The bigger the tyre brand, the more important marketing becomes in order to communicate its values and its worth. With this in mind, the “marketing” tag collates all the latest marketing-related news and analysis into a single place. This reverse-chronological list of thousands of articles is your go-to source of tyre industry, marketing-related news and information.
Axle Group Holdings, parent company of National Tyres and Autocare and Viking Wholesale Tyres, has appointed two to its digital division, growing its marketing department. James Kelly has been appointed as digital marketing manager, and Jack Underwood as digital marketing executive.
Firestone’s Battle of the Bands talent search is back. The Bridgestone second line tyre brand is seeking the most talented bands in the UK, culminating in a performance on the Firestone Stage at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham on 7 December. The social networking-based campaign will be run in partnership with the arena and Professional Music Technology (PMT), which will provide music equipment as an invaluable additional prize to the winning act.
TyreReviews.co.uk has built an influential position within the growing online tyre business sector over the last half-decade. The site’s core focus of user-generated tyre reviews gives visitors the opportunity to present feedback on their experiences with more than 2,500 products; this has resulted in what Tyre Reviews quantifies as “3 billion miles” of motorist feedback. This mileage has helped it to reach around 2.8 million monthly page views (based on March 2016), and as a result the site now claims to influence, via online research, “more than a sixth” of tyre sales in the UK every month. In 2016, the site’s owner, Jonathan Benson, began to publish video tyre reviews himself in addition to the site blog, the most recent of which could be a world first (see video below/on Tyrepress.com). Given the site’s claim to influence such a large proportion of UK tyre sales, Tyres & Accessories also asked Benson for his views on how tyre manufacturers and distributors can increase their own online engagement to capture more of this currently growing market.
Michelin has returned to the top of our annual online brand equity study run in conjunction with Cambridge-based specialists NetNames. The results marks a return to fortunes for the French global player, which has dominated the research for most of the 12 years it has been running until Continental seized first position last year. Indeed, the research has only been topped by three of the tyre majors in its history – Michelin, Continental and Pirelli. However, while the top of the table has been dominated by a select few of the world’s largest tyre manufacturers, some of the biggest gains have been made at the opposite end of the spectrum where the mid-range and economy brands we study have some of the biggest gains.
Randstad Ltd’s engine decarbonising service, TerraClean, has become the sponsor of new Travel Channel programme, Stars In Their Cars, as part of its next stage of TV brand awareness.
Trelleborg has launched a new initiative to tell the stories of successful project implementation from the point of view of its customers. The new Heroes program collects experiences from professional farmers to highlight their issues and how Trelleborg has played a role in solving them. The series launches with the story of Guillaume Agneessens, co-owner of Agri Minon, an agricultural contracting company in Belgium. Agri Minon offers a full service, specialising in sowing, harvesting, spraying, monitoring culture, fragmented records and the PAC statement.
Network Q has renewed its association with British rallying after becoming the Official Event Preparations Partner of the 2016 Dayinsure Wales Rally GB which takes place from 27-30 October. The partnership will see the used Vauxhall brand supply over 50 vehicles to help with the set-up and preparation of this year’s British round of the FIA World Rally Championship. A variety of vehicles will be used to set up the rally, from laying out the special stages, to signposting visitors to car parks and viewing areas.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (@CooperTire) has regained first place in Tyres & Accessories’ annual global tyre social media ranking. The US-based tyre manufacturer topped the chart in 2014, with a score of 84. However, the company’s score decreased to 78.3 in 2015 and the firm fell back to third place. Nevertheless, this year’s score of 81.7 is enough to return Cooper to the top of the tree, with 9.65 points of clear water between it and last year’s winner Pirelli.
Dunlop has topped Tyres & Accessories 2016 social branding table with a score of 81.55. Like our annual global tyre social branding survey, this aims to produce a meta-score based on existing social influence metrics (namely Klout and Kred), covering both contacts and interactions across the leading social media channels including – but not limited to – Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. The difference is that the UK table focuses on accounts managed in and for the UK tyre business.
Liberty Media Corporation and CVC Capital Partners have announced that Liberty Media has agreed to acquire Formula One, the iconic global motorsports business, from a consortium of sellers led by CVC. Liberty Media owns interests in a broad range of media, communications and entertainment businesses.
The consideration comprises cash and newly issued shares in the Liberty Media Group tracking stock (LMCK) and a debt instrument exchangeable into shares of LMCK. The transaction price represents an enterprise value for Formula One of $8.0 billion and an equity value of $4.4 billion.
Nokian Tyres has started a multi-year partnership agreement with professional golfer Mikko Ilonen, Finland’s “Mr. Golf”. The cooperation starts in the beginning of 2017, and Ilonen is set to take part in various company events and endorse Nokian Tyres and its products, especially in the Nordics.
The latest restaurants to be awarded new Michelin Stars will be revealed at a live event for the first time in Great Britain and Ireland. The October presentation will coincide with the publication of the Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland 2017 and it is expected to attract top chefs and key food industry figures
Evergreen Tyres has refreshed its corporate imagery, six years after entering the UK market. The brand has recently introduced five new patterns to its Dyna range.
Hamaton’s H36 and H46 diagnostic tools, produced by Ateq, are now available with a two-year warranty and five years of free updates.
Hamaton Limited, the European sales and distribution centre of its parent company Hamaton Automotive Technology Co. Limited in China, unveiled their first diagnostic tools, produced by Ateq, at the Reifen show earlier this year.
In what is probably the most unorthodox tyre retail marketing campaign Tyres & Accessories has ever reported on, Tyre Warehouse in Timperley, Greater Manchester is offering a bag of carrots with every purchase. It is not clear if the deal is connected to a wider healthy eating narrative or whether it is particularly aimed at people called Peter or Bugs, but the banner makes it clear: “Free bag of carrots with every tyre” in a font bigger than the word tyre of the address of the depot.
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