With the price of gasoline topping $4 per gallon and folks talking about ditching their road trips to take “staycations” in the backyard, a tire dealer tie-in with a home improvement retailer might seem like a natural. Yet Firestone’s Home Depot gift card promotion had been in the works for a while, and its fortuitous debut in the midst of a nationwide gas crisis was just fortunate timing resulting in a successful campaign.
“We started discussions with Home Depot over a year ago,” recounts Phil Pacsi, Bridgestone Firestone’s vice president of consumer marketing. Non-tire-related giveaway programs had been conducted in the past, such as an American Express gift card promotion, “and we wanted to do something different this year.”
Starting in May and ending in June – with gardening season in full bloom, of course – customers who bought a set of four selected tires received a rebate good for a $50 Home Depot gift card that bears no service charges and never expires.
Just below Wal-Mart, Home Depot is the second-largest overall retailer in the United States and the world’s biggest home improvement store chain. Each week 22 million people walk through Home Depot’s doors.
The targeted tires good for a gift card were the Firehawk Wide Oval, Firehawk Indy 500, Firehawk GT, Destination LE, Destination A/T and Destination M/T.
“The response that we’ve gotten has been very positive with the tie-in to Home Depot,” Pacsi reports. A final financial tally is not yet available as customers still have time to claim their cards.
A TV and magazine advertising campaign was launched to coincide with the deal, and the broadcasted spots were to obtain an impressive 81 million impressions with viewers. They aired on ABC, Fox SportsNet and The Outdoor Channel. Print ads ran in Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, Hot Rod and Auto Week.
The ad concept was known as “round thing” among the creators. “It was all the things you can buy at Home Depot that are round,” explains Pacsi, such as trash can lids, coiled hoses and the like. Images of the items flashed on the screen in rapid fashion, graphically communicating the roundness factor of tires and assorted home improvement goods.
“We made it available to the local dealers so they could put their tag on it,” he says. Plus there was a Firestone-only set of spots purchased, including ads throughout the Indianapolis 500 “because Firestone is much involved with motor sports.”
Based on an enthusiastic reaction from dealers and collected in-store customer comments, “it has been a very successful promo,” Pacsi points out.
