Case Study: Courtesy GMC—Cinematic Micro-Content That Drove a #1 Ranking

The Outcome

Courtesy GMC set out to win their market without defaulting to margin-eroding discounts. They executed—and then some—finishing #1 in a 63-dealer zone and delivering the strongest summers in store history. Customers didn’t just browse; they arrived saying, “I want the car in the video.” As General Manager Drew Lolley put it, “It’s the combination of pricing, advertising, video content. I just think it’s the perfect cocktail.” That blend—sharp pricing strategy, targeted media, and an HRZN-built micro-content engine—changed the pace of their showroom.

The Brief

The store needed demand creation across the whole operation—new, used, and fixed ops—without leaning on heavy TV buys or endless price promos. The goal was simple and aggressive: build desire, increase test-drive intent, and sustain momentum through consistent, premium, platform-native content.

The Strategy: A 30-Second Micro-Content Engine

Instead of one “hero” commercial, we built a system. Each production cycle delivered 8–12 cinematic videos, about 30 seconds each, designed for Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook. The mix covered the people and the metal: sales-team spotlights that put trusted faces on the brand, new-inventory features that sell identity rather than specs, used-inventory highlights that move aging units with sharp hooks, body shop segments that showcase capability and care, and testimonial cuts that turn social proof into momentum. Every piece opened with a strong visual or audio hook, carried movement through rollers, gimbal passes, or aerials, and closed with a confident, simple call to action.

Execution: Precision, Pace, Platform-Native

We planned each shoot to capture enough texture—exhaust notes, door thuds, wheel details, cockpit movement, drone reveals—to fuel a month of edits. Sound design mattered as much as picture; mic’d engines and layered ambiences made viewers feel the vehicle. Edits were vertical and tight, color graded for a consistent premium look, captioned for sound-off viewing, and thumb-stopping from frame one. On release, the store rotated creative across platforms, lightly boosted the top performers, and armed the BDC and sales team with links for DMs and follow-ups. The result was cadence and coherence: content that looked like a brand, not a one-off.

Why It Worked

Desire beats discount. Short, cinematic pieces let shoppers imagine themselves in the vehicle, which drives test-drive requests without cutting price. Frequency and variety kept the feed—and the conversation—fresh, so the store always had something relevant in front of buyers. Authenticity with polish built trust: real sound, real motion, real people, finished at a high level. And unlike a TV spot that disappears when the buy ends, these assets live online, can be reposted or repurposed, and compound visibility over time.

What the Floor Heard

Salespeople reported a shift in the way customers arrived: less tire-kicking, more intent. The line, “I want the car in the video,” became common enough to be an internal metric. When content creates that kind of pre-sold momentum, you don’t chase appointments—the appointments come to you.

How to Run This Play at Your Store

Choose a balanced slate—flagship models, a few high-opportunity used units, a story from service or the body shop, and faces from the sales team. Capture real movement and authentic sound so the edits feel alive. Publish two to three pieces a week, keep the hooks fresh, and pin what performs. Put every finished video into the hands of your BDC and sales staff so the content works in the DMs and on the floor, not just the feed. Measure hold rate in the first seconds, saves and shares as proxies for desire, inbound messages, test-drive bookings, and, ultimately, gross per unit as the flywheel spins.

The Bottom Line

Courtesy GMC didn’t stumble into a hot streak. They turned strategy into a system and content into capital. With pricing, advertising, and HRZN’s micro-content engine working together, they created consistent demand at full value—and climbed to the top of a 63-dealer zone.