Clean Express becomes official car wash of the Pittsburgh Penguins
The deal gives the Express Wash Concepts brand in-arena visibility and a free-wash promotion tied to the Penguins' first home goal of each game.
By The Car Wash News Staff
3 min read
Clean Express Auto Wash has signed on as the official car wash of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, adding a third major Pittsburgh sports team to its growing portfolio of regional partnerships. The agreement gives the Express Wash Concepts brand in-arena and broadcast exposure, digital engagement, and community activations throughout the season.
According to reporting from Auto Laundry News, the deal deepens the operator's presence across Western Pennsylvania, a market the company has identified as a priority for growth.
A multi-team sports strategy
With the Penguins agreement, Clean Express now holds partnerships with three of Pittsburgh's professional franchises: the Penguins, the NFL's Steelers, and MLB's Pirates. Tying the brand to teams that play across different seasons gives the operator a path to stay visible to local fans essentially year-round, spanning baseball, football, and now hockey.
John Roush, founder and CEO of Express Wash Concepts, called Pittsburgh an important growth market and said the deals let the company connect with fans while investing in the communities it serves. Steve Kelley, the Penguins' senior vice president of partnerships, said the arrangement extends the game-day experience beyond PPG Paints Arena.
A promotion tied to on-ice performance
The centerpiece of the consumer-facing campaign ties a free wash to a specific in-game moment. Whenever the Penguins score the first goal of a regular-season home game, fans who sign up can claim a free Clean-est Ultra wash, valued at $28, redeemable the following day at any Clean Express location. The offer is capped at one redemption per person per season.
The structure gives fans a reason to engage with the brand during games and funnels redemptions into locations the day after, spreading traffic rather than concentrating it. The sign-up requirement also builds a marketing database the operator can use beyond the single giveaway.
Why it matters for operators
Sports sponsorships are an increasingly common play for multi-site chains looking to build brand recognition in a defined geographic market, and Clean Express offers a template worth studying. The value here is not just the logo exposure at the arena. It is the way the promotion is engineered to drive measurable action.
Several elements stand out for operators weighing similar deals. First, the free-wash trigger is linked to a frequent but uncertain event, the first home goal, which creates recurring engagement without guaranteeing a payout every night. Second, the next-day redemption window pushes visits into off-peak traffic rather than game days, protecting throughput. Third, requiring a sign-up turns a giveaway into a lead-generation tool, capturing contact information that can support membership conversion and future marketing.
The free wash offered is the top-tier package, which exposes customers to the premium product in hopes of upselling them later. For operators, the lesson is that a giveaway should route toward a membership funnel rather than simply discounting a one-time visit. Clustering partnerships across multiple local teams also keeps a brand in front of the same regional audience across seasons, maximizing the return on building sports relationships in a single market. Operators with density in one metro can replicate that layered approach rather than spreading sponsorship dollars too thin across unrelated markets.
