Wearing a Santa cap and warm smile, Mark Anderson arrives at a Clay City, IL home with a special delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anderson is there to surprise the couple with a minivan on Facebook Live. After knocking on the door, Anderson announces, \u201cYou were nominated for a minivan and you won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOn behalf of Anderson and Sons we\u2019re giving away two minivans this year. We had over 2,600 nominations, over 2,600 stories. We read all of them. There was a lot of tragedy, heartbreak, loss and sorrow, and a lot of victories, too\u2026We thought your story was deserving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new stunned car owner fights through the tears to thank Anderson before giving him and his wife, Sherry, a hug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon after, Anderson arrives in Greenfield, Ill., to surprise the other winner at her work, with another minivan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThank you so much. I can\u2019t believe this. I\u2019ve never won anything before in my life,\u201d she said through tears of joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the past several years, Anderson has played Santa Claus, delivering needed vehicles to deserving families in Illinois. The campaign has grown dramatically since developing the idea during a brainstorming session entering the holiday season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t exactly know how it came about, but it became giving a vehicle away to a family that was in need,\u201d Anderson explained to the crowd at the BHPH Dealer Forum. \u201cHaving people email us nominating somebody, a family who is in need and a little bit of a story. It just exploded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the first year, the Andersons received 2,000 nominations and gave away a vehicle. The next year, they gave away two vehicles to represent their newly-opened second location.
\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing that now for three to four years. This last year was our best success,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cMy social marketing director came up with a form, where we could capture the email, a phone number, info, plus they can put in a short paragraph why a family would be in need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Andersons read all the entries and do a countdown leading up to the announcement of the winner near Christmas. Anderson said they make some social media posts and boost them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe get so much traffic coming into our Facebook page,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vehicles are minivans bought at auction for around $5,000. Anderson reconditions the vehicle, takes care of the title and fills the vehicle with gas before showing up at the house or office to present it to the winner. Anderson shows up with a small crew, including Sherry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe go on Facebook Live and show up. It\u2019s like Publisher\u2019s Clearing House to a certain degree,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not millions of dollars, it\u2019s a Town and Country. The raw emotion from these people. They have tears coming down. They\u2019ve never won anything. They\u2019re just crying and shaking. They just can\u2019t believe all this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anderson said they receive countless positive comments from the efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to put a positive effect on our community,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIt just puts us in a better light with the community and with the customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis Christmas giveaway really gets a lot of miles for the dollars we invest. We probably have a total of $15,000 in this campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One reward of the campaign is a lot of contacts to follow up with in the new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe get those names in our database, and we try to market to those names in a way,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to come at them, but hey, if you know someone who might be interested in a vehicle, we\u2019re here to help you. I think it really sets us up for the tax season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anderson urges his fellow dealers to give it a try and is willing to help share his nomination form and feedback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wearing a Santa cap and warm smile, Mark Anderson arrives at a Clay City, IL home with a…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_appearance_grid":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[28,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-independent","category-industry","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}