Interstate Batteries Summer Snow Days

Best Use of Event Marketing (Five or Less Venues)

Interstate Batteries Summer Snow Days
Agency: Inspira Marketing Group
Client: Interstate Batteries

Trying to create a fun, interesting campaign around car batteries is challenging. Commercials in the category tend to drone the same messages over and over again and customers have gotten immune to them. Interstate Batteries, a nearly 60-year-old company based in Dallas, Texas, wanted to change the norm.

Through market research, Interstate uncovered that 90% of Americans think cold weather is the leading cause for a dead battery, but hot weather is actually more likely to cause battery failure.  To engage consumers in a dialog about the realities of car battery failure and Interstate’s “Outrageously Dependable” promise during a time when they had more fun things on their mind, they did something outrageous: created a snowy day in July.

To target parent drivers in key markets, Interstate sponsored five minor league baseball teams in Sacramento, Calif.; Frisco, Texas; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Des Moines, Iowa. At one game in each location, where the temperature was above 100 degrees, attendees were presented with falling snow, a sledding hill and a snow sandbox. As people approached, they were greeted with an Interstate green snow cone and asked, “Have you had your car battery checked lately? You know, heat is actually more likely to cause battery failure than cold weather.”

More than 22,000 people participated in the snow day events, engaging for an average of 19 minutes. Most importantly, a  post event survey revealed that 87% of people came away from the event believing that heat is the leading cause of battery failure and would consider buying Interstate the next time they needed a battery.

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