Uniroyal Gets Mileage Out Of Beanies, Billboards And Balloons

There are a lot of people in the advertising and promotion business who believe it’s a sin to ignore product benefits. Many TV commercials, for example, have little or nothing to do with what they tout – the recent Super Bowl is a great example – and that drives some traditionalists nuts. But you can have it both ways, as a splashy campaign for the Uniroyal Tiger Paw tire with NailGard recently proved.

Tiger Paws are seemingly impervious to nails and other road perils. To get this message across, Uniroyal used TV, event marketing, outdoor ads and, of course, promotional products in the form of genuine Beanie Babies.

Uniroyal launched its effort from Detroit, a hotbed of interest in all things automotive. To drive NailGard into the public’s consciousness, it redesigned its well-known landmark on I-94 – an 80-foot tire that started life as a ferris wheel at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The tire was repainted to resemble the NailGard, but with an added touch: a 10-foot, 500-pound nail punched into it.

Several days later, Uniroyal hit Tiger Stadium armed with 10,000 Beanie Babies – appropriately a tiger named “Stripes.” Kids and parents started lining up at 7 a.m., and the supply of Stripes quickly disappeared. Other tiger toys, however were given out via promotions with the Detroit Free Press and local radio stations.

“We wanted to create an event that captured interest in the new tire,” says Kevin Craiglow, a spokesperson for Uniroyal. “We really felt it was something that we needed to take advantage of, to create visibility of the brand.”

The Beanies themselves

didn’t feature the Uniroyal imprint, but that wasn’t a problem; each was accompanied with a collectible presentation card bearing the company’s logo. After collecting their Beanie, game-goers could check out a demonstration area where spectators were invited to poke holes in tires mounted to a truck. More collectible cards were available at the puncture station, along with coupons and product literature.

Finally, Uniroyal used two hot-air balloons, one shaped like a tire with a nail, the other more traditional with the Uniroyal name. The balloons toured more than 40 national events, culminating in an appearance at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Whenever they touched down, logoed lapel pins, collector cards and coupons were distributed.

The tire was featured in Motor Trend, Time, USA Today, Parade, Popular Mechanics and on the three network morning shows, as well as 80 local stations. All told, Uniroyal tallied over 1 billion impressions.