Company: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
Agency: Goodyear's North American Tire PR Unit
Timeframe: 2005
Goodyear's North American Tire PR division didn't tread lightly when it came to promoting the firm's newest family of tires, Assurance with ComforTred Technology and Assurance
with TripleTred Technology, beyond the narrow sector of tire and/or automotive experts. The aim to expand the tire's visibility into mainstream media would ultimately bulk up the
pool of potential consumers via the delivery of easy-to-understand messages around the product's benefits.
"We wanted to create awareness of the product outside the industry, and we felt we could do that by putting the product in places where it was not expected and yet would reach
our targeted consumers," says Ed Markey, VP of PR and Communications/North American Tire at Goodyear.
The campaign's objective was to utilize Assurance with TripleTred's most distinctive visual feature -- its tread pattern -- as the hook to garner attention outside of the
tire/automotive industry, all on a $10,000 budget.
The project spurred a transformation for the Ohio-based Goodyear: The firm had not executed product-focus advertising or communication in five years; it hadn't introduced a
significant new product in more than 10 years.
"The challenge of getting mainstream attention in a low-interest category was stiff," the firm says. "Virtually all replacement tires are purchased only once every few years,
often with a high degree of stress; the product can be expensive; and tires tend to have few characteristics that differentiate themselves from each other."
Game Plan
Despite existing challenges, the team's tactic was to pursue a high-visibility venue: The head of NBA basketball player Richard Hamilton. Hamilton, who plays for the Detroit
Pistons, wears his hair in tightly braided cornrows that could be designed to look like the tread.
There are a lot of companies that "are geared toward the big event, and you can pump a lot of money into a big event that doesn't generate much results," says Chuck Sinclair,
SVP of global communications at Goodyear. "We're really focused on the big idea."
The "big idea" was "an element of using PR strategically to create an environment that increased awareness, increased the product's visibility and created an environment for us
to talk about the products' benefits and performance," Markey says. "If this was just to do something to have someone say, 'Oh this was just about the new Goodyear tire,' it
wouldn't have had the impact as it did because we were able to match the player with the product feature."
"The fact that the player was with the defending NBA Champions was a bonus," Markey adds. "That he played for Detroit, the automotive capital of the world, that was a bonus."
The team and its star spent months before locking in on the following guidelines:
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Hamilton would have his hair styled in the pattern of Goodyear's Assurance with TripleTred for one Pistons home game.
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The agreement was not a product endorsement.
"It's critical when you weigh your risks and when you look at the current landscape of professional sports to tie in with a quality individual," Sinclair notes. "If you're
going to use a celebrity, you better be very sure of what type of an individual that celebrity is."
Game On
Goodyear's "Richard Hamilton Project" kicked off January 29, 2005, when Hamilton arrived for the night's game against the New York Knicks with his hair styled in the pattern of
Assurance with TripleTred. Goodyear's PR team contacted attending media, including the production and announcing staff of the Madison Square Garden (MSG) Network, about Hamilton's
hair pattern. Goodyear distributed photo CDs of Assurance with TripleTred to television outlets and an AP photographer for comparison purposes, as well as provided printed jpeg
files of Assurance with TripleTred for print and radio media.
MSG Network aired a segment within the game telecast that included a split screen with Hamilton on the right and the tire -- with a lower-third graphic reading "Goodyear
Assurance TripleTred" -- on the left.
Goodyear also e-mailed information about the project from the Pistons' media workroom on site to national media contacts over the course of the ongoing game.
"The game that this was targeted for happened right in the middle of our annual dealer conference in Dallas," Sinclair recalls.
Bloomberg ran a wire story with a photo the following day of the game, and "once that ran, the pickup was instantaneous -- it was the tipping point," Markey says.
Hamilton's partiality to his "treadlocks" helped garner coverage as well. Sporting the hairstyle for one game was "all we asked for, and that's all we compensated," Markey
says, noting, "He chose to keep it in for three games."
In addition to the three games, Hamilton wore the hairstyle when the NBA Champions visited the White House. The day after they visited the White House, the front page of the
Detroit Free Press had a picture of the players standing around the president with the headline: 'The Pistons Visit White House' and a sub-bullet reading 'Hamilton Shows His
Treadlocks.'
Game Point
While the initial wave of media pickup was sports-related, thus reaching a mostly adult male demographic, it quickly extended to wider mainstream media. Features and items
appeared in print and electronic outlets, and the project was picked up by sports, news, entertainment, life/style and editorial. The project even garnered a three-day feature in
the syndicated comic strip "Tank McNamara" and was the subject of a question on Jeopardy.
Electronic media coverage, monitored by Video Monitoring Service and NBC, reached a total audience of 16 million in the first week. Media value of solely the TV and radio
pickup tracked by Video Monitoring Service during that same seven days indicated an ad-value equivalency of more than 12 times the investment; positive placement in other outlets,
such as Jay Leno's monologue or the comic strip, is largely incalculable.
The team gained additional exposure when it received PR News' 2006 Platinum PR Award in the branding category.
From a business front, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company reported a $35 million first-quarter earnings improvement (year-over-year) for their North American Tire business
in 2005. Goodyear North America's generated 2005 full-year earnings of $167 million, a 126% hike over 2004. The Assurance with TripleTred product has become the best-selling new
product in the 109-year history of the firm.
On the Ball
Like any campaign, "Goodyear's Richard Hamilton Project" posed significant challenges. One obstacle that was easy to overcome, however, was the decision to apply a unique
approach to the project. Two years prior, Goodyear most likely would not have contemplated the idea and/or would not have executed it because the project was not a good fit for
the firm. "But we've been kind of changing the company personality, and we've been willing to do things that are innovative whether its in the products or the way we tell our
stories about them," Markey says. "Even though people here might not have been really sure how it was going to come out, they were willing to say, 'Ok, give it a shot.'"
CONTACTS:
Ed Markey, 330.796.8801, [email protected]; Chuck Sinclair, 330.796.2154, [email protected]
Lessons Learned
1. Know how it will help you "tell your story:" The combination of all project elements created an environment for Goodyear to discuss its new product and offered a chance to
tell its story. "If it hadn't done that, it would have been a great PR event, but without a strategic objective and, hence, no business impact," says Ed Markey, vice president of
PR and Communications/North American Tire at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
2. Think "story delivery" instead of "media:" "When people talk about using "new media," it's often code for things such as blogs or podcasts," Markey says. "But if you think
instead about creating a way for you to tell your story, the possibilities get extended...even to someone's head."
3. Relationships are still the fuel for the PR engine: With any successful communications project, the key is to build positive relationships. "Even though this was a 'new
school' idea, this project was driven by 'old school' effort--phone calls, emails followed by phone calls and personal contact," Markey notes. The team even opted not to write a
press release because it wanted to speak directly with media personnel.
4. Luck helps: "Let's be honest...good luck helped push this along," Markey says. One of the project's critical elements was having Hamilton wear the tread pattern for a game
against the New York Knicks. "Having the telecast going back to New York meant key members of the media could be contacted, alerted and then actually see the project unfold in
front of them live.
5. The big idea: PR teams don't necessarily need to execute a big event for a campaign to generate results, says Chuck Sinclair, senior vice president for Global Communications
of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. For Goodyear, "it's all about the big idea--it's not about the big event," he adds.
The firm had seen PR agencies try to execute these big events without much success and knew "if you're going to have a big event, it's got to be around a big idea," Sinclair
says.
Goodyear will continue to focus its creative approach on big ideas that garner substantial attention. "The nice thing about a big idea is that you don't need a lot of arms and
legs to capitalize on it -- or a big budget," Sinclair says.