Brian Peters, president of GyroHSR Chicago, shares the successes of a non-traditional marketing campaign.

Theres an unwritten rule in marketing: Dont mention the competition. GyroHSRs Ultimate Skid Steer Smackdown campaign for John Deere not only broke that rule, but it also shattered the idea of what a construction-equipment marketing campaign could be.

One part branded entertainment and one part viral marketing effort, the Smackdown campaign supported John Deeres entry into the small-frame skid steer market. The premise was simple: Find out once and for all who makes the baddest piece of compact iron on the planet, and prove once and for all that not all skid steers are created equal. The campaign delivered.

Smackdown involved staging a series of head-to-head battles featuring the top machines and operators in the smallframe skid steer business. At a North Carolina dirt track, a live audience of more than 1,000 gathered to watch professional equipment operators take the top skid-steer brands, including Bobcat, Caterpillar, New Holland and Case, through several professionally engineered courses. The events the hill climb, visibility test, power lift and serviceability were based on realworld situations that skid steer drivers experience daily on a job site.

Smackdown was designed from the ground up to be a viral marketing effort, but it also used traditional tactics including a series of print ads highlighting the John Deere skid steers small but tough promise to build buzz.

At the heart of the program was the SkidSteerSmackdown.com microsite, which featured videos of skid-steer battles. Visitors to the site could request a quote, read testimonials, locate a dealer, request Smackdown updates and post comments on the Smackdown blog. Hardcore fans could even download Smackdown-themed wallpaper and screen savers.

To prime the pump for the Smackdown program, several videos were released to dealers and to social media sites forewarning that a battle was brewing. Since Smackdown was meant to be viral, social media was heavily leveraged to promote the campaign, deliver product information and provide event recaps and results. Banner ads on top industry sites including John Deeres main construction page were updated every time new content was added to the site.

For public relations, blog releases were developed in addition to press releases to allow for more flexibility in getting information into the marketplace whenever the site was updated. Prospects could customize and distribute a variety of e-postcards to friends and coworkers. This simple tool converted dealers and owners into John Deeres strongest advocates.

During the John Deere 2008 dealer training event, Smackdown literally took centre stage with a full business theatre announcement of the program and special breakout classroom sessions that trained dealers on how they could best participate in the program to generate leads for their dealerships. In total, more than 700 independent dealers attended this rollout event.

They had expected a typical heavyequipment marketing campaign that relied on spec sheets, demos and safety videos. What they got was a nontraditional alternative. Smackdown was a unique way to educate and entertain the target audience, and it destroyed the status quo exactly what John Deere marketers knew they had to do to gain instant recognition as newcomers to the market.

And through it, John Deere gained a cult following among contractors, landscapers and farmers. Since the site launch in April 2008 through July 15, 2009, the microsite has had more than 150,000 visitors with 125,000 unique views and more than 350,000 page views. Smackdown videos have garnered more than 100,000 views on YouTube. Drive-to-site banner advertising had click-through-rates of approximately 3 percent and eBlasts promoting the site had response rates of more than 7 percent.

We also knew we had something pretty special when independent dealers began requesting artwork for delivery and service vehicles as well as billboard space they had purchased themselves with no corporate matching program in place yet. Awareness of John Deere skid steers skyrocketed, and John Deere captured market share during a tough period in the equipment market.

Ultimately the program proved to be so popular that Season Two was produced. And, a recent decision was made to use Smackdown as a primary part of the launch communications for a new model of skid steer. So the Smack will be back!