AAA is synonymous with Roadside Assistance. The organization was the first to introduce the service for stranded motorists over a century ago, and to this day, our tow trucks remain one of the most valued Membership features.
When a global pandemic shuts everything down and encourages people to stay home, how does the 120-year-old brand pivot to convey to Members that even though they may not be driving, their AAA Membership is an essential expense?
AAA Northern California, Nevada, and Utah, one of the largest Clubs in the AAA federation representing more than 6 million Members across Arizona, Northern California, Nevada, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, pivoted with a campaign to inform current and prospective Members that AAA is “More than Roadside Assistance.”
What did we do? We stopped, collaborated, and listened. We looked at reasons to join AAA—or keep your existing Membership. We leaned into creative that focuses on safety but highlights that we are more than yellow tow trucks.
In order for prospective Members to understand we offer more than roadside assistance, we needed to drive awareness of other popular benefits; we chose battery service because our business saw a steady increase in calls for jumpstarts and battery replacement, and ID theft protection since 10% of U.S. adults report being a victim of identity theft since the onset of the pandemic. For our third benefit, we stayed within the safety theme, but took a more community based viewpoint creating awareness around our efforts to help install car seats correctly.
We know our direct response creative needs to feature tow trucks, but with our new awareness videos we were able to branch out and focus on additional benefits that provide peace of mind. We encouraged prospects to “keep their private information private”, get simple DMV tasks done safely at AAA branches, stay at home for battery replacement, and take advantage of exclusive Member discounts, both shopping and auto repair.
We implemented this strategy by targeting users across new awareness channels: CTV, YouTube, and social media marketing. From here we relied on tried and true direct response channels: programmatic display, social, and affiliate marketing. We targeted our users based on behaviors and interests, and retargeted based on website visits.
Through our awareness and direct response creative we were able to show prospects that there is more to AAA than yellow tow trucks and emergency roadside assistance.
The "More than Roadside Assistance" digital campaign generated double-digit growth in new Member acquisition - the strongest growth rate for digital in the history of our organization:
* AAA NCNU saw a +36% in new Membership sales year over year from the digital channel.
* The campaign resulted in an all-time high conversion rate (36%) and the number of Memberships sold in each transaction (2.3).
* On the Club's social channels, cost per video viewed (CPVV) dropped by 238%, while our cost per new Member decreased by 0.98%.
The "More than Roadside Assistance" proved digital marketing as an integral sales channel and affirmed the importance of conveying relevant and functional benefits to prospective Members.