NADA in Las Vegas created an ideal opportunity. The show brought Protective executives, franchised dealers, agents, industry partners, and priority media together in one place. Rather than treating that access as a short-lived event moment, Merit Mile helped turn it into a coordinated platform for publicity, relationship-building, customer storytelling, and content capture designed to work long after the show floor closed.

When weather-related issues disrupted plans for the next phase of the testimonial series ahead of the following NADA Show in New Orleans, Merit Mile adapted the production model. Seven additional customer and dealer interviews shifted to a virtual format, enabling Protective to maintain momentum while preserving the strategic preparation, production quality, and creative consistency established at NADA.

Beyond the testimonial campaign, Merit Mile continued to support Protective's leadership position through ongoing PR and the company's annual F&I Trends Report. For five consecutive years, Merit Mile’s marketing research team surveyed dealers nationwide, used the findings to identify the report's core themes, and translated the analysis into a polished publication for dealers, agents, partners, media, and other industry stakeholders.

Solutions

Because Merit Mile was already integrated into Protective's communications program, work began with a shared business context rather than a lengthy discovery process. Before NADA, the team shaped each customer’s story, developed tailored interview questions and scripts, prepared all seven participants, and identified the proof points most relevant to dealer, agent, media, and automotive industry audiences.

Merit Mile deployed a full camera crew to Las Vegas and coordinated production across multiple NADA settings. Participating agents and dealers were transported to and from ARIA Resort & Casino, where the team completed seven filmed testimonials and headshots in one production day. Merit Mile also captured video and photography on the NADA Show floor, documented Protective's opening-night private event, and created content that could serve both immediate communications needs and long-term marketing objectives.

Trade shows bring decision-makers, customers, prospects, partners, industry media, and brand leaders together in one place. Merit Mile helps clients turn that concentrated access into longer-lasting business value through coordinated PR, media outreach and interviews, strategic storytelling, creative support, and turnkey video and photo production.

From pre-show story development and media preparation to on-site execution and post-show content delivery, Merit Mile helps clients extend the life of their trade-show investment. Depending on a client's needs, that can include publicity and media relations, booth and experiential creative, collateral,

in-booth demonstrations, customer storytelling, executive interviews, photography, video production, and a coordinated library of assets for use across earned, owned, paid, marketing, and sales channels.

The Protective NADA engagement demonstrates how this model can work: by combining media activity, executive visibility, customer testimonial production, professional photography, and event capture, Merit Mile helped turn a concentrated period of access into assets that could generate value across the communications program long after the event.

The NADA activation converted a brief, high-value period of onsite access into a substantial collection of reusable content. The virtual follow-up demonstrated that the series could continue despite disruption, while reducing costs, minimizing participant time, and accelerating delivery without sacrificing quality, consistency, or editorial discipline.

Media engagement at NADA and the five-year F&I Trends Report series added executive perspective and market intelligence to the customer stories. Together, the work generated hundreds of thousands of earned-media impressions and created a durable body of earned, owned, and paid assets to support media relations, thought leadership, brand marketing, and sales activity.