Blazing New Trails: The Launch of the John Deere Gator XUV

Situation: Gator vs History

John Deere’s Gator® Utility Vehicle is historically known as durable, reliable, hardworking and versatile. In June 2010, John Deere unveiled a vehicle with additional designations – ones never before used intentionally by Deere in reference to a utility vehicle: “Fun”. The campaign launch of the new John Deere Gator XUV line began at an experiential media event, and was communicated in a variety of channels throughout 2010 to customers, influencers, partner organizations, and key stakeholders.

Research: Gator vs Perceptions

The Gator® XUV 825i marks John Deere’s first-ever utility performance crossover vehicle, appealing to audiences who desire a vehicle that gets the job done during the week, and tears up the trails on the weekend. Understanding the target consumer is different than any other product audience in the past, it was critical to the go-to-market strategy to have a keen awareness of the consumer landscape and purchase triggers. John Deere embarked on an intensive market study that captured data around the consumers primed for a “work and play” vehicle. Elements of the research included primary and secondary research informing the vehicle’s design and features as well as price point, retail options and purchase considerations. Additionally, media and influencers were analyzed for their impact in different niche and hobby communities. Overarching research results called for communication efforts to target three specialized markets: outdoor enthusiasts (including trail riding, hunting and fishing), production and hobby farmers who want a performance vehicle for the “off work” hours, and off-road racing enthusiasts, with a heavy emphasis on the need to build credibility for Deere in the new space and drive product trial.

With this initial knowledge, and concurrent to the aggressive media outreach in the late summer and early fall 2010, John Deere and IMRE dove more deeply into the world of off-road desert racing, seeking to understand this niche consumer and begin to gain recognition in this space. Research tactics included evaluating and ranking all off-road racing organizations, attending two race events to bring back intelligence about the market opportunities, and vetting sponsorship opportunities.

Goal

Earn the respect of select influencers and prove the performance message in an experiential way that spawns consumer, niche and trade media coverage, drives customer trial and elevates stakeholder awareness.

Measurable objectives

  • Secure attendance of at least 30 media influencers in the hunting, agricultural, rural lifestyle, motorsport and ATV fields at a two-day experiential launch event
  • Generate at least 10 million media impressions by December 2010
  • Create positive buzz on blog sites, multimedia outlets and among key influencers via integrated digital and social PR elements and generate at least 200,000 non-media online impressions
  • Generate at least 100 test drives via media product seeding and customer events
  • Inform more than 500 key John Deere stakeholders of the new XUV line and the crossover performance category expansion, leading to marked increases in sales

Planned tactics included a series of elements beginning with a media and influencer experiential launch event aimed at building that core group of XUV fans. Tangential programming including a three-phased microsite, a media-focused hashtag program, aggressive media relations, product seeding, and customer trial and feedback touch points. IMRE executed the campaign with approximately 25 percent of the overall John Deere property owner professional services budget (confidential, per John Deere) for 2010

Execution: Gator vs Just another media event

To meet the objectives and gain the necessary credibility, it was essential to begin with an event that provided top media and online influencers the chance to have a “who-hoo!” moment on a John Deere XUV. After site visits to multiple locations nationwide and a poll of select media, the PR team chose Carolina Adventure World in Winnsboro, S.C., with more than 2,600 acres of trails, for the media test-drive experience. Invitations were issued, and drew a 2 percent acceptance rate for 33 media members representing 44 outlets in all target markets in the objectives.

Greeted with southern hospitality on June 9, 2010, the media influencers arrived in Charlotte, N.C., from all corners of the country and were escorted to the Westin Charlotte for a product unveiling complete with presentation and video. The unveiling was followed by a networking dinner where they had direct access to John Deere product engineers and marketing executives. The following day, it was helmets, riding gloves and pedal to the metal at Carolina Adventure World, complete with a photographer and videographer on hand to take custom orders from the media.

