By Amanda Walla, Graphic Designer
Rotary has long been known as the company for reliable, durable vehicle lifts, but in early 2018, the company found itself in a new market: wheel service equipment. It was selling (and marketing) a completely new line of equipment, including tire changers, wheel balancers and alignment systems. Although this new line was different from the company’s hallmark car lift, Rotary still catered to its existing target audience: automotive repair shops. With 90+ years of brand equity in the vehicle lift market, Rotary now wanted to grow its footprint in the wheel service space.
The messaging challenge.
The main challenge outlined in the creative brief was that we needed to message to three different audiences:
- Independent repair shops who already have Rotary lifts
- Independent repair shops who don’t currently have Rotary lifts
- Distributors who sell Rotary products
Because each audience had different challenges and reasons to take action, we needed to adjust our message for each one.
Getting aligned (pun intended.)
The client wanted to lead with alignment systems. We presented two concepts that answered the key challenges of the audience, and ultimately, Rotary chose the one with messaging that emphasized the product’s space-saving qualities.
To ensure we reached our audiences on multiple channels, we recommended an integrated campaign that included print ads, social graphics, website takeover, digital ads, email and more.
Extending the message with additional creative.
Our target audiences had now been exposed to the space-saving benefits of Rotary’s tower-free alignment system, but we knew that many of them already had these alignment towers installed in their shops. So, to have a little fun, we created a series of animated social graphics highlighting new uses for their old towers:
What about balancers and changers?
Once we had the alignment campaign in-market, we still needed to give some love to tire changers and wheel balancers. Changers and balancers are pretty standard products in the industry, so we wanted to focus on providing content that would help support the sales team.
Rotary wanted a way to easily display and understand what each piece of equipment did, why it’s important and how it can help a shop. The content needed to work digitally as well as be easy to print and hand out to both the sales teams and potential customers.
The creative process.
With nine different tire changers and five wheel balancers, there was a lot of information to examine. Our solution was an interesting, interactive print piece that the sales team could use in the field and at trade shows that would leave an impression with the customers.
The circular shape of the wheel seemed to be a natural way to deliver information about tire/wheel services. It took a lot of planning to incorporate all of the necessary specs and information into a circular method, but the final piece was a success.
A 10-inch die-cut circular wheel and two smaller circles with die-cut windows were fastened to the outside with a rivet that would allow the window to reveal information specific to the type of vehicles a shop owner services most. The names of each product were listed on the outside wheel, along with a key to decipher the color codes and symbols. One side featured the wheel balancers; the other side, the tire changers.
Our team loved working on this project because we were able to anticipate the client’s needs and integrate them into a larger strategy. This helped us create an exciting and unique campaign in a very crowded, competitive space.