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DETROIT-General Motors’ ACDelco parts division is partnering with country music star Clint Black in a series of relationship marketing events created by ACDelco’s agency of record, Campbell-Ewald Advertising in Warren, Mich.
ACDelco is the major sponsor of Black’s upcoming nationwide concert tour, “Nothin’ But the Taillights,” which kicks off March 8 in California and runs through November, stopping in 85 cities.
The marketing push includes print and radio ads, a national consumer sweepstakes and a pre-concert video that mentions ACDelco’s title sponsorship of the tour. Black’s name will also appear on several racing cars that are sponsored by ACDelco. TV support for the promotion is being considered, said John Zamzow, manager of merchandising and sales promotion for ACDelco.
While ACDelco has sponsored concert tours in the past, this effort is much more extensive. “We’ve made a significant shift in how we go to market,” Zamzow said. Previous sponsorships, which mainly consisted of ticket giveaways, did not connect the sponsored act with the brand in other relationship marketing activities, he said.
“It’s not that [ticket winners] didn’t have a good time, but we didn’t necessarily tie it into the sales of any products,” Zamzow said. “Our whole effort now is to leverage events and sponsorships that we have, to not only entertain people, but to sell ACDelco products, and build and support our brand image. All we got out of it before was ‘warm fuzzies.’ But now we hope we can sell a lot of product, as well.”
Research showed Clint Black fans and ACDelco customers were a good match for such a promotion, Zamzow said.
