Canton’s Custom Auto Body and its ad agency gained national recognition in the mid-’80s for a novel billboard featuring an inflatable car. General Manager Lance Runion says the tradition will continue for many years to come.
Runion and those at ad agency Innis Maggiore agree that a high-profile advertising campaign shouldn’t work for a body shop—but it does. Referrals are the conventional method for attracting new customers.
“Something with our billboards… Reading them in a car goes hand-in-hand and it works well,” Runion says.
The main goal of the billboard campaign has been image-building and name recognition. It seems to be working. Some business comes from local insurance representatives who refer claimants to several area body shops. Eight out of 10 say they’ve heard of Custom Auto Body, Runion says.
“The billboards seemed to separate us, and they seem to stick with people,” he says. “It gets people talking about you.”
The current billboard campaign tagline is “The Fine Art of Collision Repair” and features Norman Rockwell, Rembrandt, Picasso and Beethoven.
Custom Auto Body was founded in 1961 by Ron Tietze, who is semiretired.
