Soapy Joe's Car Wash - Best Events & Observances Campaign

Company: Soapy Joe's Car Wash, Santee, CA
Company Description: Founded in 1996, Soapy Joe’s Car Wash is a family owned and operated business with 14 locations in San Diego County, and growing rapidly. With Soapy Joe’s unlimited car wash memberships, members have access to all 14 Soapy Joe’s locations, unlimited washes, and free vacuums. Each wash comes with a signature citrus scent air freshener. From north county to south bay, there’s a location near you.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Events & Observances

Nomination Title: Tunnel of Love 2020

Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched: February 2020

Tunnel of Love was born in 2020, with the idea to bring our community together by marrying our biggest fans in San Diego. We wanted to bridge the gap between a well-known local company like ours, and our members and even non-members. As Pacific San Diego so eloquently remarked, "Soapy Joe’s is known for being quirky, hosting a car wash karaoke competition (which you can watch on YouTube) and winning an Emmy nomination for its “Commit to Your Car” marketing campaign. The company even also holds the Guinness World Record for Largest Air Freshener."

We love everything different and eye-catching, and this campaign was no different. The winner with the best proposal story (voted by the public), was to win a cruise to Mexico (accomodations were made since COVID-19 limited travel).We were honored to wed 10 couples, who represented a broad representation of San Diego’s people – from military service members to firefighters, millennials to boomers, high school sweethearts to artists – many with their friends, family and children in attendance.

We're launching Tunnel of Love 2021, the pandemic-friendly edition, here:https://soapyjoescarwash.com/tunnel-of-love/

Our goal was to draw awareness to our passion for community, so it was a large affair when it came to planning by working with local media, our social network, and outside experts. Attached, you'll see just some of the media pickup we had from this event alone. Going into 2021, we've already picked up some great media traction as well.

More details from our blog: The ceremony featured a festive 50-foot celebration aisle created by turning the overhead vacuum booms into ceremonial arches with LED lights and flowers, and a layered blue and white runner under foot. Couples walked down the aisle accompanied by acoustic guitar towards a 15’ wide blue and white balloon arch, with our own Soapy mascot as ceremonial ring bearer.

Each participating couple received a professional mini-photo shoot, free car washes for the life of their cars and $500 in gifts for their registry.

One lucky couple, as voted on by our fans through social media channels will win a five-day, four-night honeymoon cruise to Mexico. Voting was open until February 21, 2020. The winning couple was announced February 24.

We've created some great relationships in the media, as well as increased general brand awareness in our community. With all of the awareness that our marketing overall has generated over the past year, we just opened our 14th store, with a few more coming down the pipeline!

Please see video attachment and blog:https://soapyjoescarwash.com/soapy-joes-marries-10-in-tunnel-of-love-wedding-ceremony/