around.
Our team hired a professional who specializes in entertainment photography ( the incomparable, Cheri Stanton ) to assist. Her eye for particular lighting worked to our advantage and we were able to deliver some stellar shots to our Tribe Partner.
We reached out to quite a few influencers, but it was not until the second weekend when a particular video went viral that we were able to see a dramatic increase in ticket sales.
Prior to opening, our team had spoken briefly with a local news station about covering and promoting Super-Spooky-Sudz. Once the TikTok viewership spiked exponentially, KSAT 12 connected with us again. One article became two social posts ( 4000+ likes / 2000+ shares ), which turned into two live features.
All of a sudden this trifecta increased customer reach tenfold. Continued efforts which included additional organic posts, newsletters, tangible collateral such as billboards, pure seasonality, and others kept business booming for the rest of its run.
Halloween at Super Sudz was a (pumpkin) smashing success! Memberships are available today; join today and always leave feeling squeaky clean.
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