automotive

BFGoodrich New Work Features Animal Metaphors

BF-Goodrich

Remember the tiger in your tank? Tiremaker BFGoodrich wants to put a tree frog on your wheels, not to mention a cheetah and probably a few other animals.

The company's first national advertising campaign since 2008 uses animal attributes as metaphors for how its tires grip the bitumen, accelerate and resist the slings and arrows of outrageous throughways.

The launch spot, breaking the evening of July 14, starts with a professional window cleaner trying desperately to reach bird poop some feet away from his aerie on the outside of a glass-sided office tower. Two dweebs look up from discussing paperwork to watch in amazement as we hear the sound of an air wrench. The window cleaner has bolted on an immense tree frog's foot, which he slaps to the glass, and easily pulls himself over to squeegee the poop. Cut to the same air-wrench sound as a mechanic tightens the bolts on a wheel with new BFGoodrich tires.

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Ads end by touting BFGoodrich tires for things like their being the first street tire to stick to the road on a one G turn; the first to do a sub-eight second quarter mile; and that tires have been the winning shoes for 20 straight Baja 1000 victories.

Tom Jupena, marketing communications manager for BFGoodrich Tires, says the ad's creative deliberately uses the sound of an air wrench out of context in the ad (without actually showing the wrench) because the target consumer will get what it is.

"Ours is not a brand of tire for everyone, it's for those who genuinely live for performance," Jupena says. "They will hear that and immediately know it's an air wrench. We thought long and hard about both visual and audio cues in that ad -- that's why you don't hear music, for instance. We want people to hear a couple of key things -- the sound of an air wrench, the hand slipping on the window, then sticking on the window. And the engine growling."

The ads, via Richmond, Va.-based the Martin Agency, feature a Ford Mustang GT and a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, both wearing g-Force Super Sport tires. Two-time Formula Drift champion Samuel Hubinette did the stunt driving for the spots and Rally pro Lars Wolfe provided technical and special counsel, per the company.

The message is not fundamentally different from what BFG has been doing all along, says Jupena: "But it's a little different way to think about performance and what tires do," he says. "And thinking about it in different way than the usual 30 seconds of a car driving down a road.

Jupena says the ads, as well as print executions, will run on auto male-targeted and enthusiast verticals like Speed Channel, MTV, Spike, and ESPN, plus buff books and magazines like Men's Health. They will also run on BFGoodrich's home page, Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Cheetah and "toughness" print ads will get rotated in later in the year. Dealers are also supporting the campaign with point-of-sale materials and advertising materials designed to extend and enhance their own local marketing plans, per the company.

1 comment about "BFGoodrich New Work Features Animal Metaphors".
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  1. Robert Ingersol from Nota, July 15, 2010 at 9:50 a.m.

    Many auto enthousiasts cringe at the idea of an air wrench being used to tighten wheel nuts. But how would a marketing person at a tire company know that?

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