B (5:13)

When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious.

A (5:20)

Guess who's back?

C (5:23)

Check me out.

A (5:34)

Steal.

B (5:39)

The best tires in the world have.

A (5:41)

Goodyear written all over.

C (5:45)

Still the beats bang still doing my thang since I left Ain't too much change.

A (5:56)

Still.

C (5:58)

And even when I was close to defeat I rose to my feet I proposing for the gangsters all across the world still hitting impounders in the lows girl still taking my time to protect the feelings and I'm skinny Guns.

A (6:11)

Off the streets Taylor, why don't you tell us a little bit about Goodyear, whom it competes against in its major markets?

B (6:19)

Yeah, sure. You're probably familiar with all the big names, right? Michelin, Pirelli, Continental, Bridgestone. I think everybody, a lot of these are super famous, very old brands that we've all heard of time and time again. I think that's the primary competition set and kind of the group of, of brands or products that people would have in mind whether or not they blow a tire on the road or they're just kind of thinking about replacing tires that feel a little worn. There's a second set, I would say, that's much larger without getting too deep into how we define all the different tiers, but there's a lot of new entrants in the category that are really low price entrants, hundreds of them, in fact. And so that sets up a different kind of level of competition that we have to work against. For those people that are just in the moment buying a tire, it's a tough purchase, it's a low involvement purchase. And so people just sometimes defer to the lowest price, which is.

A (7:24)

Yeah. And it can be an expensive proposition. And then who is the audience? Because I'm thinking, for me, I tend to replace the tires on my car with the tires that were already on it. So I'm not going through a shopping process. And then ownership of cars these days, if you own it for three to five years, you may not even need a new set of tires. So who on the sort of consumer ownership side is the target for this campaign? Or are they?

B (7:56)

I think the primary target is the replacement customer. It's you, right? It's the person who probably isn't really involved in replacing their tires. And if something happens, they just take, they'll take it to the dealership, they'll take it to their local place and they'll say, I don't know, put whatever's on the car back on the car. We want to change that thought process a little bit. So we want to wedge the brand into their head so that they're thinking, hey, Goodyear is a good tire brand. Can you think about that? But on a broader level, I would say that the halo effect that that brand spot creates is really the most important thing. Right. Because if you're going in and asking for the tires that are already on your car to be put on your car, then we had to hit that way upstream to be that set of tires, right?

A (8:39)

That's right.

B (8:40)

Have an OE relationship and be the OE fitment. And whether that's the OE group of people that are doing that sort of relationship building internally or it's commercial or aviation or any of the other B2B needs, those are all people, too. And so this big cinematic spot that we put out was really about planting a flag for the brand. And while it's mostly aimed at people, I think it reshapes everyone's perception of Goodyear as well.

A (9:07)

And so oe, for the listener who don't know that's the original equipment manufacturer, that might be Ford, it's that producer of a vehicle or whatever, and then ultimately, you've got to influence that in order to replace that. What would you add to that, Lindsay, in terms of sort of the dynamic of the target audience?

D (9:25)

I mean, I think you hit a nail on the head, right? Like, the average consumer is replacing tires every three and a half years. So it's a very low engagement category. I think. Taylor, we were both surprised at how complex this category is. Like, having automotive experience, the tire category is a whole nother level of complexity of how and where and the different ways consumers can actually go and purchase tires. And so we kind of took a step back, I think, from the category at large, and we're like, how can we just build a brand halo so that we're top of mind? Like, if we're intercepting people so that then they're walking into, whether it's their dealership or the mom and pop tire shop and need to go and purchase the tire, how is Goodyear just even on their mind? Because in North America alone, you walk into these tire shops, there's 425 brands to choose from. Like, it's. They don't even know where to start. And the majority of people, like, don't, frankly, really care. I. You know, I think there's the enthusiasts that are really invested in the type of tire they put on their vehicles. And then there's people like, hand up, like, Me that goes to their dealership and says, I don't know, put whatever's on my car, that's fine. So, you know, it's. It's. We have to make people care. We have to make people pay attention. And I think still was, you know, our first take at that.

B (10:39)

In a certain sense, everything we do is to be prepared for a person to walk into a retail store and ask for a Goodyear and to have the right tire there. I think when we talk about modernizing the brand, there's other ways to deliver a tire to a person as well. And so, you know, you explore all the different routes.

A (10:54)

Meaning what?

B (10:55)

Direct directly of direct home installation or, you know, any, you know, if you.

