Car rental company Hertz is borrowing a marketing play from Subaru of America: using man’s best friend to promote its products.
Just as Subaru has the Barkleys, a family of three golden retrievers and one yellow Labrador retriever, featured driving Subaru cars in commercials, Hertz has started what it is calling the Gold Squad.
The Gold Squad is a group of about 20 golden retriever service dogs that will be doing meet-and-greets for weary travelers at various U.S. airports this year, and, with any luck, next year.
“We know the last leg of travel can be draining, so we’re bringing in the Hertz Gold Squad to change that and offer comfort, calm, and a few cuddles during peak travel times to select airports,” Kari Birdsall, Hertz’s vice president of operations excellence, told USA TODAY in an email.
The name, Gold Squad, plays off Hertz’s gold-and-black logo. The dogs will not only put smiles on the faces of travelers, but they’ll help Hertz employees promote enrollment in Hertz’s free Hertz Gold Plus Rewards loyalty program. That program allows members to make car rentals faster, get exclusive rates when booking on Hertz.com or the Hertz app, skip the counter at select locations, earn points redeemable for free rental days and more.
“This is the Gold Squad and we want to make people feel golden,” Lauren Luster, Hertz spokesperson, said of the dogs. “You can join Gold Plus Rewards and skip the counter in your future trips, that makes you feel golden.”
Luster said Hertz got the idea to bring dogs to airports earlier this summer during the, er, dog days of summer, if you will. She said the dogs, which come from local service dog organizations, are expertly trained for a variety of purposes.
“It’s as simple as we wanted to ease the travel experience, especially during peak travel,” Luster said.
Hertz did the first Gold Squad run at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Aug. 18, a Monday, when it would be very busy, she said. The dogs were there meeting people from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day.
“We wanted to start there first and see how it went,” Luster said. “It was a huge hit, and so we want to bring it to other airports.”
The photos and posts of the dogs have received more than 88 million views across YouTube, Facebook/Instagram and 9.9M views on TikTok, Luster said.
Now, Hertz is letting the public vote on where the pups should pop up next by commenting on Hertz’s latest Instagram post. The choice is between Chicago, San Diego or Atlanta to finish out this year. Next year, Hertz will take the program to a wider audience of airport travelers, including possibly Detroit Metro Airport.
The wider audience could one day include travelers at Southwest Florida International Airport in south Fort Myers. The international airport, known for short as RSW, is the closest one to the company’s global headquarters in Estero, Florida.
The new headquarters opened nearly a decade ago.
“No set date yet, but would love to bring the dogs to RSW,” Luster told a local reporter.
Hertz highlighted a few of the Gold Squad members at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. One was Sammy, who loves swimming, sitting pretty, and “the fact that with members-only rates, her owner spends less on rental cars and more on treats,” Hertz’s website said to promote the Gold Plus Rewards program.
Then there is Duke, who likes to chase tennis balls when he is not comforting weary travelers, Hertz said. To market its rewards program, the company notes that Duke likes “choosing the best backseats with Ultimate Choice.”
Similarly, golden retriever Mulligan “loves peanut butter, long walks, and skipping the counter with Gold Plus Rewards.”
Luster said all dogs come from local service dog programs in the cities Hertz brings the event to.
“While our Gold Squad in Dallas-Fort Worth had over 20 dogs, the size of our squad will vary in size depending on the city,” Luster said.
Allergic to dogs? Not to worry. The dogs are kept in open spaces in the rental car areas at airports, where travelers can choose to engage or not, and they will be accompanied by a trained handler.
Plus, Luster added, “We have lots of fun giveaways, including Hertz Gold Squad-branded stress balls, snacks, water, phone chargers, etc., to help all travelers have that ‘golden’ feeling.’ “
Jamie L. LaReau is the senior autos writer who covers Ford Motor Co. for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Jamie at jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.
Naples Daily News reporter Laura Layden contributed to this story. She can be reached atlaura.layden@naplesnews.com.
