Celeb Shot: Grace Kerber
Mohawk Chevrolet's Gen Z digital branding creator is revolutionizing the way cars are marketed—and Hollywood is taking notice.
Last spring, I made the world’s cringiest video to promote Universal Preservation Hall’s Shaken & Stirred Celebrity Bartender Party. Think: school project meets ransom video. Just as I was about to post it to the Saratoga Living Instagram account, Mohawk Chevrolet’s Shaken & Stirred promo video popped up on my feed. It had cool cars. It had hot girls. It had drone footage. Clearly, I couldn’t post my video after seeing what the competition was up to.
The woman behind the video was 23-year-old digital branding creator Grace Kerber, who at the time was only just testing the waters of what her company’s social media accounts were capable of. Since then, she’s brought national recognition to Mohawk Auto Group for The Dealership, a series of videos filmed at Mohawk Chevy that parody the show The Office. And I’m not talking about some obscure amateur filmmaking award. I’m talking about the series being featured in Business Insider, Ad Age, CNN, Forbes and on The Today Show. “And then Hollywood started calling,” Grace says. “They’re like, ‘We want to make this a show.’ And we’re like, ‘What is going on?’”
Clearly, things have escalated far beyond a small-town bartender competition rivalry (though Grace’s video did inspire me to get someone with an actual camera and videography experience to film a new Saratoga Living promo video). I caught up with Grace at Uncommon Grounds earlier this week to learn more about her sudden rise to stardom, how to market to a Gen Z audience, and what the heck is going on with Hollywood.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a film director. My plan was to go to film school, but it’s an intimidating path to go down. So I was like, I’ll settle on advertising and then I can go to Kentucky and still have the SEC experience, but learn advertising. I ended up not even finishing college. I came home, I was working on a farm, and didn’t know if I was going to go back to school online. I was like, “I don’t know what I want to do.” And then my boyfriend knew that Mohawk Chevy [his family’s company] was hiring, and got me in touch with the right people.
What were you actually hired to do?
I was running the social media. You know, just the day-to-day stuff—making videos about cars and the specials that we have. Then some funny stuff was happening around the office, and I was like, “We should make an Office-style mockumentary of these events.” We did it, and it was so much fun. Our Facebook and Instagram got way more likes than usual. But, like, I’m talking 70—not a lot. But we were like, “Oh, people like this.” And it was so good for the company culture and community-building. We made the videos here and there, and the fifth one that we made ended up blowing up on TikTok.
What was that video about?
It was actually based on a true story. I got stuck. We were making a video of one of the trucks—it was a huge Silverado and I could not get it out of the parking spot. I’m not even kidding, I had to do a 38-point turn. We were wiggling that thing out. I have terrible depth perception. I have a small Honda HR-V and I still can’t really park it. While we were filming, Ben Bushen, my coworker who makes the episodes with me, got nauseous because he gets carsick. So we just recreated everything that happened that day. We didn’t post it for weeks, and when we did, it just kept going.
When did you realize you were actually onto something?
We hit a million views and we were like, “This is cool—we have a viral video.” But we weren’t thinking about it. It wasn’t until two weeks later that Ad Age and Business Insider and Forbes were calling us. We started doing them every week and they kept getting likes.
Then what happened?
General Motors got into contact with us and they were like, “We want to fly you guys out to Detroit to do an episode here at ‘Mohawk’s corporate.’” It was a no-brainer. That was a really cool episode because the CEO of General Motors was in it and she was so nice. We’re in a room with the vice president of Chevrolet, the CMO of Chevrolet—a lot of big people. We filmed the scene where I’m pitching to “corporate” one time, and didn’t do it again. They were expecting to do it multiple times, but we were all nervous and we were like, “Alright, I think that was good!” We just went with it and it ended up working out, but we were so scared because we were like, this is probably not going to be good. What if we didn’t get enough? They were all so quiet. It was very intimidating.
You’re hilarious in the videos. Do you have any prior acting experience?
I mean, when I was little I was always making movies at home. I’m the youngest, and I’m a little spaced out from my siblings so I had to star in them myself and be multiple characters. That’s my only acting experience.
Who’s your favorite character in The Office?
If I’m being completely honest, I don’t really watch The Office. Ben’s the big Office fan. I think I watched some of it in middle school. But I guess—I don’t want to choose the obvious choice—but Michael made me laugh. I relate to him. And according to a lot of people, I’m just like him.