D (11:00)

Want a tire delivery too, which is really cool. They have.

B (11:03)

Yeah.

A (11:03)

So good.

B (11:03)

The roll program or Goodyear Mobile Garage is literally a service that comes to your house and installs your tires and does other services as well.

A (11:11)

Oh, wow.

B (11:11)

I think once people use that, they go, oh, well, I never. I don't really want to go.

A (11:15)

Never going to go to a tire store.

B (11:16)

I'm going to show up at my house and do all that stuff. So Mobile Garage is a really interesting product.

A (11:22)

That is a really interesting product and.

B (11:25)

I think is in 30 or 40 markets now. We can't expand it fast enough to complement the retail footprint that we have. So there's all kinds of different sort of levers to pull once you start thinking like a modern brand. And we'll explore all of them to try to get the right tire to the right person.

A (11:45)

So what was the talk? A little bit. Taylor, how long have you been there? Because your background is an agency. Tell me about how long you've been there then. What was the state of the brand when you arrived?

B (11:55)

Yeah, so we're coming up on a year at Goodyear, which. Which is a fun and fast anniversary. But when I got there, I think there is, you know, to Lindsay's point, a little bit, and I'll take a step back and kind of paint the whole picture of how the brand got to this place. Obviously, it's an iconic brand. I mean, we all have heard of Goodyear, or you've seen the blimp over a sporting event, or you've seen nascar and you may be a huge fan there, and you've seen the tires going round and round. So I think there's an idea that people have of the brand that is very iconic, but it doesn't feel necessarily as modern as it possibly could. And that's kind of what we encountered when we got there is that the brand had done a ton of things in its past, and it certainly has. I mean, the blimp is celebrating its 100th anniversary. It's been around for 100 years. Do you want to talk about that?

D (12:43)

You know what was so surprising, Taylor, about the blimp was like people didn't even know the blimp was related to tires. Like, they knew Goodyear was the blimp, but they didn't know then the blimp was tires. And we were like, well, that. That's problematic.

A (12:55)

That is a big problem.

D (12:56)

That's our job.

A (12:58)

My God, that's a problem.

B (12:59)

Yeah. Which you can go buy a T shirt now that says blimps are cool. Buy tires. But I think the big realization that we all had was that we weren't really saying why Goodyear mattered. We were shouting Goodyear. And because we're an icon, that was enough. But the next step was to definitely say, okay, what do we want this to mean to people and what do we want to say to them and what do we want them to take away? And that's what really the first chapter and what still was all about.

A (13:26)

So was it the issue that most that so many brands are facing where you have to your point earlier, you have hundreds of competitors. Was it that those brands were making further incursions into share and you guys were like, shit, we got to figure out the brand. We've got to use the brand in a more effective way to maintain our build share? Was that sort of the business problem?

B (13:47)

Yeah. So, I mean, that's a good way to put it. I think there's a margin component of it as well. There's a premiumness that we wanted to build into the brand as well. So that's another factor there. But whether it's one of the main competitors being more prevalent for people or more top of mind, or it's one of the low cost competitors coming in, there was a loss of share. There's a little bit of erosion there. And so kind of competing with everything on two different fronts there.

D (14:16)

I think though, too, it's interesting, like as we were digging into, you know, past Goodyear ads that they've run, like years and years ago, I'm talking decades ago, it was a lifestyle brand. Like there was so much, so many things that Goodyear did. Right. And then over the last, you know, 10, 20 years, it's been a race to the bottom. I think across the category. Like, you're finding a lot. It's, it's. We were Saying this this morning, Taylor, it's like a. It's like closer to mattresses in Telco than it is automotive. Like, it is just text inspects and zoomed in photos of tire tread that people don't really know what they need. They don't know what it means for their car. And so we're starting to like the category. I think at large is just talking to itself. I don't think the average person really cares or knows what that means for them. And so having to. It was a very conscious effort to take a step back from the category and look at how we could start to disrupt it, because if we continue doing. Playing the same game, and it's an easy game to play because, right, you. You put the discounts, you talk about your specs, you're doing all the right things on paper, but you're having to discount your tires. And so over time, it's just gonna. It's a race to the bottom. So we were really conscious about, I think, just taking a step back and making sure that what we were doing next was in service of building the brand.

A (15:38)

So when you go through that process, Lindsay, you guys are doing some work to define it. The team's working on it. What are some of the things that came out of that in terms of what this brand stands for? And then we'll get into what you ultimately began to leverage. But what are some of the hallmarks of Goodyear versus the Michelins of the world and others?

