• by Karl Greenberg , June 6, 2013

Airstream, maker of the famed silver-bullet recreational vehicles, is going social with a lifestyle video platform, "Live Riveted," whose title refers to the rivets on the vehicles’ fuselages.

The effort, via Sausalito, Calif.-based Skadaddle Media, comprises a video, consumer manifesto and “live riveted challenge” at www.liveriveted.com. The latter is a weekly affair inviting people to talk about and upload photos of challenges they have undertaken. The site includes interviews with people whom Airstream's editors think align with the carpe diem theme, whether they own Airstreams or not.

The company is hoping the site takes off as a rich-media social hub where users share their own stories and talk among themselves about how to live the adventurous life -- however they define it. "The idea of 'Live Riveted' was really to create inspiration," says Mollie Hansen, VP of marketing at the Jackson Center, Ohio-based company. She tells Marketing Daily that Airstream’s site is its top lead generator for dealers. "We have lots of fans who don't even own an Airstream. So new content is important." 

The owner demographic is shifting younger from the traditional retired subset of the population and the "Airstreamers" who made the brand famous, per Hansen, who says 50% of new owners are also new to RVs, and are not necessarily retired. "We are connecting to a group of people not currently in the industry, more and more of whom are interested in the lifestyle -- both for recreation and work."

It helps that Airstream has a cool factor; it's combination of retro fashionability and premium position in the category that makes it hip. Hansen says Patrick Dempsey uses one on the set of "Grey's Anatomy." Matthew McConaughey has one. And so does Lenny Kravitz. The company has cross-promotional arrangements with Mutual of Omaha's "Aha Moment" tour and with Fender.

"It's fun because it lets us collaborate," she says. "We have a following in the design world where people want a connection with the brand; and young designers and artists really gravitate toward it."