11-5-13
Rival radio groups in Hampton Roads, VA, joined forces for a great cause sponsored by the Hampton Roads Automobile Dealers Association to raise funds for its Youth Automotive Training Program. The program is called Drive For The Dream and it brought together 17 stations from Saga, Max Media, Entercom, and Sinclair. The stations provided a month-long, pro-bono campaign valued at almost $300,000 to support scholarships in automotive technology at two local colleges.
For an entire month, each person test driving a new vehicle at any participating HRADA dealership on a Tuesday or Wednesday was entered to win a $5,000 dream vacation from a random drawing. Each test drive generated $25 from the dealer toward the HRADA scholarship fund. The radio campaign included almost 2,000 60-second spots, on-air live promotion, online, e-blasts, and in-store materials at the dealerships.
Students receiving these scholarships earn two-year degrees at TCC or TNCC. On the day of graduation, they also receive fulltime employment with an HRADA dealer of their choice. Many graduates receive up to a dozen job offers. Graduates agree to work for an HRADA dealer for at least two years as a condition of the scholarship.
Winners of the $5,000 Drive For The Dream drawing were Kimberly and Raymond Wilson of Virginia Beach. They test drove and had purchased a new vehicle at Priority Chevrolet in Chesapeake.
Pictured left to right are Wayne Leland Saga Communications, Dave Paulus Max Media, prize winners, George Ranson Hall Automotive and HRADA president, Lisa Sinclair of Sinclair Communications, and Bennett Zier, Entercom.
About the collaboration, Saga Communications' Wayne Leland said, "At the beginning of the year the HR ADA invited me to join their board as an Allied member. George Ransom the Board President had a vision to grow the scholarship program to unprecedented levels. A subcommittee of the board, Along with Dave Paulus from MaxMedia, came up with this idea to raise money through a test drive program. I contacted the general managers of the other three groups to see if they were willing to invest in the organizations vision. Everybody was quick to join. All of the radio groups saw the potential to be able to help out the organization that represents our largest advertising category and to do some good in the community. Not only did we help them out as a group, we began to forge relationships that could help grow the radio industry in Hampton Roads."
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