Besides starring in the lead role, what do you do for the videos and what does Ben do?
I direct. We both come up with ideas, but it’s totally improv—we don’t have a script or anything like that. And the editing is where the magic really happens. We’re cutting down a lot of random footage, because we don’t tell anyone what’s going on. We put them in the actual situation and whatever happens, happens. Ben mostly films, but he’ll be in the episodes sometimes. And we sit there and edit together, but he’s the one on the computer—I’m not quite as skilled with editing as he is.
What’s in store for the future of the series? Is a Hollywood show actually in the works?
I don’t know how much I can disclose—we haven’t gone over that. But we’re going to keep making videos. We’re not making them every week anymore because we ended up burning ourselves out a bit with the pressure of feeling like we had to make a good one. So when we’re inspired—when we have a funny idea—we do it.
Not that you’ve been in the industry that long, but how would you say marketing has changed in the last 10 or 15 years?
The approach to humanize your brand and sell your brand, not necessarily your product, is recently becoming a lot more popular. For General Motors to even want us to come and post that video is them branching out to something new. Because their social media is very traditional—you know, a car driving on a mountain landscape. My whole goal when I started was like, it’s not always about the car. If someone wants a Chevy, they’re going to buy a Chevy, and they probably already know which one they want. But how do we make them buy it from Mohawk? That’s where the personal stuff started coming in. We’re selling our people. You’re watching these videos and you’re like, “Oh, they’re funny.” You’re going to think about Mohawk in a different way.
Mohawk Chevrolet has more than 160,000 followers on TikTok. Do companies really need to get TikTok accounts?
I think they help. If you can make fun videos that maybe have literally nothing to do with your brand or what you’re selling, that’s OK. Because people love people. People love to relate and laugh, and more than ever it feels like there’s always something stressful when you go to your phone. So it’s like, bring a little levity to it. I think TikTok is important because it’s gotta be the most popular social media right now. Instagram is slowly phasing out and Facebook has been in the same place for a long time. I think to reach younger people, if you’re making good TikToks, it really does work.
For those of us over the age of 25, can you explain what makes TikTok great?
I love Instagram, but it’s not personal. Even on my own page, and I have no shame in admitting this: I’m picking aesthetically pleasing pictures. I like to have a nice feed. But my TikTok is just a bunch of random videos of me just being myself. It’s more real.
—Natalie
Photo of the Week
This Just In
No Halloween plans yet? This week, Truemaster Trimingham, aka DJ Trumastr, is teaming up with The Arts Center of the Capital Region to produce a five-room haunted house experience called The Black Box: Not for the Faint of Art. “Other horror attractions can be pattern-based—the scares are timed and repetitive,” True says. “Our actors have an ever-evolving routine that changes based on our patrons. Being big and loud can make someone jump, but you don’t always expect to see a face at floor level. Our actors get eerily creative with their body language to elicit the best reactions from guests.”
If you know True, such an undertaking is to be expected: Before he was a DJ, he curated the Haunted Museum of Un-Natural History, a fundraising attraction at the New York State Museum, where he was an educator, from 2001-2010. This week’s event, which started last night and runs through Halloween, will raise money for Youth FX, an Albany-based organization that teaches filmmaking to underserved youth. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door.
Speaking of True, he’ll be DJing at tomorrow’s Monster Mash Brunch at Cantina.
Expansion Pack
Saratoga’s favorite menswear store is now in Stuyvesant Plaza, too! Union Hall Supply Co. recently opened a second location in the Albany shopping center, and on Wednesday will celebrate its grand opening with live music, exclusive swag, and beer on tap. Stop by for the 10am ribbon cutting or afterwards to peruse the new store.
Upstate Represent
Earlier this month, Yelp released its first-ever compilation of the 100 best bagel shops in New York State. While a majority of the shops are in the City, there are a handful in the Capital Region area, including Bolton Landing’s Bear’s Cup (No. 11), Uncommon Grounds (No. 44), Albany’s Pearl’s Bagels & Bakery (No. 55) and Rotterdam’s Bagels & Bakes (No. 75).
ICYMI
Last October, we published a list of 14 Halloween Costume Ideas That Celebrate Saratoga, including two takes on a “track dad,” seen above. If you’re still searching for a costume for this year, you may find some inspiration.