D (16:00)

We did an icon survey early on. Taylor, I feel like you know where I'm going with this. Harry, our strategist on the business, favorite stat.

A (16:09)

But what's Harry's last name? Because we love to promote strategists on the show.

D (16:13)

Harry Gilt. Harry Gilt, yeah.

A (16:15)

Yes.

D (16:15)

So Harry Guild's favorite stat, I think, out of the whole process was we ran a survey basically asking people to score iconic things in U.S. culture. Bruce Springsteen scored 82 out of 100. Goodyear scored 87 out of 100. So you look at the, like, iconicity.

A (16:33)

Of this brand, on what basis were they scoring it? On what basis was it scored?

B (16:38)

Custom research that we asked. The question was, you know, do you consider these things an icon? And it was a list of things. And so we came in right below PB&J and right above Bruce Springsteen.

D (16:47)

PB&J was 94%, and this year was 87%.

B (16:51)

Pretty iconic. The survey was run in the U.S. we validated it globally with some other things. But I think that's another big piece of the brand, when you initially encounter the brand, is that it's truly an iconic American brand. And that's an interesting thing to deal with these days.

D (17:06)

I mean, I think there was a lot that came up that was surprising. I think when we were briefed on this, initially everyone thought, yes, Goodyear is a cool brand. It's iconic. No one really could tell you why. It was a bit of an empty, like, vessel, so to speak. As you dig into it, you realize that they're in a ton of movies. You're in Back to the Future, you're in Scarface, you're in Cars, you're in rap songs with Ice Cube. It was a good day. You know, you're the first to drive across the moon. You were broken the land speed record. You've won F1 more F1 races than any other tire. Like, you start to realize that they have all of the. This street cred that people just don't really know about them. And so it started to become this, like, story we needed to tell and so desperately needed to take ownership of. I think we just aren't getting credit.

A (17:50)

So other brands like, like Michelin comes to mind for me as a popular brand. Don't they too, Taylor, have that sort of icon, Icon, iconic status from the past? Are you. Is this an example of which is great in marketing, that you're claiming this space before anybody else claims it's it.

B (18:11)

Yeah. And so, you know, Michelin, Continental, they're all old iconic brands as well. Some of them more well known than others. I think the interesting thing about that research that Lindsey just talked about to me was that people know tires are important. But if you start to look at how tire brands speak to people, they speak to them as if they shouldn't care about tires because it's a trust game. And they just say, listen, it's a complicated thing. It's very hard. Don't worry about it. We got you. And they actually go so far and we did competitive research to figure this out, that they say, don't think about tires. We'll think about them for you. They ask you to actively forget about the brand and the product that you're about to purchase. And so the idea behind where we sort of position the brand was just to do the opposite was to say that tires are super important. People know tires are super important. We've always talked about tires as if they're important as a brand. And so let's shout about them from the rooftops.

D (19:06)

I think the other thing too, on that point is like, people are also only buying. A lot of. A lot of people are only buying tires when they're discounted. And so it goes back to, like, the race to the bottom thing of how do you get people to care enough to want to pay to pay more for Goodyear and not just buy them when they're on sale and especially when they're in, you know, these mom and pop tire centers trying to pick something, it's easy to go to the one that's like, middle of the road when you don't really know what you're asking for. So to Taylor's point, like, really making sure we're elevating the brand out of some of that.

A (19:38)

Let me take you back, Taylor, to the. I mean, as an agency guy, all three of us here then are familiar with the idea that generally the solution doesn't come out of the first round. And you guys obviously went for this iconic fame direction strategically. I'm curious what else was on the table, because I've got to imagine that there were more human centered story angles strategically that you could have gone after about the relationship between the driver and the tire. That could have been super interesting, too.

B (20:14)

