CASE STUDY: Multicultural Marketing and Community Outreach

Takata Airbag Recall

The Campaigns & Recalls department of two automotive companies

Two automotive companies hired Culture Shift Team to transcreate their safety recall campaign of Takata airbags, with special emphasis on US Latino and multicultural communities considered the hardest to reach markets. CST after discovering the original campaign was not effective in these markets. CST developed and implemented the Chequee Su Vehículo (CSV) Takata Airbag Recall Safety Campaign with a focus on Latino markets in Southern California, Dallas, Houston, South Florida, and Puerto Rico. The CSV campaign featured the animated Segura family with abuelita (grandmother) telling the story of the danger of the defective airbags, actions to take, and a call to action to share the information with friends and loved ones.

Takata Airbag Recall Overview

More than 40 million vehicles equipped with 56 million defective Takata airbags are under recall because these airbags can explode when deployed, causing serious injury or even death. CST’s work was to educate and motivate all vehicle owners to take action by:

• Checking if their vehicle/s are on the recall list.  
  
• Calling their certified dealer to set up an appointment for the free replacement.
  
• Taking their vehicle to their preferred certified dealer for the free replacement.
  
• Signing up for recall alerts about any future recall affecting their vehicle.

Campaign Design and Development

• Campaign message transcreation focusing on culturally relevant context in English, Spanish, Arabic, Haitian-Creole, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Spanish translations were localized for US Latino markets including Puerto Rico.

• Educational campaign video design and production in English and Spanish, with localization.

• Community outreach asset and collateral development including fliers and posters.

• Social media and digital marketing campaign asset development.

• Strategy development for media relations, community outreach and digital media.

Campaign Implementation

Community Outreach

• Identified community organizations and churches for campaign presentations.

• Identified opportunities/events/sponsorships for awareness, trust-building, and campaign engagement.

• Identified and hired street team for community outreach.

• Supported community events and activations. 

• Introduced the Chequee Su Vehículo team to community leaders.

Marketing, public relations, and outreach plan for each market

• Served as campaign ambassadors by attending selected community and business group events, media interviews, and finding opportunities to make presentations with community organizations.

• Identified community influencers and asked them to share campaign information via social media, through organizations and networks, or other media.

• Identified barriers or challenges people in the community faced when getting their airbags replaced.

Outcomes

• Tracking and reporting to clients on number of relationships created, event activations, social media presence, along with other influencer opportunities. VINs checked and dealer-reported repairs.

• Success was ultimately measured by the number of airbags repaired. The repair rate at the beginning of the campaign was under 10% and after the 18-month campaign, the CSV market repair rate was 40% with the hardest to reach demographic groups.