Hyundai Motor America used sponsorship of the rock group 311's tour this summer to promote its Tiburon model to drivers ages 18 to 24.
Direct marketing included the Hyundai Tiburon 311 Backstage Pass Sweepstakes, an e-mail campaign and various efforts at 311 concerts.
The sweepstakes offered an all-expenses-paid trip for two to the final show of 311's Sprite Liquid Mix Tour, which ran Aug. 20-Sept. 8, and a chance to meet the band backstage.
“This gave Hyundai a chance to reach its target demographic for this car with music,” said Marcus Peterzel, senior director of e-mail for MusicVision, New York, the agency that designed the campaign. “The goal of the campaign was to generate awareness and interest for the Tiburon among this demographic.”
E-mail promoting the sweepstakes went in three drops in late July, early August and the last week of August. A total of 100,000 e-mails went to subscribers of the 311 e-mail newsletter, and another 1 million went to names taken from a list compiled by GEM (Global E-mail Marketing), a division of MusicVision.
“The names we chose to target were people who have shown an interest in music as well as cars,” Peterzel said.
Both e-mails contained images of the Tiburon and the band. They included information on the tour and details of the sweepstakes along with a forwarding capability allowing recipients to send it to friends. A link to the registration page was provided. At that page, those interested could sign up for e-mail notifications from Hyundai on the Tiburon and its other models.
The newsletter e-mails drew a response rate of 21.5 percent while e-mails to the GEM list generated a 2.4 percent response. The e-mails were forwarded to 11,416 more people. A total of 27,612 people entered the sweepstakes.
Hyundai also promoted the sweepstakes at concert sites, where attendees could learn about the Tiburon and sign up for the contest in several ways, including an interactive kiosk where they could create digital postcards to forward to friends informing them about the show and the sweepstakes.
There also was a customized Hyundai Tiburon, and concert-goers were invited to play the Tiburon Rally Race video game, a virtual driving experience that simulates being in a rally racecar. And prizes were available for those who participated in the Fueled Up Music Trivia Challenge.
The sweepstakes also was promoted on Web sites that cater to this demographic, including Campchaos, Clubplanet, DCN, Kiwibox, eCrush, Pollstar, 311.com and Newgrounds.
