Cars, COVID, and Placemaking - September Report

The American love affair with automobiles is highly documented and
renown (sometimes infamously) worldwide. And while we often see
cars as a threat or annoyance to downtowns, we may want to get
creative with cars in the near term to woo exurbanites into our
districts. Until there’s a vaccine, there will not be any largescale events
or significant face-to-face interaction; which clearly impedes our
abilities as districts and DMOs to do our jobs as placemakers, marketers
or meeting our missions in supporting street side merchants and
businesses that really thrive on footfall. So in the interim, UPMOs are
scrambling to figure out what to do, and one trend in particular seems
to resonate: in-vehicle activations.

CREATURE COMFORTS IN THE CAR

The results of a recent study released on August 26, 2020 by TrueCar, a
self-described “information and technology platform that enables its
users to communicate with TrueCar Certified Dealers for a great car
buying experience”, revealed some very interesting insights with regard
to “…the way that cars are helping Americans cope during COVID-19
and the relationship Americans have with their vehicles”. Some not-so shocking stats to consider from the study include:

• Nearly three in four (73%) use their set of wheels as a private space to get away from the people they live with.
• Beyond becoming a haven for “me time,” other activities respondents are grateful to have a car for during these times include leisurely drives (56%), road trips (45%) and a way to carry home improvement supplies (37%).
• Over a third have used their vehicle as a place to take business or personal phone calls (37%) and 32% have turned their driver’s seat into a makeshift office space.

And further defining the love affair with automobiles, Americans see
their vehicles as an extension of their homes:

• Seven in ten (69%) think of their car as an extension of their home and as a part of their family (68%).
• Car owners revealed that emotional attachment has led 35% of respondents to actually naming their car. Some of those creative names included Betsy, Birtha, Bumblebee, Cherry, Dr. Ben, and Falcon.
• The study commissioned by TrueCar and conducted by OnePoll discovered that the average lifespan of a vehicle is six years so there’s plenty of time for memorable moments.
• Within that time frame, the average person will eat 288 meals in their car and belt out songs 432 times.
• Two-thirds of respondents say they experienced some unforgettable life moments in their vehicle.
• Forty-two percent of those surveyed had their first kiss in their car while two in five say they had the “move in together” conversation with their partner while seated in their vehicle.
• Romance aside, cars were also the home of major professional decisions. Thirty-eight percent have received a job offer in their car and 37% have learned about a promotion.

One should always consider the source of studies (and their motivations in funding a study), however the information is not surprising. We know Americans love their cars and we know they’re providing a safe haven with socially-distanced interactions during this peculiar time.

So while many of us grapple with the bigger issues of drawing footfall and how to safely execute events during the time-being, perhaps we as an industry need to pivot a bit, even if just until there is a cure for the pandemic and approach and embrace automobile culture as a positive for our downtown merchants and businesses.

Rather than ped counts, counting wheels coming through the downtown may be a more accurate metric for our ability to bring people back to our downtowns. This reminds me of an anecdote my mother used to tell me about how her father would tuck her and her siblings into the trunk and sneak them into the drive-in movies when she was a kid to avoid paying the full carload headcount to see a double feature. And we’re seeing a resurgence in the drive-in as a safe model for events and driving revenue.

TRANSFORMERS: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

Consider that Walmart, one of the nation’s largest retailers, and another adversary of downtowns; with plenty of square footage to activate in their parking lots, launched FREE drive-in movies at 160 locations across the nation. This brilliant pivot clearly isn’t just a goodwill play for the company, as the showtimes are coupled with messaging about enjoying “…the complete movie-going experience, families can stock up on their favorite theater concessions to bring along with them through Walmart’s convenient pickup or delivery services”. According to 6ABC.com in Philadelphia reporting on the programming, “Ahead of each screening, Walmart will make it easy for families to fill their picnic baskets by ordering their drive-in essentials online for curbside pickup on the way to their movie…”.
Additionally, from Walmart’s website, “…filmmakers and special guests
will help Walmart celebrate bringing back the big screen to communities across the country. Drew Barrymore will serve as virtual host for all events, welcoming guests to a fun family night experience. She will also make a surprise in-person appearance at one location. Families will be also be treated to surprise virtual or in-person appearances from Peter Berg, Jennifer Garner, LeBron James and Chrissy Metz at select showings.”

