A a mysterious person who leaves little ducks around the office. An employee who eats food during lunch without input. The salary that goes to the employee’s head. Back to papers when computers go down. Or my favorite: visiting another showroom “undercover” to see the competition.
It’s The Dealership, a weekly TikTok series brought to you by Mohawk Chevrolet. Adapted from the popular TV show The Office. And it’s so good, it’s gotten almost 6m views in the last few months. Maybe Mohawk sells Chevrolets. But its marketing team produces Ferrari.
The Dealership is the brainchild of recent college graduate Grace Kerber, who specializes in writing, directing, graphic design, strategy and content planning for the show. In part, Kerber is also a choreographer, but don’t forget. Viewers know her as Grace, the protagonist of the series who coincidentally looks like Dawn, the first host from Ricky Gervais’ UK show.
“My partner Ben Bushen and I are doing events,” Kerber told publicist Rachel Karten in a blog detailing the series. “We’ll have an idea (sometimes inspired by real-life Mohawk events) and think through the details to get the story of what the event is going to be.” Kerber says she helps everyone, “but they’re all so naturally sweet that they don’t need it”.
What makes this series so special? Kerber is lovely. Jasmine, Lukas, Michael, Ben, Justin, George and other employees whose day jobs are selling and delivering cars are actually not that bad in the game, especially when you realize that they it does by improving. Ben’s moving camera and realistic lighting (no small feat) really matches the look and feel of The Office. The sound is incredibly professional.
Of course, the display does not have a bench. But the episodes — which are generally less than five minutes long — are perfect for their own sake. And there are certainly funny moments.
Like Kerber’s proposal to her boss for ways to improve the showroom (“plants” and “motivational writing on the wall”) that includes a picture of her crash in another room she visited. His love of ‘rados (like the Chevy Silverado and Colorado…get it?). His inability to gracefully get in or out of the trucks his salesmen sell, despite his goal of targeting mostly female customers. Even the team’s cheeky response to their computer system being down (which may have been the culprit behind the June ransomware attack that crippled thousands of car dealerships across the country) showed how who respond to the crisis of stability … and humor.
Kerber says the goal of the series is to “grow our business in a way that most dealerships don’t” because of selling more cars. And, given the increased internet traffic generated by their videos, I don’t doubt that. But Mohawk succeeded in a very important way: showing not only customers, but prospective employees how much fun it is to work there.
All I hear from my clients are complaints about the tight labor market and their difficulties attracting and retaining good talent. I’m not sure how easy it is for a car dealership in upstate New York to find and motivate employees. But after watching The Dealership, who wouldn’t want to work at Mohawk? The people there seem to be older.
These are people you would like to hang out with and laugh with, and they will come across as caring employees. I’m not sure you’ll find many “quiet” people in this area. However, Kerber is destroying the argument of working at home alone. Great businesses like Mohawk have great cultures, and you can’t do that from afar.
While Kerber deserved credit for this successful marketing campaign, let’s not ignore the company’s owner, Andrew Guelcher, who (I think) sparked this project. More than a few of my clients would have balked at the idea of paying for the equipment and committing their staff to hours every week to create a series of TikTok videos, let alone go with the visuals. someone just nine months out of college.
As the inspiration for this series, will we one day see Guelcher burn his leg on George Foreman’s grill? Office Olympics? Anyone from Steve Carell himself? With this kind of audience, and Kerber’s intelligence, I wouldn’t be surprised. One thing I’m sure will happen: an increase in sales and an influx of people wanting to work at Mohawk Chevrolet.
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