'Stop thirsty tyres'

IAS Smarts took the 2006 B2B Marketing Award for best use of creative. The Michelin product is already recognised for its superior performance, so the campaign objective was not to sell more tyres but to change attitudes among the target audience of finance directors, transport managers and owner drivers.

Fuel costs make up a large part of the costs of haulage, which tyre management can radically reduce. Michelin wanted to raise awareness of the link between rising fuel costs, fuel consumption and tyre rolling-resistance and to emphasise that using the correct tyres and managing them properly can save fuel, and therefore costs.

By doing so it wanted Michelin to be considered the authority on the issue. Using PR, radio, advertising, viral marketing and the web, IAS Smarts developed a campaign that was distinct from the more usual technical and product led offerings. The core direct marketing was particularly successful. Four postcard mailings, each containing a short factual message, were sent to 3000 contacts over a period of a month.

Segmented mailers followed as appropriate. Nearly 80 per cent of recipients canvassed remembered the DM postcards and associated them with the campaign. The website provided more detailed information around the key campaign messages. It offered measurable results as traffic was only generated by the campaign.

In a market where only 20 per cent of the target audience would usually source information online, 3500 people visited the website. Benchmark research was conducted pre and post-campaign and it was ascertained that 98 per cent of respondents had seen the campaign and associated it with Michelin. The ‘stop thirsty tyres’ message was remembered by 61 per cent of respondents, 49 per cent thought more about tyre management and 65 per cent check their tyres more frequently.