Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.´s Ultimate Bowl Tour is the biggest promotion in the company´s history, according to Chairman, CEO and President Tom Dattilo.
The "tour" consists of an all-expenses paid trip for one winner and three friends or family members to see five college football bowl games in five days. Traveling by private jet, the foursome will attend games in San Antonio, Texas, Memphis, Tenn., Pasadena, Calif., New Orleans and Miami.
Consumers can enter at any of Cooper Tire´s 5,000 dealer locations nationwide, or by logging onto www.ultimatebowltour.com between Aug. 2 and Nov. 15, 2004.
One lucky grand prize winner -- no purchase is necessary -- is being chosen in early December. Certificates for a set of Cooper tires (a $500 value) are being awarded to 25 first prize winners. Fifty second prize winners will receive ESPN/Cooper Tire football jerseys.
"For Cooper, the Ultimate Bowl Tour is a great way to demonstrate our
commitment to college athletics," says Dave Craig, director of North American advertising for Cooper Tire.
Cooper Tire is the official tire of six major collegiate conferences, the presenting sponsor of "Thursday Night Football" on ESPN, and the presenting sponsor of the Cooper Tire Bowl Challenge Cup.
ESPN college football analyst and former Ohio State University quarterback Kirk Herbstreit will be part of Cooper´s national advertising campaign for the Ultimate Bowl Tour.
"College football is full of great schools, great teams
and great traditions," says Herbstreit. "The winner of the Ultimate Bowl Tour is going to experience this first-hand and have memories for a lifetime."
Broadcast, print and Web ads including Herbstreit are scheduled to run on ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN.com and ESPN Radio, and in ESPN The Magazine. The Ultimate Bowl Tour also is being advertised on regional ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Mountain West, PAC-10 and SEC
football conference games.
"The Ultimate Bowl Tour allows Cooper to engage our local dealers, while targeting the younger demographic of new tire buyers as well as the brand-loyal consumers," says Craig. (Cooper Tire dealers are not eligible to win.)
"Collegiate sports reach the tire buying public -- young
couples, the tuner market -- and help tire dealers create loyalty with their customers," says Bill Watkins, general manager of Moore´s Tire Sales Inc., a Cooper Tire dealer in Oswego, N.Y. "I love the fact that we are giving consumers added value to their tire purchase."
