Objective:
Launch Adrenalin, the hero product of the Potenza brand, to a new market segment.
Background:
Bridgestone Potenzas offer performance tyres for all cars and drivers and are known for the superior technology, performance and control they provide.
The introduction of Adrenalin was to replace existing products, reinforce Potenza’s position as the leading performance tyre brand and provide the catalyst for category growth.
Insight:
Whilst being a replacement tyre for existing consumers, Adrenalin also provided the opportunity to enter a new market segment in Australia and New Zealand; being 18-25 year old male drivers who drove anything from ten-year old Celicas to the latest WRX. This segment was very image conscious, savvy and highly influential in the speed of product acceptance and take up. The key challenge for Bridgestone was to maintain its brand integrity whilst also appearing credible and relevant to this segment.
Creative:
The proposition was that Adrenalin gave drivers ‘total control’; any car, driver, speed or corner.’ We had to convey the emotional experience of how the driver felt when driving on Adrenalin tyres. Given that ‘street’ driving culture originated in Japan, Showpony developed the manga-like character the Control Freak.
Media:
The media strategy used channels other than mainstream advertising.
Bridgestone sponsored the Auto Salon Drift Racing Team and Auto Salon Event Series. This Series attracted over 250,000 attendees in Australia and New Zealand with limited mainstream media coverage. The sponsorship provided exposure on the drift car and team merchandise, television coverage, magazine editorial and spreads, promotional opportunities at Auto Salon events, the opportunity to leverage Auto Salon sponsorship partners and, most importantly provided the brand with credibility.
Showpony created a campaign microsite for the Control Freak as a destination point for continued engagement, provision of further information and direction to Bridgestone’s family retail channels.
In the first phase of the campaign, a Control Freak teaser was distributed at Auto Salon events. The Control Freak 30sec viral was then seeded to consumer databases and supported at the Auto Salon events with various point of sale items including merchandise and a limited edition collectible toy.
Showpony also identified an opportunity to run the viral as a cinema advert in conjunction with the Transformers movie launch.
Effectiveness:
Bridgestone had set aggressive unit sales targets for Adrenalin that have to be achieved by 2010. To date, sales have exceeded projection targets.
Consumer research conducted in November 2008 found that Potenza had the highest unprompted and prompted brand awareness in the tyre performance category with Adrenalin having the highest awareness for a particular performance tyre product.
The Control Freak cinema ad also received numerous Adelaide Art Director and Desing Clubs awards in 2007 whilst the Control Freak Toy was short listed as a finalist in the 2008 New York One Awards.