“We recognize the challenges our customers and their families have faced over the last few months, and we wanted to create an experience where they could come together safely to create new memories. The Walmart Drive-in is one small way we’re supporting the communities we serve.”

– Janey Whiteside, Walmart’s chief customer officer

Additionally, QR code technology offers a seamless and contactless channel for managing attendance and ticketing of the events, in another smart movie by Walmart execs. And while we may not be overall fans of the way Walmarts have historically disrupted and choked the independent retail vitality out of many downtowns across the country, this quick, creative thinking and corporate pivot serve both the communities that are desperate for safe family activities, and the company’s bottom line.

What may shock you most though is that the FREE movies are part of a corporate collaboration between the Bentonville-based behemoth, and NYC’s revered Tribeca Film Festival.  Many of us may be aghast at uttering the words “Walmart and the Arts” in the same sentence, however this type of uncannily creative, out-of-the-box thinking is exactly what we need to be doing right now as stewards of our downtowns. Right now, your residents have latent demand for “things to do”, your merchants are suffering, and your local nonprofits and arts organizations are probably suffering to boot. This seemingly off-the-wall collaboration between a massive corporate boogeyman and a revered arts institution appears to be a win-win from both community activation and revenue-generation perspectives. What lessons can be learned or applied at a local level?

JOY TO THE CAR

Nearly 100 years ago, July 4, 1926 to be exact, a Pennsylvania attraction and icon was born when the Knoebels Amusement Resort (pronounced kuh-no-bulls) officially opened as a leisure park for central Pennsylvania visitors.  Of what used to number in the hundreds around the country, today only few family-owned amusement parks survive. For anyone who grew up in Pennsylvania or the surrounding region, you probably have happy memories of amusement rides and world-class roller coasters, fair-type foods like pork chop on a stick or caramel corn, and the Knoebels family who have been welcoming generation after generation of guests for nearly ten decades now.  The admission-free and open-air park is a summer rite of passage, but what happens when the whole state shuts down due to a pandemic?

The park did not open earlier this spring as annually planned,  due to Pennsylvania’s stay-at-home order, but as caseloads and infections slowly abated, so did the regulations.  At first the resort reopened with only a handful of food trucks; offering signature dishes and tasty delights millions have come to love from Knoebels. As the state moved cautiously from red into yellow, and finally the green phases of reopening, the park safely and tepidly followed suit in allowing guests back to their beloved happy place. 

Located smack dab in the middle of “Trump country” and the Pennsylvania anthracite coal region, facial coverings are required within the park in accordance with PA’s current mask mandate (with the exception of eating and drinking). You’ll often see private yards in the surrounding communities boasting that “Trump Digs Coal”, and while the hopes of it returning as a clean source of energy are probably dead in the water, one thing all residents can agree on is that a visit to Knoebels is a time-honored tradition. 

Several years back Knoebels extended their season by decorating the park and opening on weekends throughout October for their hallowed “Hallo-FUN” activations. The park is bedecked in family-friendly spookiness featuring Halloween décor of all kinds; animatronic skeletons, jack-o’-lanterns galore and hauntingly spooky music blasting though the park’s P.A. system.  Given the shortened season this year due to the pandemic, the owners and operators of Knoebels are poised to score another hit with their first-ever “Joy Through the Grove” holiday activation.  While details are scant as of this writing, Knoebels’ social feeds have been exploding with buzz around this year’s planned activities, and guess where they take place.  You got it. In your car.

