NAPA - 100 Year Logo Reveal

Unveiling the New Logo of the Century

Objective: While NAPA and it’s logo (the Bolt) have become iconic in both the automotive and motorsports industries, we crafted a new logo to capture the essence of our 100 years of service. While updating logos temporarily for a year doesn’t typically warrant a large degree of decorum, we wanted to make this new logo a celebration and do an unveiling.

Strategy & Execution: Drawing inspiration from the likes of MARVEL and A24, I wanted to tease the logo throughout the video using existing and historic footage before unveiling it. Pulling from the footage I parsed from our archive for another project (see below), I used it to serve as the fill for the logo itself before the grand reveal at the end.

Objective: To celebrate NAPA turning 100 years old and being a titan in the automotive and industrial sector, I wanted to commemorate the century of service by showcasing how far we had come from our humble beginnings and how we helped to shape and service the country through a very visual means. This celebratory piece of content would also be the centerpiece in our company’s various live events throughout the rest of the year, so it was vital that this familiar narrative to many be told in an exciting and captivating new way.

Strategy: Knowing that the company had a century of content ripe for reviewing, I set to work on combing through an extensive library of historical documents, tapes, film reels, VHS, DVDs, and images that would all eventually need to be digitized. Additionally, I knew that having 100 years of history to cover in a single video could end up being rather long, so we needed an appealing visual design to captivate the audience and a narrator that could immediately catch and hold the viewer’s attention.

Execution: Going into this project, I knew that there would be a century’s worth of important and relevant information to bring back into the public eye. Leading the creative team, I wanted to have the timeline be a very consistent visual anchor throughout the piece to help lean into the idea of time and a century of experience, keeping the narrative focused and chronological. I personally sorted through thousands of photos and dozens of hours worth of historical footage to cultivate the perfect series of images throughout the years. Additionally, having Chase Elliott, our partner with Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR, narrate the video was an essential part of the narrative.

Having worked with Chase Elliott before and knowing that he is the most popular NASCAR driver several years in a row, I knew that I wanted to incorporate him in the video to further elevate the project. His gravitas he brings to his narration is only rivaled by his skills behind the wheel.

A New Run

Accelerating a Passion for Speed

When concepting and developing a creative project for NAPA, a few things often come to mind. Knowledge, tools, parts & care. There are numerous ideals and descriptors that one could pull to elevate the brand presence and recognition, but the word that I wanted to capture the essence of and bring to the forefront of our reputation was Speed.

Speed is not just a word for the measurement of an object in motion, it is evocative of energy and potential. The idea of speed often being synonymous with reckless or dismissive of danger (such as driving over the speed limit) was something I wanted to challenge. To reinforce this notion, one doesn’t need to look too long to find the precision and care that goes into each run conducted and every aspect of the machines working within the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA).

Objective:

The objective of this series is to not only boost the NAPA Auto Parts brand name and recognition, but also enhance the quality and depth of our partners within the NHRA. Additionally, I wanted to reinforce the idea of NAPA being fast and efficient in its century of servicing the community.

Strategy:

To achieve this objective, viewers needed to see the extreme depth of knowledge and meticulous care that the RCM Team displays consistently throughout their racing series. The NHRA Funny Cars are incredible feats of modern engineering that require constant maintenance and replacement parts. The crew is capable of tearing down and building up an entire engine to these cars within minutes, and the speed and efficiency with which they perform would be the focus and foundation upon which the series was pitched and green-lit. Naturally, NAPA Auto Parts would be supplying their premium parts to emphasize the reliability in even the most strenuous situations.

Execution:

In tandem with Ron Capps and the RCM Team, Hendrick Motorsports, and talented team members within the NAPA Creative Team, I spearheaded the execution of this series to strengthen our partnerships as well as grow interest in the NHRA series.

Conclusion:

By focusing on the speed and efficiency of the technicians and supplied with the quality parts that only NAPA can provide, the Ron Capps and the RCM Team (as well as the NHRA as an organization) has steadily grown in popularity as a racing series. Notably, viewership of the sport has increased by over 17% within the past year, peaking at around 1.6 million viewers at its height.

 A Strategy Based On Data

When developing the strategy surrounding our digital channels, I always want to ensure that our decisions are deeply rooted in data and reality. This often takes form in having a thorough conversation with all stakeholders to ensure that our objectives and measures of success are aligned, as well as clearly communicating and delegating tasks and information to the team. While perhaps not always necessary for success, I always try to ensure that each team member knows where they slot in within the overall project and are aware of the meaningful impact their work will have on the overall project. Ensuring that those involved with any project stay informed and have the tools for success has continued to be a winning strategy for my projects.