Tire Brand’s Facebook Campaign Brings User Interaction to Forefront

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Yokohama Tire Corporation's latest social media contest offers customers the chance to win the ultimate road trip.

The "Miles of Fun Ultimate Road Trip" contest gives customers the chance to post a 60-second video explaining their ideal road trip on Yokohama's Facebook page. Videos will be voted on by the company's Facebook friends. The winner will be awarded $5,800 toward their trip, a set of YK580 tires, a Samsung Galaxy II tablet, Sony Bloggie Sport camera, and a Verizon JetPack 4G Mobile Hotspot.

Yokohama says that this type of contest is a great way for companies to interact with consumers through social media. Theresa Palang, Yokohama's manager of public relations and digital marketing, told ClickZ that social media contests like "Miles of Fun Ultimate Road Trip" are an engaging way to use social media to a company's advantage.

"Yokohama wanted to have an exciting way for our consumers to interact with our brand, while going beyond the traditional means of communications. The key for us was the dialogue. If we could share with consumers the benefits of our unique orange oil technology, they in turn could tell us how they see themselves using the tire," said Palang.

"And what better way to inspire consumers to share, we thought, than tapping onto one of the passions we all share as Americans. That is, the love for the open road. So the 'Miles of Fun Ultimate Road Trip' contest came to form."

The Yokohama contest is part of a larger campaign roll for the company's new YK580 orange oil-infused tires. Yokohama says that its new tires can create better traction and greater fuel efficiency. The tires are currently sold exclusively at Discount Tire/America's Tire Company.

Along with the Facebook contest, Yokohama is also using a variety of other methods to spread its message. Palang explained that the company was using behavioral target advertising along with the contest in an attempt to appeal to a diverse group of consumers.

"One of the strengths of the 'Miles of Fun' contest is that it is designed to appeal to a broad audience. Whether they are car enthusiasts, people who are occasionally in the market for a tire, or what we call the active consumers who might not need a tire at present but who might be receptive to respond to a message of the ultimate road trip," continued Palang.

"Behavioral target advertising allows us to be where these different customers are. We follow their behavior and go to them, so to speak, rather than wait for them to come to us."

Yokohama's new focus on user interaction and behavioral target advertising comes following a recent study from Napkin Labs that found that "superfans" were a key player for a successful Facebook brand page.

According to the study, companies see greater amounts of user interaction when focusing on user interaction with specific groups of consumers.