Motormouths

The response from the viewers online has been nothing short of amazing and they have really embraced this new format.

Husband-and-Wife Team Get Rave Reviews

BY BRUCE CAMERON, BLACK PRESS CONTRIBUTOR

COVID-19 has challenged all businesses to adapt in order to survive, but one innovative husband-and-wife team have not only survived, they have thrived during the crisis.

Zack Spencer has been an online auto reviewer for many years, offering detailed tips on the performance and styling of dozens of makes and models over a long media career in the automotive sector, and posting the reviews to his Motormouth.ca website. Years ago, he sometimes involved his wife, Andrea Cassels, in the videos, but when COVID-19 hit and they both found themselves at home in West Vancouver—no longer travelling extensively—they decided to look more carefully into the analytics of their viewership.

“At the beginning of 2020, Zack looked through the analytics and saw that the videos we were in together out-performed the usual videos,” says Andrea, explaining the process they went through to reinvigorate the successful Motormouth brand. “When COVID-19 hit, we went full force into this new format, and we haven’t looked back—it has been so successful for us.”

Women play an important role as buyers and influencers of auto purchases, so it is surprising that there is just a handful of husband-and-wife teams reviewing cars in North America.

Zack and Andrea decided to focus on the husband-and-wife reviewer combination to stand out in a crowded YouTube market.

The couple, who live in Vancouver but have an office in Toronto, point out that there are plenty of “buddy” reviews out there, featuring two guys, or solo car reviewers, mostly male. The Motormouth YouTube channel was already successful with Zack on his own and he had already established a TV career, but bringing Andrea into the reviews has made them unique.

Not only has Motormouth’s YouTube channel viewership increased, but Motoring TV on TSN is also utilizing Zack and Andrea together for car reviews.

Andrea says, “The response from the viewers online has been nothing short of amazing and they have really embraced this new format.”

The duo adds that Motormouth has experienced an increase in views, subscribers, hours watched, and revenue from the Youtube channel since they began promoting their joint reviews.

They have also extended their reach into other social media channels like Instagram, creating a feature called Questions, Coffee & Cars where they integrate Instagram questions into their YouTube videos.

You can follow them on Instagram at Motormouth_Andrea and Motormouth_Auto or subscribe to their Motormouth YouTube channel, which drops new couple reviews each Saturday.

Even after the COVID-19 crisis passes, they plan to continue doing reviews together.

“When travel resumes, we expect car companies to invite Zack to car launches around North America and around the world, but we will continue to do our reviews together every week. In fact, our goal is to attend these car-launch events together.”

For others looking to harness the opportunities presented by technology, their advice is to be consistent.

“If you’re going to start using social media platforms to promote yourself or your business, you have to be consistent, week after week, day after day. If something isn’t working, try new approaches. What we’ve learned is that change can be good—it’s really worked for us.”

You can catch their weekly reviews on the Motormouth Youtube channel, or go to Motormouth.ca to see the archived reviews and links to their various social media accounts on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.