Firestone: THE DRIVING FORCE

Credits & Description:

Type of Entry: Use of Media


Category: Best Use of Ambient Media: Small Scale


Title: THE DRIVING FORCE


Advertiser/Client: BRIDGESTONE NEW ZEALAND


Product/Service: FIRESTONE TYRES


Entrant Company: OMD NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND


Media Agency: OMD NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND


Creative Credits


Name Company Position


Rebecca Houston OMD Director Strategy/Planning


Will Douglas OMD Senior Media Planner


Chloe Hardy OMD Media Planner/Buyer


Details


Results and Effectiveness:


The goal: Sell 10,000 caps, raising $20,000 over 2months. The 10,000 caps sold out in only 8 days! We managed to fly an additional 20,000 caps into New Zealand. These sold out in one month –26 days before the campaign was due to finish. We raised $64,000 –3 times the original objective. “We were absolutely overwhelmed with the response we received. Never has any campaign driven traffic like this across our forecourts. This is certainly the most successful campaign that Firestone has done in the 12 years I’ve worked for the organisation.” Marketing Director, Bridgestone/Firestone NZ.


Creative Execution:


We needed to find a fundraising item. It had to be pink, the official Breast Cancer Foundation colour of support, and it had to be car-related directly linking the Firestone brand with the cause. The creative idea was a pink tyre valve cap. The ‘cap’ became a badge of brand support and affinity attached directly onto the tyre. We imported 10,000 pink caps from Japan. Consumers could purchase these either online or instore for $2 each with 100% of the proceeds going towards breast cancer prevention. We turned cars into a new stand-alone 'small ambient' media channel for Firestone - for breast cancer awareness month and beyond. Highly targeted women’s media connected Firestone to the pink caps allowing them to act as ongoing media exposure.


Insights, Strategy and the Idea:


It won’t come as any surprise that research showed women do not trust tyre dealers. Not knowing their ‘carburettor from their gear box’ many women feel that automotive services take advantage of this lack of knowledge to rip them off. Yet with over 50% of women making their own tyre decision, the business opportunity for Firestone lay in converting this mistrust into a favourable brand relationship. The male-lead creative agency developed a series of print ads, while the female-lead media agency challenged this convention believing that traditional advertising ran the risk of looking contrived – a male brand trying to seduce the ladies. The strategy was to demonstrate empathy with women through actions not words, aligning the Firestone brand with a universal female cause, breast cancer awareness and prevention.