Wheatbelt
A short film with Leonie Knipe and Ebony Cleveland at Avon Valley Toyota in Northam.
Leonie Knipe is dealer principal of Avon Valley Toyota in Northam, and of the Isuzu Ute, Nissan and Mitsubishi businesses that sit alongside it. She has been in the industry for sixteen years, with about fifty staff across two sites, and she still does the books herself. What she wants remembered is that the business is still here. Sixteen years of pivoting and adapting, in a trade that does not make it easy to stay, is the part of the story she is proud of.
Ebony Cleveland is the marketing and customer experience manager. She lives and works in the Wheatbelt, so the people coming through the door are her own town. Looking after that community, and the other local businesses around the dealership, is the part of the role that feels like hers. The film opens on Leonie's line, that the best thing you can do is be part of the place you are in, and Ebony stays with it for the rest of the piece. What a business puts into its town, they both argue, is what the town eventually gives back.
One short film from the Northam yards.
01
Leonie Knipe on sixteen years in the yards, two sites, and still doing the books herself.
02
Ebony Cleveland on marketing that is also a way of looking after the town.
03
One film, so the dealership and the community are told as the same story.
The work
A short film for Avon Valley Toyota in Northam, with Leonie Knipe and Ebony Cleveland. Leonie talks about running four brands across two sites, about still doing the books, and about being proud that the business has lasted sixteen years of change. Ebony talks about doing the marketing from inside the Wheatbelt, where the customers are people she lives among. The piece opens on the line they share, which is that you have to be part of the place you are in if you want the place to look after you in return.
Back to the work