I-CAR is expanding exposure to an ongoing advertising push anchored by a video commercial and collateral. The overall campaign is about a year old, but Arianna Sherlock, vice president of marketing for the training and technician-certifier, said more recently the effort has widened its scope and unified the group’s efforts.
Arianna Sherlock.
“We wanted an umbrella that made interaction simple,” Sherlock said, “supporting our vision: the knowledge and the skills are there for complete and quality and safe repairs.”
It’s not “advertising for I-CAR; it’s on behalf of the industry.”
It started mid-2025 as much-discussed current trends — customer self-pay, car complexity, shop modernization — has coalesced in the industry. This in part led to bringing things under a single slogan: “I Count on I-CAR.”
The not-for-profit has also of late upped its game: “the Academy product for new technicians … we re-did our Gold Class [web]site and are driving traffic there,” Sherlock said. Its initiatives can flow into one idea.
“No one’s going to our YouTube for this ad,” she said. Exposure is “not the owned channels; you have to get in their feed.” As a result, “we are doing digital, social, streaming, working with the trades for shop owners,” that is, in publications including Autobody News, for a wider reach.
A reporter saw the ad in a commercial break during a movie from a streaming service. Ads are on in-shop TVs at one of the larger MSOs, and an automaker’s network shop locator, Sherlock said.
The Spot: Connecting Customers and I-CAR Certification
The ad itself tells a complete tale clearly and efficiently, in under a minute. It moves from a person’s concerns to the technicians and then the completed quality work, and that “I Count on I-CAR” tagline at the end connects to the “I” concerns expressed at the beginning. Crisp and clean and neatly done, as say, in a contemporary shop. The soundtrack — a classical music strings riff — calls to mind the recent Quality Collision Group video ad, which also had a gentle and genteel background sound, while catering to a higher register with a “fine dining” theme.
The I-CAR ad touches each stakeholder: “The owner counts on I-CAR, the consumer counts on I-CAR, insurers…OEs…” Sherlock said. “While the technician gets advanced skills.” And the spot can be ubiquitous. “B2B but also B2B2C. With digital, we have amazing opportunities.”
The video ad can play anywhere: “If we’re going to get to everyone — we need to do it in different ways [for] maximum effectiveness … the more we can repeat it, saying the same thing, the more it resonates,” Sherlock said.
A Governing Idea: Quality and Care
The ad also connects to QCG in its focus on quality: OE parts, training and certification, mentors…I-CAR.
“Brands matter,” said Sherlock, who has also marketed consumer products. “The factors are different but your brand and quality, your skill — that matters. It sends [people] to certain shops with characteristics that make a person feel good about that.”
Collision repair “doesn’t typically advertise” and in the past there was, she said, “lack of consumer choice.” In the case of that “seven-year-sitch” of an accident, options were limited. The pool is still finite, but the water has perhaps gotten a little cleaner.
“I have a lot of passion” here, she said. “We haven’t done this, as an industry. I love seeing [us] do this.”
Sherlock said younger generations — drivers and apprentices, as this hits both sides of the car key handoff — will see the spots, as their time comes, too. And the final aim of the ads collectively is as much a connecting conclusion as the last line in the ad itself.
I-CAR can be “a trust mark” similar to a JD Power or “Intel Inside,” Sherlock said. It’s pricey to be out there in brand awareness all the time, and ineffective besides.
“We’re trying to remind people to take their training, for shop owners to care,” connecting that with credibility and value creation for consumers. “We want to be there when you’re looking for help.”
Paul Hughes