At its annual media and tire dealer ride-and-drive event in mid-March, Bridgestone Americas had plenty of news to share.
Fresh off what the tiremaker views as a very successful Super Bowl – and still in the midst of its “Time to Perform” ad campaign – Bridgestone used the event not only to introduce the new Bridgestone Turanza Serenity Plus and Firestone Destination LE2 tire lines, but also as an opportunity to update attendees on its marketing strategy.
Held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, attendees put both new tires to the test in wet and dry handling and braking exercises. And as a surprise, they were joined by Bridgestone brand ambassador and Indy Car racing legend Mario Andretti, who also tested out the new rubber.
New Rollouts
According to Julie Porter, product manager for touring and eco products, the Bridgestone Turanza Serenity Plus offers the same benefits of the original Serenity – a quiet ride, wet performance, long tread life and ride comfort – plus improved winter performance and fuel efficiency. Additionally, grand touring all-season Serenity Plus tires come with an increased warranty, with V-rated tires carrying a 75,000-mile limited tread warranty (up 25,000 miles from its predecessor, the original Turanza Serenity).
Starting in June, the Turanza Serenity Plus will be available in 30 H-, V- and W-rated sizes ranging from 15- to 19-inch wheel diameters.
The all-season Firestone Destination LE2, designed for CUV, SUV and light truck applications, offers added dry performance, ride comfort and noise and fuel efficiency compared to the original Destination LE, according to Rod Hutchinson, product manager for light truck, SUV and CUV tires. He added the Destination LE2 has a 15% better rolling resistance coefficient, which translates to up to a 2% fuel economy improvement.
The tire will be available in May in 37 T- and H-rated sizes ranging from 15- to 20-inch wheel diameters.
“We’re always working to make our products even better for our customers, and we’re excited to bring these next generation tires to market,” said Larry Magee, U.S. and Canada consumer tire president. “Both Turanza Serenity Plus and Firestone Destination LE2 are high demand products for today’s drivers, and we are excited to raise our own bar in providing even more performance as we continue to evolve these brands.”
Both the Turanza Serenity Plus and Destination LE2 have earned the company’s “Eco-Product” distinction, which is reserved to identify Bridgestone or Firestone brand tires designed for improved environmental performance over the predecessor product, Porter said.
Also at the launch event, Bridgestone showed off the performance capabilities of its all-season UHP Potenza RE970 AS Pole Position tires – introduced last year, but now available in a full 34-size lineup – and its extreme performance Potenza RE-11 tires, which were fitted to Ferraris, Lamborghinis and an Audi R8 and taken on the track, courtesy of Exotics Racing.
Bridgestone’s Phil Pasci, vice president of consumer marketing, also showed off a non-pneumatic concept tire the company said will have a lesser impact on the environment than today’s conventional tires. Unlike previous airless concept tires, Bridgestone said its 100% recyclable model was designed “with the aim of practical implementation” – meaning it has the capability for mass production.
The tire features a structure of thermoplastic resin spokes stretching along the inner sides to support the weight of the vehicle. Bridgestone said the tire is currently sized for use on personal mobility vehicles – think scooters and motorized chairs – but eventually the company wants to move up to vehicles.
Ad Campaigns and Marketing
Launched in January, the “Time to Perform” campaign has made an even bigger splash than the tiremaker expected. The company claimed that two of its three Super Bowl ads were among YouTube’s most-watched commercials from this year’s game – the basketball ad ranked seventh, while the football slot took the 13th spot on the list, according to Trent Stoner, manager of advertising and sales promotion for Bridgestone Americas.
“Also, we were the No. 10 advertiser in terms of videos previewed online before the game, with 2.1 million hits – double what we’ve done in the past,” he said. “Post-Super Bowl stats show we were the No. 4 advertiser, out of about 70 total, so we did some things right.”
At the last minute, the tiremaker decided to actually create some of the performance balls – and puck – featured in the commercials, in case fans wanted a keepsake. Through the dedicated website performanceballsandpuck.com, Bridgestone has sold more than 35,000 of the specialty items so far, Stoner said.
“The goals of the campaign were to talk about performance and introduce consumers to our products in a relevant way,” he explained. “We also needed to improve our branding…we wanted to do a better job of connecting the dots of our campaign message throughout all of our advertising and then tie it to sports and the investments we have there.”
Moving forward, the tiremaker plans to include the performance theme in its sports sponsorships. One way of doing this is to “rebrand game highlights or plays of the day as ‘Bridgestone Performance Moments,’” Stoner added. “We’re partnering with the NFL Network, ESPN and ABC Sports, among others, to make this change.”
The tiremaker has a lineup of product promotions planned throughout 2012, as well. Following the “Rethink Green” promo – which ran the entire month of April and focused on Eco tires and the Ecopia line, Bridgestone will run its “Game On” promo in the U.S. and the “Master Winter” promo in Canada this fall, as well as a Firestone-branded “Destination Summer” promo in the U.S. and “Destination Outdoors” promo in Canada this summer.
In the Game On promo, which covers the entire Bridgestone lineup, consumers will be able to choose between a $70 American Express gift card or Nintendo Wii with the purchase of four tires. The promo will feature a sweepstakes overlay, asking Bridgestone fans to submit a photo or video of their “performance moment” to the tiremaker’s Facebook page. The grand prize is a set of Super Bowl tickets, but also up for grabs are tires, gift cards, and NFL or NHL tickets. The Canadian Master Winter promo offers similar prizes, but focuses on the Blizzak winter tire line.
The MLB tie-in Destination Summer promo (and Destination Outdoors in Canada), which runs from May 14-July 8, offers consumers a $70 gas card with the purchase of four tires across the entire line of Destination and Firehawk products. A sweepstakes overlay will offer tires, gift cards, MLB tickets – and World Series tickets as the grand prize – to fans who submit a photo of their favorite destination on the tiremaker’s Facebook page.
“We’re working with MLB to reinvigorate our sponsorship,” Stoner added. “We are once again the official tire of the MLB All-Star game, which is timed with when we’ll launch the new Firestone brand ad campaign in July.”
Hitting the Road
Bridgestone’s annual Drive & Learn tour, which puts tire dealers in select markets behind the wheel to test out a handful of the tiremaker’s products, will once again travel the U.S.
Dealers in 17 locations will be invited to test the new Turanza Serenity Plus and the Potenza 970 AS Pole Position “to see how the tires perform in competitive comparisons, as well as allowing them to compare the difference between ultra-high performance all-season and grand touring all-season categories,” according to Mark Johnson, manager of product education.
Also at the events, dealers will take part in a wrap-up “LeMans session,” in which the tiremaker will feature the Potenza S-04 Pole Position.
Click here to view more exclusive photos from the Bridgestone event.
