Firestone Complete Auto Care took the back seat — and let real road trips do the talking.
An influencer-led summer campaign that turned routine auto care into a road-trip ritual — and the numbers followed.
Role
Social Strategist — social-listening insight, influencer strategy & content direction
Brand
Scope
Influencer · Social · Content · Community · Paid Social
Overview
Make auto care part of the summer story, not an errand on the way out of town.
Firestone Complete Auto Care wanted to own a moment it already lived inside — the family road trip — without sounding like a service reminder. The brand needed awareness and warmer brand perception during its busiest season, told through content people would actually share.
We built the campaign around eight lifestyle and family influencers, two content territories, and a paid amplification engine that pushed the best moments toward in-store action.
The Challenge
A trusted service brand that people rarely thought about until something went wrong.
How do you earn attention in summer feeds without selling a tune-up?
Auto care is low-interest by nature — useful, but not the kind of thing anyone follows a brand for.
The brief asked for creative, inspiring road-trip storytelling that drove awareness and conversation around Firestone's full range of services, while lifting brand perception with content worth reading.
The audience was specific: car owners with kids, planning summer travel, who trust people far more than they trust ads.
The Insights & Strategy
People share a love of the open road. We met them there.
Social listening pointed to a clear, ownable space: a shared cultural love of driving and the summer road trip.
Pair that with a simple truth — 92% of people trust a recommendation from another person over a brand — and influencers became the obvious vehicle.
Working with Collectively, we activated eight influencers across the lifestyle and family vertical, each producing two blog posts and eight social posts across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter — framed around two content territories
Territory 01
"Are We There Yet?"
Road-trip car tips and hacks — keeping kids entertained and families safe, with a pre-trip vehicle inspection at Firestone Complete Auto Care as the responsible first move.
Territory 02
"On the Road"
Curated itineraries and road-trip memories that invited followers to share their own — every route starting with a stop at Firestone Complete Auto Care before taking off.
Execution
One stream of authentic content, worked four ways.
Authentic creation
Influencers told real road-trip stories in their own voice — high-quality imagery and copy that read like a friend's recommendation, not a brand placement.
Community engagement
The community team commented on every partner post, deepening the connection with each influencer's audience and extending reach into their followers.
Owned amplification
The strongest imagery was repurposed across FCAC's own channels and supported with paid media — prospecting parents of small children who own a compact car or SUV.
Driving acquisition
That same content fueled direct-response coupon ads to vehicle owners, remarketing and CRM lists — turning brand storytelling into in-store visits.
The
Results
+55%
increase in total social impressions
+24%
month over month lift in positive brand sentiment
498%
coupon download conversion rate
+37%
increase in Instagram cost per acquisition improvement
-77%
decrease in Facebook cost per engagement
What It Proved
A low-interest category can hold attention in social...
when it joins the story people are already telling instead of selling against it.
Insight beats
interruption.
Listening first surfaced a cultural space the brand could own — the summer road trip. Firestone showed up where attention already was, rather than buying its way in.
Trust outperforms
reach.
Handing the story to real people didn't just lift awareness. It moved brand sentiment and drove coupon downloads and store visits — full-funnel, not just top-of-funnel.
Strategy & performance are one conversation.
A single authentic content stream carried across earned, owned and paid — from first impression to in-store action — with no drop-off between the idea and the result.
