Overview

RepairMatch connected Toronto drivers with mechanics, brokering maintenance jobs like oil changes, safety inspections and wheel alignments.

As the weather warms up, potholes tend to sprout like evil mushrooms on roads everywhere. Since they are notorious for knocking wheels out of alignment and pose a danger in general, we developed a campaign around educating people about these menaces.

Strategy

Personify and personalize potholes for Torontonians (increase likelihood of clicks), through hosting entertaining and informative content on RepairMatch channels (increase awareness & potential for bookings).

Execution

Learning about potholes is not exciting stuff, typically. We needed to make it interesting. We did this in a few ways.

Make it personal

The CAA regularly updates Canada’s Worst Roads. We got the latest information for Toronto, grabbed a camera and visited the Top 5, and did some “investigative journalism.” The ugliest potholes from each of the worst streets were showcased in a bombastic manner, with an air of haughty disaster. Links to our wheel alignment service were sprinkled naturally throughout, as well as a crosslink to the “How Potholes Form” edutainment article (see below).

Excerpt:

“On a stroll along Dufferin between Sheppard and Finch (after it reclaims itself from Allen Street), there is a veritable minefield of potholes in various stages of life. “Stage 1” cracks are everywhere, waiting to bloom into destructive final forms.”

Make it interesting

Some photos from this shoot were recycled and photoshopped into personified, demonic representations of these so-called “evil potholes.” We used these for Facebook and Instagram ads that pointed directly into our wheel alignment services. The ads were among RepairMatch’s most successful in terms of absolute clicks (over 2,000) and cost-per-click.

Make it entertaining

Keeping with the theme, we used a different illustrative style to support the edutainment article. It went over the steps of how potholes spawn in the first place, which involved water seeping into asphalt, freezing (and expanding) in the winter, then melting away in the spring. Full article here.

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Designer link (Saxon Watson)