The dealer year

Twelve months, twelve reasons to open the floor.

Something significant happens in a dealership every single month, and most of it goes by unused. This is the year laid out so you can see it: pick the months that suit your budget and your customer base, and we build the day around them.

A long table laid for an evening event down the middle of a showroom floor
Month by month

Marketing budget is annual. So is this.

  1. January. Back to the road

    Schools reopen and every family car is suddenly doing two extra trips a day. A safety and readiness check on the floor, tyres, tracker and travel kit, is the quietest way to get a service customer through the door in a dead month.

    A technician checking the tyre of a family SUV in a service bay, school bags on the back seat

  2. February. Valentine's

    The most obvious date in the retail year and the one most dealerships still let pass. A handover in February should leave with something for the person who was not in the showroom.

    Pairs with the signature champagne, alcoholic or alcohol free.

    Red roses and two crystal flutes resting on the boot of a car in a showroom

  3. March. Know your car

    Most people use a fraction of what they paid for. Where the tracker actually sits, how the SOS call works, what the driver assistance will and will not do. An owners clinic on the floor, run properly, and the customers who come back for it are the customers who come back for the next car.

    A product specialist showing two customers a control on the dashboard of a premium SUV

  4. April. Easter and the long weekend

    The biggest driving weekend of the first half of the year. A pre-trip check paired with something for the car, and for those observing Lent, a format that does not assume everyone is celebrating the same way.

    The open boot of a family SUV packed for a long weekend away at sunrise

  5. May. Mother's Day

    A morning built for the customers who never get invited to anything, and for the mothers of the customers who do. Small, personal, and very easy to photograph.

    Suggested co-brand: a beauty or florist partner the dealership already uses.

    A table set for a morning tea on a showroom floor, with flowers and a small gift

  6. June. Youth Month

    First cars, first licences and the parents paying for both. A young driver day takes a family that is already in the database and turns it into a second deal.

    A young driver behind the wheel of her first car with a parent at the open door

  7. July. Mandela Day

    Sixty seven minutes, done properly rather than posted about. A dealership has vehicles, a floor and a customer base, which is more than most drives have.

    Volunteers loading boxes and blankets into a dealership van on a winter morning

  8. August. Women's Month

    The strongest month on the calendar and the one worth spending on. A self defence morning on the floor, a conversation about what makes a car safe to be alone in, and a guest list that brings women who are not yet customers into the building.

    Suggested co-brands: a luxury fragrance or beauty house, paired to the dealership.

    A self defence workshop running on a cleared showroom floor during a women's activation

  9. September. Heritage and Spring Day

    Two hallmarks in one month. Spring Day opens the floor, and Heritage brings the cars back: every customer still running something from the seventies and eighties invited in to park it out front. Nothing builds a brand room faster than its own history in it.

    Three classic cars parked outside a modern dealership under jacarandas in bloom

  10. October. Transport Month

    The commercial side finally gets its own month. Depot days, driver handovers and fleet reviews, and on the passenger floor the electric conversation, which is where the questions are and where the brochures are not helping.

    A premium electric SUV connected to a charging post outside a dealership at dusk

  11. November. Movember

    A gentlemen's evening with a reason behind it. Whisky, cigars and bow ties, and an honest few minutes about men's health, because the men in a dealership database are exactly the ones who do not go and get checked.

    A whisky tumbler and a lit cigar set out for an evening client event

  12. December. Festive handovers

    The busiest handover month of the year and the one where presentation slips because everyone is flat out. Volume gifting, prepared in October, so December does not have to think about it.

    A long table of identical ribboned gift boxes ready for a month of handovers
How to use it

Pick three, not twelve.

No dealership runs all twelve, and none should try. Most pick three or four that match where the customer base actually is, spend the budget properly on those, and leave the rest of the year to the gifting. Tell us what the marketing allocation looks like and we will tell you honestly which months are worth it.

Which months are yours?

Send us your customer profile and your activation budget for the year. We will come back with a shortlist, a concept for each and a price.

Enquire Email us