WAYNE GRETZKY TO DRIVE GOODYEAR ICE TIRES
By Adnews Staff
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is promoting its new Ultra Grip Ice family of winter performance tires with retired hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky became a spokesperson for the company to coincide with the launch of the new tires, now available in Canada and the U.S. The Goodyear Ultra Grip Ice tire features IceLoc, a silica tread compound that improves ice traction. Gretzky will be featured in a print ad, created by Goodyear's advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, promoting the Ultra Grip tire. The ad will be seen in the October issues of Time, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, Money, Motor Trend, and Men's Journal as well as other business, automotive and men's lifestyle magazines. The print ads will also promote the Goodyear Ultra Grip Ultra Trip promotion. In Canada the Ultra Trip promotion will be supported with a retail campaign including regional radio, newspaper and direct mail advertising. The promotion, which will be spearhead by Gretzky, has three components: the Most Gripping Moments of the 20th Century Sweepstakes, in which consumers vote on the biggest moments of the century, the Most Gripping Moments of My Life Essay Contest, in which consumers are asked to share personal stories, and the Ultra Trip grand prize package, which, on New Year's Eve 1999, will provide contest finalists and the sweepstakes winner with a millennium party package. The Ultra Trip promotion was created by Goodyear and its agencies J. Walter Thompson, Hill and Knowlton, Hitchcock Fleming and Associates and Due North Communications. The launch of the Ultra Grip Ice tires will feature Gretzky in all point-of-sale materials in Canadian and northern U.S. Goodyear retail stores, as well as national television advertising, radio promotion in Canada and Northern U.S. markets, Internet advertising and Web site hotlinks.