John Deere and IMRE supported the event launch and built the roadway for the continuation of the campaign using a variety of tools and tactics, including:

  • Media Microsite Development: A three-phased media microsite launched on May 31, 2010. Phase one posted as a private “event attendee only” site geared towards extending the excitement generated via the invitation. This phase lasted 11 days, and contained teaser content, travel information and information about the local area. Phase two, containing all of the media materials, launched at the exact time the product was unveiled to the event attendees. This select group of attendees had 12 hours of exclusivity before the URL was blasted to the entire media list. Phase three went live at 7 am on June 10, 2010, and acted as a “telescope” into the event for all media not present. Photos, blog posts, videos of the day’s events were loaded to the site throughout the day, providing non-attendees the virtual experience, and providing attendees an opportunity to download photos and videos of themselves in action on the XUVs. This continues to serve as the XUV electronic press kit.
  • Aggressive Media Relations: The PR team continued to work directly with the initial set of event attendees to develop short-lead online and long-lead print placements using exclusive interviews and content. Meantime, a heavy emphasis was placed on the non-attending media who had access to the “virtual” event and the new product information. These media outlets ranged from mainstream general consumer outlets to off-road racing media to automotive media such as Car & Driver and even Edmunds.com.
  • Media Product Seeding: Continuing to prove the performance message, John Deere and IMRE designed a program to provide loaner test units of the XUV 825i vehicles to select media who were unable to attend the event, or who met other qualifications. These product loans, along with aggressive pitching around seasonal and recreation uses took the media conversation into 2011, showcasing the hunting and trail riding attributes.
  • Hashtag Creation: Providing the #DeereGator hashtag to the media allowed John Deere to aggregate the tweets from the unveiling and the test drive, optimizing the content for better viewership.
  • Social Media Mixes With Customer Trial: IMRE scanned the social media landscape throughout the campaign for online conversations about the XUV, ranking sentiment and gleaning insights that informed current and future communications messaging. Initial insights drove programming for an off-road racing consumer event on October 2010 at the Best in the Desert’s Bluewater Desert Challenge race. At the event, spectators and racers were invited to a test track to ride the new XUV 825i and provide feedback. The test drive was supplemented with a John Deere Facebook photo gallery program, where test-drivers could tag and ‘like’ their image, as well as a Foursquare check-in contest with Deere partner Fox Shox.

Evaluation: gator vs the real world

Consumers and media reacted – and continue to react – favorably. With placements in more than 75 key outlets and more than 100 media and consumer test-drives in three months, the momentum continues. Here’s a look at the specific metrics against objectives:

  • Secure attendance of at least 30 media influencers in the hunting, agricultural, rural lifestyle, motorsport and ATV fields at a two-day experiential launch event: 33 media attendees representing 44 media outlets at the launch, generating more than 24 placements and 14.9 million impressions within two weeks of the event. Social PR buzz in the first five days: 125 tweets (not including re-tweets), 42 #Deeregator hash-tag uses, 77 blog posts and 30 total mentions in forums.
  • Generate at least 10 million media impressions by December 2010: 48.8 million media impressions in 2010 via 75 multimedia and print placements, exceeding goal by 388%
  • Create positive buzz on blog sites, multi-media outlets and among key influencers via integrated digital and social PR element and generate at least 200,000 non-media online impressions: More than 793,000 online impressions by XUV “fans” John Deere’s Facebook site.
  • Generate at least 100 test drives via media product seeding and customer test drive events: 140+ media and consumer test drives, with more than 44 Likes to the Facebook Gator XUV Test-Drive Photo Gallery. More than 15 XUV loaner units actively in the field being tested by media for ongoing 2011 coverage.
  • Inform more than 500 key John Deere stakeholders of the new XUV line and the crossover performance category expansion, leading to a marked increases in sales: 1,144 unique visitors to the media microsite with 4,686 page views and an average of 2:17 minutes on the site; 71 customer test drives; Numerous John Deere owners, shareholders, analysts and brand-loyalists listening on the John Deere Q4 earnings report teleconference stating that the XUV product launch was “met with great success.” A John Deere product marketing executive stated for the record that, “While we don’t break out sales of product categories publicly, we will say that total XUV sales have significantly increased over the last fiscal year.