It was the ‘Worst Parking Job’ that everyone was talking about. An SUV enters the parking lot, drives up and over two parked cars - crushing them like a monster truck - before fleeing the scene.

When we discovered that one of the crushed cars belonged to our client Hyundai Canada, we saw the opportunity to do some good in a bad situation, and jumped into action.Within 24 hours, posing as local news reporters, we arrived at the workplace of the unlucky Hyundai driver. In the same spot as the original Worst Parking Job, we gave him keys to a new Hyundai Elantra.The video was uploaded to YouTube just a few hours later. We then seeded the video online and footage was shared in time for the evening news.The story reached the front page of Reddit, Top Gear and Mashable. To date, the YouTube video has 315,000 views. 29 national and international news networks covered the story generating a combined reach of 24,318,000.The client viewed their first digital PR act a success, the public appreciated the gesture and for an everyday guy it was a happy ending to a story of parking job gone terribly wrong.

The team needed to respond quickly in order to capitalise on the momentum around the incident. The client was pitched and returned sign-off that same day. Within 24 hours a team arrived at Todd Jamison’s work posing as local news reporters.Todd’s boss, who was brought in on the plan, made an urgent call to Todd telling him to come in. The team was waiting with cameras rolling. In the same spot as the original Worst Parking Job, a Hyundai Canada rep gave Todd the keys to his new car.

Todd’s surprised reaction was captured, edited, uploaded and tagged on YouTube hours later as a response to the original Worst Parking Job video. The video was then seeded on automotive-related sites and blogs, social news and media sites like Digg, Reddit, and Facebook, while footage was sent to local news stations in time for the evening news.

The story appeared on the front page of social news sites Reddit and Buzzfeed, trade website Top Gear and received over 1,700 blog postings. Its biggest lift came from Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore, who tweeted the story to his 2 million followers and covered it on the high-profile social media news website. The YouTube video has 315,000 views to date, beating our success benchmark of 100,000.The story resulted in over 400 positive comments online, many showing a change in viewer perception, including those who indicated they would potentially buy a Hyundai vehicle.29 national and international news networks covered the story, including the Globe & Mail, CBC and ABC News, generating a combined reach of 24,318,000.Hyundai Canada deemed their first foray into the digital PR space a success, while opening the client’s eyes to its enormous potential and setting the benchmark for future endeavors.