Tied in Category Pack up the SUV

AWARD CATEGORY Internet-based Trial Recruitment

CAMPAIGN Take 3 to Tahoe

AGENCY Rodale

CLIENT Chevrolet

These are challenging times for magazine publishers.

Print doesn’t have the cachet that it once did, which is why space salespeople are constantly looking for value-added opportunities.

Rodale, which specializes in consumer health and fitness titles, created its Marketing Solutions Group in 2006 to help advertisers get more bang for their buck.

These days that means figuring out an interactive component.

“Our goal for Tahoe was two-fold,” explains Mary Ann Bekkedahl, executive vice president and group publisher for Rodale.

“We wanted to generate consumer awareness of the Chevy Tahoe, and generate hand-raisers interested in learning more about the vehicle,” she adds.

To accomplish the dual aims, Rodale developed and designed a Web-based advergame in which visitors had three minutes to virtually pack a Tahoe. The publisher then enlisted the online expertise of ePrize to produce it.

Users select, drag and drop outdoor gear (a kayak, bike, etc.) inside the SUV’s cargo area and onto the roof rack. A mechanism indicates when gear is properly or improperly packed.

“Did you know” pop-ups also appeared throughout, describing the Tahoe’s features.

The game was played more than 150,000 times. The average user revisited the site and played an average of 7.89 times.

While the focal point of the campaign was interactive, Rodale’s print books and Web sites for Runner’s World, Bicycling, Backpacker and Men’s Health drove traffic to the Take3toTahoe.com site.

In each magazine, a full-page regular ad (designed by Campbell-Ewald Detroit) ran side by side with a full-page advertorial promoting the online game and sweeps.

The SUV is called Tahoe, so naturally if you’re going to give away a trip for four in a sweepstakes, where else to go but Lake Tahoe?
— Larry Jaffee

IDEA TO STEAL
THE POWER OF PRINT

Never underestimate the power of print. While the results demonstrate an advergame’s effectiveness, Rodale’s various franchises work hand in hand with interactive media.

That “in-book activity” serves as a blueprint of old media coexisting with new media.

“We’ve had a corporate sales organization of one kind or another for easily 15 years, but started placing an emphasis on solution-based selling in 2006,” Bekkedahl says.