Hankook aims to own the road

Hankook Tire Canada Corp. is launching a national ‘Tame the Road’ marketing campaign – the largest integrated marketing communications campaign to date for the brand in Canada. It includes television, print, radio and online components and reflects the company’s dedication to strengthen their brand and support their dealer network. 

“In the past five years Hankook has experienced tremendous growth,” says Bill Hume, vice-president at Hankook Tire Canada.  “Even in 2009, despite the challenges in the auto industry and the economic turndown, the company managed to be one of the few tire manufacturers to experience continued growth. We attribute our continued success to our strong dealer relationships, and as such we want to continue to support them with marketing activities that educate consumers on the value of Hankook products.”

The campaign includes national television, radio and print advertisements supported by an aggressive online strategy that incorporates search engine optimization and social media activities in the latter half of 2010 which will involve Facebook and YouTube.  The ads themselves are designed to feature how tires impact performance, comfort, and handling. 

Hankook’s spring advertising campaign will run until July 2010. The winter campaign is scheduled to run in November.  The ‘Tame the Road’ commercials will be shown during some of Canada’s most watched programming,  including the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Survivor, House, Grey’s Anatomy and American Idol on stations such as CTV, CityTV, Global, TSN, SportsNet, History Channel and the Discovery Channel.  The radio campaign will take place in both English and French in more than fifty stations covering all major cities in Canada.

In the past twelve months, Hankook Tire Canada has stepped up its focus on marketing communications strategies and activities by signing a three year partnership with Hockey Canada to support grassroots sports in Canada; by selecting NATIONAL Public Relations – Canada’s largest public relations firm – to communicate with consumers; and now by launching its first-ever a nationwide integrated marketing communications campaign.

“Our ultimate goal is to be to a top-of-mind tire brand among Canadian consumers” said Joseph Park, marketing communications manager at Hankook Tire Canada.  “In doing so, one of our mid-term objectives is to increase consumer awareness of the Hankook brand and about the quality and technological innovations of our products.”