ROADLOANS / SANTANDER

See how PositiveBrand helped Santander’s RoadLoans.com turn skeptical auto dealers into active partners by reframing pre-approved buyers as a faster path to closed sales, contributing to a 39% spike in overall loan applications.

Our Challenge 

Santander’s RoadLoans.com had built a highly efficient system for getting consumers pre-approved for auto loans, making them the lender of choice for major portals like AutoTrader, Kelley Blue Book, and Cars.com. However, to maximize this consumer demand, RoadLoans needed the active cooperation of auto dealerships, who often viewed third-party financing with skepticism. We needed to convince car dealers that embracing these customers was a direct path to closing more sales with less friction.

Our Approach 

We deployed an integrated B2B marketing campaign that mirrored the emotional strategy of our consumer work:

Shared Emotional Platform: We extended the "Buyers Rejoice" consumer strategy—built on confidence and empowerment—directly to the dealerships. We reframed a RoadLoans pre-approval as an empowered, cash-in-hand buyer, shifting the dealer perception from "third-party hassle" to a reason to celebrate a frictionless sale.

Dealer-Focused Messaging: We shifted the narrative from competing with in-house financing to celebrating accelerated sales. We showed dealerships exactly how welcoming these confident RoadLoans buyers translated directly to moving more inventory.

Omnichannel B2B Execution: We targeted dealership owners, general managers, and F&I managers through trade publications, direct mail, targeted email campaigns, and digital display ads focused on automotive industry professionals.

Results 

By applying our emotional brand framework to the B2B dealership network, we successfully transformed auto dealers from skeptical gatekeepers into eager partners.

Emotional Alignment: 

The "confidence and empowerment" of the consumer campaign successfully translated to the B2B side, giving dealerships their own reason to rejoice over streamlined, headache-free transactions.

Accelerated Sales Cycles: 

Dealerships learned to recognize RoadLoans pre-approvals as a tool that bypassed traditional financing friction, allowing them to close deals faster and move inventory more efficiently.

Surging Overall Volume: 

By retraining dealerships to actively encourage and accept these empowered buyers, we removed the final barrier to purchase—directly contributing to the brand's 39% spike in overall loan applications and a measurable increase in completed sales.