Company: Michelin North America, Greenville, SC
Company Division/Group: Ketchum
Company Description: Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Michelin North America employs more than 22,750 and operates 20 major manufacturing plants.Michelin designs, manufactures and sells tires forevery type of vehicle, including airplanes, automobiles, bicycles, earthmovers, farm equipment, heavy dutytrucks & motorcycles. The company also publishes travel guides, hotel and restaurant guides maps & road atlases
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Campaign of the Year - Automotive - Aftermarket

Nomination Title: Michelin Reinvents the Tire Category

Tell the story of this nominated marketing campaign for the judges (up to 650 words). Describe the genesis, planning, execution, and results to date of your campaign.

In January 2014, Michelin was set to introduce a revolutionary new tire. As a partner of the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), Michelin had a built-in opportunity to stage a press conference reaching the who’s who of the automotive media.

On the other hand, tires are the unsung hero of the car world and would be competing with futuristic new cars and high-tech features.

But Michelin decided to put its faith in its first-of-its-kind product, the MICHELIN Premier A/S with EverGrip. Unlike conventional tires, the Premier uses a revolutionary tire design that even when worn stops shorter on wet roads than the leading competitors’ brand new tires.

The challenge was how to unveil this break-through technology in a way that was appealing, easy to understand and able to rise above the Auto Show fray.

The launch had to meet four daunting goals:
* Help meet the product’s sales target (Michelin’s most aggressive target in the past ten years)
* Help maintain the Michelin brand’s high “saliency” rating (its ability to meet target customer’s needs)
* Position the tire as a safety device
* Generate more visibility then Michelin’s previously most successful product launch

The Ketchum-Michelin team drew on research about its core target: "Best All-Around Consumer" (BAR). This segment demands best-all-around tire performance that doesn’t compromise on quality and safety. It skews toward the family-oriented man in his late 40s, who likes to know how mechanical things work and is active online. Focus groups illustrated the concern: "I am unsure about how fast and at what point tires begin to lose grip and I begin to sacrifice my family's safety," said one. All of this led to one human truth: Keeping families safe and secure is a universal and motivating emotion.

The team decided to boldly reinvent the sometimes boring tire category, making the MICHELIN Premier the lone debut product in an all-new “category of one.” The strategy was to position the tire as the next great automotive safety device – one on par with seatbelts and air bags.

This bold strategy kicked off through the creation of a “Science of Safety” storyline to align agency teams and ensure consistency for media activities, video content, retail displays and other marketing materials. But the real moment of truth was the press conference at NAIAS. Ketchum and Michelin decided to create an event that would stand out amid the show’s high-tech noise. The team commissioned three illustrators from CBS News' The Fast Draw to execute a giant 24-by-8 foot, decidedly low-tech live drawing that coincided with – and brought to life – the press conference remarks.

Teased on YouTube and to select attending media ahead of time, the event was consistently praised as one of the show's most memorable press conferences. The approach was highlighted in a New York Times story about the tire. Its essence was packaged into a video explainer that continues to be a hit with media, tire dealers and other stakeholders.

Post-event, the team hosted a "Women and Tires Ride and Drive" for 15 mom bloggers and influencers at Michelin's test track to appeal to the female demographic, who either influence the BAR segment’s tire purchase decisions or make those decisions directly.

The launch of the MICHELIN Premier took the auto show by storm, elevating the tire category and repositioning this tire as a car’s latest safety device. Tire sales outperformed the goals and the media campaign was the best-performing in the history of Michelin North America.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief features and results of the nominated campaign (up to 150 words).

•Made breakthrough tire innovation interesting and easy to understand
•Exceeded aggressive sales target by 8%
•Outperformed previously most successful product launch, achieving 1,100 media placements in first 30 days (300% increase over previous benchmark); •161.7 million impressions through 2014
•Garnered 2014 NEMPA/MIT Automotive Award and Popular Science’s Best of What’s New Award and positive Consumer Reports and WIRED coverage
•The visually appealing and easy-to-understand Michelin Tire Safety Innovation video and Fast Draw Teaser Video have attracted more than 155,000 views
•Positioned tire as safety device, seeding phrases such as “science of safety” and “Premier as a safety device” in online advertising, at retail and paid media integrations

•Maintained brand’s high saliency rating, beating 2013 Brand Health study score by 4 points and increasing scores for “Help Make Driving Safe” and “Able to Perform under Any Condition”