After: Scarborough parking lot converted to basketball court
On a sweltering hot summer day in Scarborough, at least 50 people are sweating profusely as they transform the nondescript parking lot of the Second Base youth shelter into a basketball court.
Two Kia Souls are parked in the lot, out of the way of all the activity, and loaded with supplies, just in front of the TV cameras. Wait. TV cameras?
The Kia Canada-financed community redevelopment project was being filmed for use in a Kia television commercial highlighting the transformation. It was part of Kia Canada's new "Drive Change" corporate mantra and tagline, which highlighted the one-day makeover of the space from little used parking lot to renewed community basketball court full of active teens.
"I've never seen a social responsibility endeavour tied into the marketing plans like this," said Mark McCash, Kia Canada's national marketing manager. "Companies do it in the background, but we're putting it out front, and on TV."
Kia Canada's may be the most high-profile example recently, but there are signs that other auto companies are both stepping up their support of various philanthropic causes, including sports, children and environmental initiatives, and the public trumpeting of this support.
This is happening even as traditional giants in corporate "conscience" projects such as GM Canada have cut back on such initiatives in the face of recent financial turmoil, both at the corporate and dealer level.
But the public bailout of GM and Chrysler plus much lower costs at these restructured companies should mean more funds for such socially aware projects, not less, said Jim Smith, a business professor at the Canadian Automotive Institute at Georgian College, in Barrie, Ont., who has worked for more than 30 years on both the corporate and dealer side of the business.
"I believe community events will become a larger part of corporate mandates, especially after what has happened lately with the public bailout of GM and Chrysler, and the recent troubles of Toyota," Smith said. "The 'Big Three' have asked for public help - now they need to give back in a meaningful way."
GM Canada acknowledges that it has reduced its corporate support for such community initiatives in recent years due to its financial turmoil, but insists it still supports a variety of national and community causes. These include the United Way (with Meals on Wheels and youth programs), the First Robotics international high school competition, vehicle and equipment donations to high school and college technical programs, as well as a variety of amateur athlete and coaching sponsorships, including the Canadian alpine ski team.
GM Canada has traditionally been by far the largest supporter of such community causes in this country, not only as the auto maker with the most sales in this country until very recently, but also with the largest dealer network. Dealers have typically been active with various causes in each of their communities: the five-year-old play structure close to my own house has a plaque recognizing primary support for it from a local Saturn dealership, which was one of many across the country to shut its doors permanently.
With improving finances and unrelenting competition eager to grab market share from its weakened rivals, it's now time for such taxpayer-aided companies to recognize the social and strategic benefits of such outreach community marketing.
"The recent downsizing of GM and Chrysler should make them more profitable, so if anything, community involvement should increase, not decrease," said Smith. "The imports will not let the domestics have this effective 'reach-out' program to themselves, so they will follow suit."
But in many cases, offshore-based companies appear to be leading the charge with such socially aware auto marketing projects.
Audi Canada has just signed on to be the title sponsor of the Audi Best Buddies Challenge, a running/walk event (audibestbuddieschallenge.com) that will support Best Buddies Canada, a non-profit organization that develops friendships between people with intellectual disabilities and students. The plan is to enlist Hollywood celebrities, athletes and musicians to help attract attention to the run, and organization, which says that 100 per cent of the funds generated from the event will be donated to Best Buddies Canada.
Mitsubishi Motors of Canada also announced in July that it had donated $458,000 to Right to Play, a non-government organization (NGO) that organizes sports and provides equipment for children in some of the most war-torn and impoverished countries in the world, as well as advocacy for children's sport internationally. The group uses many high-profile Olympic athletes to help attract corporate and media attention to spread its message, even though the Toronto-based group got the cold shoulder from the organizing committee at this year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Right to Play was not allowed into the Olympic village, likely because of its strong connection to Mitsubishi, which wasn't an official Olympic sponsor.
The exclusive Olympic automotive sponsor was GM Canada, which provided 4,600 vehicles to the organizers of this year's games. These included high-profile VIP shuttles in various advanced green cars, including prototypes of the Chevrolet Volt extended range electric vehicle and an even more planet-friendly Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell. The Equinox is refuelled with compressed hydrogen at a pump that looks and works similar to that of any gas station, but for an emissions-free vehicle offers a much further range than any current electric car, at about 320 km.
It's this hope for a better future - environmentally or philanthropically - that all these auto makers are trying to tap into with their projects.
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