According to the Knoebels website, “On November 27, we’re launching our newest event: Joy Through the Grove – A drive through Christmas light display! The event will run nightly through January 3 (with the exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day)”. The drive through light display will feature over 15 miles of string lights, and over 400 light up pieces, and pricing is by the carload.

If a 94 year-old family-owned amusement park, that despite corporate conglomerate buy-outs (à la Six Flags), and surviving floods, natural disasters, a world war and countless conflicts, plus successive waves of social upheaval persists in being profitable, serving a massive swath of communities, and whose mission is to bring joy to each and every one of its millions of visitors – can pivot, and see the opportunity in an automobile-based activity – we as placemakers and marketers can surely get creative with how we celebrate milestone events in our own locales.

DRIVE ON IN – THE PANCAKES ARE DIVINE!

It may not come as a surprise that Arizona, famous in part for the great “Mother Road” of its famed Route 66, is pioneering the way in car-based activities and activations. Earlier this spring when indoor dining was shut down, an innovative AZ-based breakfast chain called Eggstacy found success with weekend-only, drive-up brunches and “parking lot pancake parties”. The chainlet’s Chandler, AZ location hosted diners in their cars from the restaurant’s parking lot, with DJs and in-auto dining, and the community’s response went over like…well, hotcakes!

LADIES IN THE HEADLIGHTS

Another success story out of Chandler, AZ comes in the form of recent pop-up comedy events this past August hosted by the Chandler Center for the Arts.  The pioneering performance arts space is currently closed to the public due to health restrictions, however they partnered up with a popular local pizza purveyor and a family-owned Mexican restaurant chain to host pop-up comedy performances in their parking lots.  Guests registered for the event, to take place in an undisclosed location and were emailed the location 24 hours in advance.  Cars would shine their lights on the comedy duo performing and tune into a designated FM radio station to hear the act. The pop-ups were extremely successful and garnered plenty of earned media and additional weekends of performances.  Again, as with the Walmart drive-in experience, food was available for attendees from the restaurants hosting the parked cars; providing economic support to the merchants in the district. It’s a win for the businesses, the community and the arts in a time when in-person attendance at the center is practically null.

WHERE DO WE DRIVE FROM HERE?

So we see that the relationship between cars and communities is as strong as ever. Vehicles provide us not only an escape – but an extension of our homes, livelihoods and an opportunity for making memories together as family.  If we could count the number of times we’ve heard, read or written the word “pivot” in the last six months, we would never have to work again. But we all have to work. We have to work at serving our communities. We need to be as innovative, progressive and forward-thinking as possible in times of a pandemic. There are ways we can create, innovate and place make as an industry, and this theme of car culture provides not only myriad examples of how; many ways stemming from the most unlikely of corporations, organizations and businesses – but should be considered as a starting point for your community planning. We don’t need to throw up our arms in exasperation and stick our head in the sand until we have a vaccine. We need to continue do what we’re tasked with as UPMO practitioners.  We need to get creative, think outside the box, and plan for the communities we’re duty-bound to serve.

Knowing what we know, could your Halloween stroll become a car parade this year?  Could you holiday activations be a wonder lit drive-through experience?  Could your local arts performances take place in a parking lot?  Could your merchants host events in their parking lots beyond the now-vetted parklet/extension-of-premise dining areas we’ve embraced across the country?  Could your city hall parking deck convert into a pop-up cinema? Could that empty corporate garage become your next drive-through arts fair?  There’s plenty of inspo to consider here, and I challenge the UPMO and DMO communities to continue to get creative with ways to support their merchants and provide safely-distanced activities, events and activations for their communities. The demand is there. The space is there. The need is there.

If you don’t have a plan.  If you’re not creating community engagement websites, feedback loops, intercept surveys, opinion polls and tapping the creativity of the businesses and residents you represent – give us a shout. Bright Brothers works with downtowns, districts and DMOs all across North America, and with the underpinning of data providing directional intelligence, we’re helping communities like yours take the next steps in the ever-evolving pandemic.