The Clorox Company acquired Armor All, the leader in car appearance care products, in early 1997. Torme-Lauricella was retained to develop a multi-tiered public relations program. One goal given was to extend the brand franchise to teenagers just learning to drive.
We investigated classroom opportunities and discovered the traditional “drivers ed” was in transition. In some markets, the high schools handled it while in others it was turned over to independent driving schools.
Working with the Driving Schools Association of the Americas (DSAA), we developed an Armor All sponsored one-hour classroom curriculum on car appearance care. Emphasis was on the financial aspects if appearance care – we worked with Kelly Blue Book to obtain data showing how important appearance care is to maintaining a car’s value over time.
The curriculum we produced included 8-minute video; a teacher’s guide; student handout; product samples and copies of an Armor All car appearance care brochure.
We also developed and distributed to DSSA members a promotional mailer and order form, and also used a video pavement service to promote the curriculum to high schools across the country.
The goal was to place 5,000 classroom packages by completion of video production. But before completion, we already had orders from more than 5,000 high schools and major driving schools. Estimated reach of the program in its first year was more than a million students.
