2022 40 Under 40

The last two years have required dealerships to be nimble with their marketing messaging. 

The pandemic led Hendrick Automotive Group to put more focus on vehicle service, for instance, rather than the traditional sales pitches, said Maria Calhoun, the group’s advertising director.

Calhoun said the marketing unit had to be “audible ready,” borrowing a phrase from CEO Rick Hendrick. 

“Gone were the days of my experience of heavy retail marketing, and all of the things that we were so used to from an automotive space,” Calhoun said. “We had to figure out: What is our new marketing message? We really had to shift. We aren’t just doing this heavy retail. What is it that consumers want? How do we communicate with them and how do we continue to stay relevant?”

Calhoun developed a love for the car business while working at Momentum Marketing in Charleston, S.C. During her six years at the company, she was the automotive account lead and oversaw marketing and advertising for several dealership groups. She joined Hendrick in 2019.  

When the pandemic began, Calhoun said she had to gauge the evolving priorities of consumers while educating the Hendrick executive team on how best to go to market. Calhoun and her marketing team had to change ad campaigns “at the drop of a hat — all while coaching our nearly 100 stores across 27 markets on how to do the same.”   

Calhoun said the ad unit produced more than 2,000 unique pieces of video content to update customers on store openings and closings, share new online shopping tools, and demonstrate the group’s commitment to safety and convenience. 

The industry then had to confront a microchip shortage that left dealer lots with little inventory. 

Stores had to turn the marketing lens to the used-vehicle side as demand for those models went up. Having less inventory led to the creation of vehicle acquisition campaigns to bring in more.

These efforts paid off. Even as new-vehicle inventories dwindled in 2021, new users on the company’s national website, HendrickCars.com, grew by 1.1 million. 

“It was a group effort,” Calhoun said. “The team that we have here, the operators at our stores, they truly just did an incredible job having a vision for how to care for each other and ... our customers.”

 — Vince Bond Jr.