A TV ad campaign to re-launch the EchoPark used-car network and raise awareness of the brand on certain Sunday NFL broadcasts was set to start yesterday, featuring a familiar face for many: Owen Wilson.
Suitable for ads designed to raise awareness and break the EchoPark brand out of the clutter, the ads aren’t subtle.
“Wonder why I got this giant cannon?” Wilson asks in one 30-second spot, rolling a giant (confetti) cannon onto the set. “It’s to get the word out that there’s an EchoPark dealership near you.”
Wilson continues: “That means great cars at great prices. sold by really great people. I want to let everyone know. But is this big enough?” He pushes a button and shoots off the confetti.
Another Wilson ad contrasts EchoPark’s low-pressure, high-paying approach to buying used cars, versus “the other guys,” who are more interested in selling you another car than they are in buying your used one.
The ending tagline on both ads is, “EchoPark Automotive, Every Car, Happy Owner.” That last part is punctuated by a car horn, so the execution is “Every Car, (Beep! Beep!) Happy Owner.”
Wilson is in demand. He currently stars in Stick, an Apple TV+ comedy-drama series. He’s best known for dozens of movie roles dating back to the 1990s, including Wedding Crashers in 2005, and the voice of Lightning McQueen, an animated stock car in the Disney/Pixar Cars franchise.
However, the awareness campaign has a chicken-or-egg aspect to it. EchoPark’s physical footprint consists of just 18 locations across 10 states, with plans to add one more dealership in Orlando this year, and two to four more in other locations in 2027.
EchoPark previously had 52 locations in 21 states at the end of 2022. But when it faced an industrywide shortage of late-model used cars, Sonic Automotive Group — which owns EchoPark — paused EchoPark’s growth and cut its “hub-and-spoke” network of locations to its present size by the end of 2025.
Sonic Automotive at one point even announced a “strategic review” of the EchoPark brand, but ultimately revived the brand.
The remaining EchoPark locations are bigger hubs, equipped to perform reconditioning as well as retail sales. Smaller, less-capable spoke locations were dropped earlier when EchoPark cut back, but they are relatively fast and inexpensive to replace, according to Sonic.
But before all that, a necessary first step is to build awareness now, starting with the current campaign, said David Smith, chairman and CEO of Sonic Automotive, in a Nov. 5 phone interview with WardsAuto.
Besides letting viewers know the brand exists, the new ads also promote what EchoPark says is below-market, no-haggle pricing, and a user-friendly shopping experience that’s facilitated by a new app.
The ad campaign is the biggest for EchoPark in the used-car network’s 12-year history. In its Q3 earnings call on Oct. 29, Sonic said it would spend $5 million to $7 million on the EchoPark campaign in the fourth quarter, out of the total of $10 million to $20 million spend anticipated through 2027.
Smith said EchoPark ads will run both regionally and nationally. That’s true even though many viewers on a national platform will not have an EchoPark location nearby, as Smith said online shoppers can and do shop and order EchoPark cars from a distance.
He also said Sonic Automotive is looking into using the chain’s new-car franchises in the future as a delivery point for EchoPark units, in markets where there’s not an EchoPark store.
In addition, Smith pointed out that some metro regions where EchoPark is already active are huge, such as Dallas and Houston — which also host NFL teams.
For all those reasons, the time is now to start advertising, Smith said in the interview. “As we build out more EchoPark stores, people are going to be familiar with the brand, even before we open. I think that’s very important,” he said.
Jeff Dyke, president of Sonic Automotive, said in the Q3 earnings call that EchoPark awareness has a long way to go, but demand for used cars is really strong, thanks to high new-car prices, and better used-car availability.
“We've got such a huge upside, obviously,” Dyke said, about the market for specialist, used-only brands like EchoPark. The giants are Carvana and CarMax, but other new-car chains such as AutoNation and Penske Automotive Group have used-only outlets, too.
“Our awareness is really low as a percentage, maybe 13% in the markets that we do business in,” Dyke said of EchoPark in the Q3 call. “That's been one of the big boat anchors for us. We're fixing that. We're getting ready to tell the world who we are, and we want people to come into our stores and experience what EchoPark's all about.”
