In this era of ‘editorial’ coverage paid for by manufacturers, Revology Cars has taken a firm stand from day one.
“Unlike some companies in the specialty automotive industry, we’re not playing that game,” says Yoshi Amano, company marketing VP.
Revology prides itself on the high quality of its media coverage, whether it be magazines, newspapers, TV or social media.
Since Revology was founded 12 years ago, the company has been featured in numerous articles in reputable publications, including Car and Driver, Motortrend, Automobile, Hagerty, AutoWeek, Top Gear, Fortune and Robb Report.
This matters because people interested in Revology Cars can be assured they are reading legitimate reviews from respected, experienced automotive journalists.
Unfortunately, today’s media world has been infiltrated with so-called influencers and content creators, with little or no experience of their subject matter. In many cases, these ersatz journalists expect to be paid by the manufacturer or business they are covering, which makes the content they create suspect at best and essentially worthless and misleading to consumers.
This problem has infected many industries from hotels to restaurants to online sellers’ reviews. For the buying public, finding a trustworthy product review can be challenging.
At many companies the line between public relations and marketing has become blurred, but Amano says the distinction is important. “Influencers can play a role in marketing on a paid basis,” says Amano, “but that is quite different to legitimate, professional media outlets producing stories on our company and its cars.”
At Revology we firmly believe in reviews that can be trusted. “We have been approached by individuals who wanted to be paid for coverage of our cars but have rejected any such advances,” says Tom Scarpello, company CEO.
In terms of legitimate coverage, probably the most telling level of commitment from an auto company, especially a small one like Revology, is submitting a car for an instrumented test by a top tier auto magazine.
Unlike virtually all its rivals in the specialty car industry, Revology has provided cars to leading publications for grueling instrumented tests on several occasions. And as Scarpello reveals in a video that accompanies this story, sometimes these tests do not go according to plan.
“You have to take the bad with the good in such circumstances,” says Scarpello, “but at the end of the day it’s all about being honest and transparent when presenting a car.”
“When someone reads an article or sees an article about one of our cars, I want them to know how our cars are really rated,” adds Amano.