Why is this work relevant for PR?

Hankook Tire developed ‘Silent Tape’, a tire for suitcases with the power of Ultra-Low Noise (ULN) tires. It served to promote the noise-reducing effects of ULN tires, even amongst consumers without license, by incorporating the experience into their everyday item. After consumers have reviewed the product on social networks, it brought about a secondary wave of promotion. The reviews themselves became a testament to Hankook Tire’s technology, making this campaign extremely effective in terms of PR, considering the low amount of budget spent.

Background

85% of all the noise on the road is from tires. To combat this, Hankook Tire developed Ultra-Low Noise (ULN) tire, that reduces tire noise up to 50%. However, it is difficult to experience the functional benefits of a tire until it has been purchased. With a small budget to work with, we needed to execute a campaign to let people experience the noise reducing effect of ULN tires, with minimal spending ($4,422).

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

We focused on the fact while tires produce the most amount of noise on the road, suitcase wheels did outside of roads. In doing so, we were inspired to create ‘Silent Tape’, a suitcase tire that provides similar noise-reducing effects of ULN tires. ‘Silent Tape’ was then distributed to people so they could experience the noise-reducing effects of ULN tires. We wanted to promote tires through a problem most people experience, instead of using actual tires. By utilizing the tire technology to solve the noise problem that is suitcase wheels, we gave people reasons to use it, and to participate actively in the ‘Silent Tape’ campaign.

Describe the strategy (30% of vote)

- Development of ‘Silent Tape’, a medium through which ULN tire technology could be promoted to people without cars or even licenses. - However, promotion had to be done within a budget of $4,422, which made ‘Silent Tape’ the only medium of promotion without any mainstream media - Distributing ‘Silent Tape’ to people, and guiding the consumers to post their experiences on social media, where they became secondary wave of promotion

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

- Development of Silent Tape : A silicon-based suitcase tire, that provides a noise reduction similar to that of ULN tire, engineered from Feb. 2019 through Mar. 2019. - Campaign execution: Taken place during ‘Spring travel season’, as designated by Korea Tourism Organization. A total of 500 tapes distributed to travelers. - Propagation : Consumers guided with a hashtag to share their Silent Tape experience online, voluntarily causing the campaign to go viral. Also distributed to micro-influencers that are within the travel/car fields, for a more focused viral campaign.

List the results (30% of vote) – must include at least two of the following tiers:

Without utilizing any mainstream media, and with a small budget of $4,422, and even without actual tires, we were able to effectively promote the technology Hankook Tire offers. Noise-reduced tires have never been a priority in Korea, as there were no regulations relating to the matter until 2018. However, after ‘Silent Tape’ campaign: Ultra low noise tire awareness up 8% Customer inquiries on ULN tire up 357% at vendors 170% more effective than online campaign of a budget 5 times larger