The Green Truck Tour

When Windstream, the new regional telecommunications company, spun off from Alltel, they faced the challenge of creating and launching a new brand and generating awareness, sales and goodwill at the grassroots level. To achieve these goals, Grand Central Marketing worked with ad agency The Concept Farm to create "The Green Truck Tour," a promotional tour centered around two identical 1953 green pickup trucks which appear in all of Windstream's television, print, outdoor and online advertising. The classic trucks were fully modernized, with GPS systems, DVD players, satellite radio and 380 horsepower engines that can go from zero to sixty in five seconds and 160 mph.

After unveiling the trucks at Twins Days in Twinsburg, Ohio, the trucks embarked on concurrent tours that will run through November 25. Along the way, they are crisscrossing America's heartland while visiting fairs and festivals in 15 states. Some of the events include Ribfest in Lincoln, Nebraska; the Pelion Peanut Party in Pelion, South Carolina; the Woolybear Festival in Vermillion, Ohio; and the 17th Annual World Chicken Festival in London, Kentucky, as well as several Winstream-sponsored movie nights. At each stop, Windstream is engaging consumers in a variety of games and activities, including a mini-race track where they can race scaled-down 1:16 models of the green trucks, a football toss and a prize wheel where consumers can spin for a chance to win premiums.

Promotional staff are also capturing consumer information and taking photos alongside the iconic green truck, while local Windstream sales associates are at each event to answer consumers' questions about the company's services. Winstream is also using the tour to generate goodwill by donating a total of $100,000 to 4-H clubs in the towns it visits, as well as having the trucks visit retail locations, employee call centers, and local media outlets.

Read the Green Truck Tour Press