• by Karl Greenberg , October 5, 2014

Tire maker BFGoodrich, known for racing and off-road tires, is going for the rock climbing Wrangler-driving crowd as well as light truck drivers everywhere with a new campaign that starts with an airplane and ends with a Jeep.

The effort, via The Martin Agency, touts the All-Terrain T/A KO2 tire and is likely to appeal to the "did they really do that?" YouTube crowd who likes watching crazy stunts and extreme tests of all kinds (think Slow Mo Guys).

Dispensing entirely with the typical tire-on-a-car footage, cut with CG tire-technology mockups, the video opts instead to show its tire's toughness by tossing it right out of the cargo bay of a twin turboprop at about 14,000 feet over barren desert terrain near Great Salt Lake.  

The tire is seen plummeting thousands of feet, reaching terminal velocity (needless to say) and slamming into the flank of a desert mountain, rebounding a couple of hundred feet in the air, then careening down the slope until coming to rest. A guy grabs it, bolts it onto a Jeep and takes off over rocks and dirt.  

Duane Thomas, BFGoodrich brand communications manager, tells Marketing Daily that the idea, intended to tout the tire's toughness, traction and tread life was to go right to digitally engaged enthusiasts.

"We wanted to make sure we were seeding this socially, by reaching the influencers," he says. The video is activated through content syndication on Facebook, Twitter, and others. "It's getting out there where the target is engaged and looking." 

The company also brought 40 or so influencers — buff book writers, bloggers and enthusiasts — to Baja, Calif., where BFG’s products, or the cars shod with them, have won numerous Baja rallies.

"We took them on 300 miles of terrain from previous 1000 or 500 mile races,” Thomas says. “We don't feel it’s enough to say it's the toughest tire. We wanted to prove it to key influencers.” 

The effort will include print ads in endemic publications, paid digital, and a search campaign.

"It's a holistic plan," he says, adding that although the social target is influencers, the market for off-road tires is broad. "It's a robust and growing market. And the category is competitive with a lot of entrants. The difference is we have been at it for longer. And it's a very popular and growing category even for urban drivers because all terrain includes asphalt and highway." 

One major issue for all online video stunts is authenticity, thus the video is backed by behind-the-scenes “making-of” content, which is pretty much mandatory with a stunt like this. The Martin Agency tapped Camp 4 Collective for production duties.

"There will always be comments saying it's fake, which is why we did a making of,” Thomas says. Among other goodies, one sees the skydiver with a camera first rolling the tire out of the plane cargo bay, and then following close behind. 

BFGoodrich last year started touting the KO line through the “All-Terrain Relay” an adventure-themed video series involving kayakers, fisherman, mountain bikers, and climbers who pass one set of tires from vehicle to vehicle.