Emma Sauve Breaks Barriers and Drives Automotive Creativity

When we started planning and putting together this special issue to highlight some of the mighty women in our automotive industry, Emma Sauve was one of the first to come to mind. She is a staple in our industry and travels the country creating amazing content for Detroit Steel Wheels/Mobsteel. 

Emma grew up immersed in automotive culture as she helped her dad with his Sauve Art Foundation projects at Mobsteel and observed what Adam and his team would create year after year all throughout her childhood.

Working with her dad instilled a value for hard work, especially with the influences and the culture at Mobsteel. She found a passion in graphic design and obtained her bachelor’s degree in advertising from Michigan State University. With Mobsteel airing on NBCSN, she took over the role of running the Detroit Steel Wheel Co. social platforms, understanding the tone of the company, which would soon lead to her managing the Mobsteel platforms as well.

While covering behind the scenes on the TV show, Emma saw the need for an in-house photographer and videographer. She learned the skills on the job and solidified her role as Mobsteel and Detroit Steel Wheel’s creative director. Emma’s philosophy on marketing: “How can you promote something that you don’t know anything about?”

Emma has worked on the Detroit Steel Wheel line and learned every process that goes into building an American made product. She has represented Mobsteel covering shows like SEMA, Lone Star Throwdown, and Hot Rod Power Tour, and aims to keep growing and helping lead this next generation in automotive marketing.

We caught up with Emma and here is what she had to share with C10BG:

“I love what I get to do, and Adam (my boss, owner of Mobsteel and Detroit Steel Wheel) gave me the space to create that for myself.

It took throwing myself into any situation looking for extra hands to truly understand  not only the process of creating our products, but the culture
and passion behind it all. 

“When I first started at the shop, I had a little desk on the second floor of our Brighton location that also doubled as our merch storage. I was earning my keep, working part time on Thursdays and Fridays while getting my degree. I would sit up there and go through our social, logging in and out of Instagram accounts (thankful those days are long gone) looking for customer pictures with our products, and designing a bunch of random posters that would eventually be archived.

“Looking back now I know that in that time I was understanding how to relay the tone and feel of Mobsteel and Detroit Steel Wheel, and as Adam, Steve, and myself have talked about, it’s really hard to trust somebody to speak the words of a brand that you created. I’ll flaunt my skills now, but it took years for me to get here, which included late nights doing what I could for builds heading to SEMA, trips to our suppliers to help build a better wheel. It took throwing myself into any situation looking for extra hands to truly understand not only the process of creating our products, but the culture and passion behind it all.

“The first show I ever covered as a Mobsteel and Detroit Steel Wheel employee was Autorama in, hmm, I think 2016? It was the year our season of Detroit Steel was being filmed, following an epic first show on NBCSN. I followed the crew around as they judged paint competitions, placed vehicles, shook hands, snapping pics and posting real time with terrible IG filters. We would host a Hard Rock afterparty and I sat in the back room the whole time answering messages on social media hoping I would make it as a member of this crew that I already called family.

“Fast forward to a year later and we had episodes airing weekly starting in January. We’d meet at Pam and Adam’s house, cover Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and hit as many responses as we could. Over time I began to develop my plans and process when it came to covering shows, finding a good balance between my position as a personality, content creator, and customer service representative.

“I’m really proud of how I can take care of everything through my strategy, and have earned the trust from Adam and Steve to completely tackle the marketing aspect of our brands. I’m a true people pleaser, but I also know what’s right and what’s wrong in the grand scheme of automotive marketing and promoting a lifestyle brand. I guess it’s better to just say that I want everyone who comes in contact with me and our brands to have fun and leave the conversation feeling like the best version of themselves. That’s when I’m able to capture the most authentic version of them and our products in action.

Watch out for me at car shows, chances are I’m sunburnt, sweating, and covering badass rides along with the best of them. See you out there!”