Behind a Chevy dealership’s viral TikToks modeled on ‘The Office’

What if “The Office” was set at a Chevrolet dealership? That is the premise for a social media series from Mohawk Chevrolet, a dealership in upstate New York, which has gone viral for its mockumentary-style videos. The series was inspired by a real day at work when an employee hid tiny ducks around the office. The dealership has made six episodes so far, all starring Mohawk Chevrolet’s two digital branding creators, Grace Kerber and Ben Bushen. The duo write, shoot and edit each episode in a day. Bushen has some background in video editing and audio engineering, while this is Kerber’s first job. “We had no expectations of this blowing up or going past the local community,” Kerber said. 40 under 40 entries are open The final deadline for nominations is Aug. 2 Enter here The fifth episode, which features a Silverado, has reached nearly 2 million views on TikTok. (The main Chevrolet account commented on the video, “Watch out Hollywood” with eye emojis.) The recent sixth episode has hit 1 million views. The series has shown how good content can be created with low or no budget. @mohawkchevrolet Episode 5 of The Dealership "Lemme drive the rado'"🛻 **Based off a true story #MohawkChevrolet #TogetherLetsDrive #CarBravo #UpstateNY #SaratogaSprings #MaltaNY #BallstonSpa #Chevy #Chevrolet ♬ original sound - Mohawk Chevrolet Fans have commented “Never fire this marketing team” and “Mohawk Chevrolet needs to get picked up by Netflix ASAP because I can’t stop watching these.” Others were concerned that the team would be sued for using “The Office” theme song, but NBC has not reached out, according to Kerber. More news: TV companies pitch movies to upfront ad buyers The popularity and high view counts came as a shock to a team that used to be excited to see 90 likes on an Instagram post—and it has made the team rethink its social strategy. “Our main platforms are Facebook and Instagram,” Kerber said. “While we do post on TikTok, we have never thought of making TikTok-specific videos, but now we plan to put it as a top player, because it reaches more people.” Ad Age caught up with Kerber and Bushen to discuss how the series got started, get advice for other dealerships and find out what’s next. The interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. What made you create the first episode, “Get ducked”? Kerber: It was based on real events that had happened at work that day. An employee brought in all these tiny ducks and asked me to help put them everywhere, just to be funny. All day people were finding them and were confused as to where they were coming from. One employee really did look up the security footage and another person did collect them hoping to get a prize. @mohawkchevrolet Episode 1 of The Dealership “Get Ducked”🐥 #duckprank #officeparody #theoffice #michaelscott #dwightschrute #cardealership #cdk ♬ original sound - Mohawk Chevrolet So we knew we had to make some content from it. I think everyone has wondered if it would be funny to make an “Office” episode with the people you work with. So we shot it at the end of the day and had folks reenact it. We got 80 likes on our Facebook for it and that was great, so we decided to make another. The Silverado episode was also based on real life. I did get frustrated one day after shooting cars for commercials and needed Ben’s help to park. When did you realize they had gone viral? Kerber: When we posted the Silverado episode, I think that night it got 100 likes and we were happy with that. But then, [the morning of June 21] we saw that it was getting more views. I made a joke that we could hit 20k views by noon, and it ended up being 200k and didn’t stop. We knew that we would make more of them even before these blew up, but we don’t do them that often because we have to shoot commercials and make print ads and plan. But after that episode, we knew we had to make another while we had the heat, so we made another that Monday. We are going to attempt a faster turnaround and try to do them weekly now. What advice would you give to other dealerships or small businesses that would like to try this? Kerber: Don’t plan too much, don’t overthink it. Most of what we make is not scripted, we are just going off an idea. I just blurt out things for 10 to 15 minutes for the opener lines. And no matter where you are, there are probably some big and funny personalities that you work with so just wing it and see what happens. We are also lucky that we are allowed to have a fun side while still focusing on the cars and specials. Social media is part of our culture—people know when they join, especially sales folks, that we like to make videos. But they want to be in them so that locals and future customers know their faces and maybe come in and ask for them. Bushen: I think the organic nature of these is what has made these so popular, because the storylines are based on real things. If they are trying to go for that mockumentary style, go watch “The Office” or “Parks and Recreation” to emulate that. Do you have KPIS for these? Kerber: We are a car dealership so we do want to sneak the cars in, but not in a way that is in your face, like “this much down” or “this much a month.” You don’t want to feel like you are watching an ad. Like the Blazer EV walkaround episode—there is information about the EV in the guys’ scripts, but you are watching this diva casting director. @mohawkchevrolet Replying to @Carrigan moebs Episode 6 of The Dealership, “Star Quality”⭐️ #theoffice #cardealership #cdk #officelife #officehumor #chevy #mohawkchevrolet #fyp ♬ original sound - Mohawk Chevrolet Have you had sales come from this? Kerber: We have had foot traffic and inquiries from folks who live out-of-state. I don’t have exact numbers but it has brought attention and website clicks, so it’s doing something. People do come in and say they have seen the videos. We do have another one in the works that we plan to work on Monday. If someone needs a car, they need a car. So how do we make them say, “I want to go to Mohawk Chevy?” How can we help create emotional response? Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs

Behind a Chevy dealership’s viral TikToks modeled on ‘The Office’

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