Bridgestone Firestone to Launch New Ad Campaigns

From Akron Beacon Journal

Bridgestone Firestone’s North American Tire division is preparing to launch new slogans and advertising campaigns to raise awareness of, and to distinguish, its Bridgestone and Firestone brands.

Company officials say they hope to build upon the new campaign themes and slogans for years to come.

"We started about a year ago," said John Gamauf, president of Bridgestone Firestone’s consumer replacement tire division in Nashville. "We listened to our customers who said the Bridgestone brand is the best-kept (secret) in the business."

So, with the help this summer of The Richards Group of Texas, one of the largest privately held marketing and advertising firms, Bridgestone Firestone came up with revamped themes:

–"It’s Bridgestone or Nothing." The company is positioning Bridgestone as its premium brand and will note it provides original equipment tires for BMW vehicles and top-of-the-line models from General Motors.

–And "A Tradition of Innovation" for Firestone, will be aimed at better positioning it as the company’s value brand for buyers who include families and much of Middle America. The Firestone theme being developed will revolve around the concept of pride, a company spokesman said.

The Richards Group is known for taking lesser-known brands and making them better known, said Michael Fluck, director of advertising for the tire company. Bridgestone Firestone provided an early look at the new campaigns earlier this month at its dealer meeting in Las Vegas.

"Bridgestone and Firestone mean different things," Fluck said. "We’re like Toyota and Lexus. We have two strong brands…. This is really looking at how we differentiate our brands."

The intent is also to distinguish the brands from competitors’ tires as well.

Bridgestone’s campaign launches first, likely in mid to late February, with the Firestone campaign, still in planning stages, starting in late April or May at the latest.

Both will involve prominent television commercials as well as significant Internet advertising, as well as print media, Bridgestone Firestone executives said. The Bridgestone commercials have been already filmed, Fluck said.

"It will be more television than we’ve done in the past," Fluck said. "We will be heavy into cable."

He and others declined to say specifically what will be in the commercials and advertisements other than it will involve different concepts around a central idea to help communicate the importance of the tire.

Also, Bridgestone Firestone is not saying how much money it will spend on the campaigns other than it is a more than 10 percent increase compared to previous campaigns.

But Gamauf said it will be "millions and millions and millions more in spending."