We went hard on Icon initially. I think one of the first directions we thought about when we were positioning the brand was that iconic status that we had and can we rely on that to be something that we build something off of? And we explored that a little bit and kind of found out that when you're an icon, you can't call yourself an icon, and it's just not something that you can talk about. It doesn't actually help us decide what to do next. Saying that we're an icon. And I think we. As opposed to shifting off of that and going specifically to a more human story, I think we stayed centered on the brand, but decided to talk about some of the behavior that the brand's had in the past or some of the reality around what the brand means to people now and how we can highlight that stuff. One of the things that I love about BBH is I'm not a huge fan of pyramids and brand triangles and things that have a lot of language in them because I feel like they're indefensible to a certain extent and people can pick them apart. And so we really tried to give a handle when we repositioned Goodyear, we tried to create a handle that everybody could kind of hang on to internally, and it's an internal line. But since this is a strategy podcast, we'll talk about it. And we'll say it out loud. So we shifted away from this, only focusing on kind of being an icon and what that meant as a brand to something much more centered around what we made as a company. And I think if you've seen Mark Stewart, our CEO, or any of the other leaders talk about Goodyear forward or what our new goal is, it's number one in tires. And if you look at our volume, we're already number one in tires. We sell the most tires. It's about changing what that means, right. What number one means from just a company that sells the most tires to a company that sells the best tires, the most profitable tires, the most loved tires and things like that. So I love the clarity of that and I love that it's getting away from a place where we were, which was about mobility and kind of more generalized things that didn't really connect on a human level. It was very direct. And so we kind of shifted the positioning to really focus on the product and really be centered on what we made. So the positioning line as it stands now does the opposite of what all that stuff in the industry does to tell you to not worry about tires. It actually says tires are worth bragging about. And that's the line. Tires worth bragging about and lets us focus on what we make and lets everyone inside of a 65, 70,000 person organization also focus on what they make and really be proud of the things that they produce. And so I think that shift really changed everything. And the still spot is kind of a celebration of all those things. If you look at, if you break that spot down, it's very much what we used to do, what we've always done, what we still do. And there's pieces of our history and pieces of things we're doing now and things we're doing in the future, all related to lifestyle and motorsports and things that are more directly connected to the consumer.

A (23:11)

So were there other things, Lindsey, that were on the table? Because I think what Taylor's saying is you guys went straight after Icahn. Where did Icon come from? Was it from the client? Was it from you guys?

D (23:23)

We should give a shout out to the cmo, Will Rowland, because I think he has a very strong vision for the brand. He's a. He's a true partner in the thick of the work with us day in and day out. And so when he. We all kind of came in at the same time together. New to the business. He's Goodyear's biggest fan. He, he could tell you every, like the first meeting I ever had with Will was him taking out all of these books that he had put together himself of iconic advertising Goodyear did 50 plus years ago. Like, there's stacks and like, you know, you can pay people that like do this for a living. They're called historians and librarians and maybe you should get one. But he's like, no. On ebay, he has all of it. And so, you know, the first meeting we had, he, he lays all this out and he's like, we don't act like this anymore. And it, it's fair. And so like this, this need to get our swagger back is something we've talked a lot about. And like, again, it goes back to like taking ownership for all the amazing things the brand has done. Most people just don't know. Will knows because he's their biggest fan. The average person doesn't know, but when you tell them, they think it's really cool. So icon was always is pretty central to where we were thinking, I will say and I'll let you in on the cutting room floor. There was another line and Taylor to your credit, like, we took two fully baked brand POVs into research and we spent a good amount of money on really understanding which one of these was more viable. And I was actually hand up. I was surprised when we netted out with tires worth bragging about. I think we all thought the other line we were playing around with was icons don't stay in their lanes. And it's pithy and it has a good like beat to it. But I think as we spent more time with it, as we spent more time with consumers, there was a ton of time talking to real people throughout this process. It takes you where everybody else was. And if you're going to use like the BBH ism of when the world zigzag, it's a zig. It's talking about mobility, it's talking about, you know, different things like spaceship and things that are not necessarily front on with tires. And so as we work with Will and as we work with the CEO Mark Stewart, who talks a lot about like being number one in tires again, we kind of realized we needed something that was really centrally about tires and really proud about tires. And so we netted out with we make tires worth bragging about. And I think the true testament to these big brand POV statements are the marketing team can run around the halls with them all they want unless they're embraced and loved and like, like there's people excited about them. They kind of don't mean anything. And it's something that it's been really cool to just kind of watch the organization rally behind. It's a very clear message for, you know, the engineering team and the design team. It's a clear message also for, like, the recruiting team. Go big people that are proud to talk about hires. So it's been this central thought, But I also think it was a central thought as we jumped into this first iteration of the work work. Let's plant the flag like we're proud to make tires with ragnarbau. I'm trying very hard not to curse, by the way, so I'm proud of myself that I didn't curse. That.

A (26:27)

That's well done. That's quite an achievement. I'll do the cursing for you. Yeah. I mean, that's a far better line. Tires worth bragging about is a far better line, in my opinion, than the other one, because the other one points to what you're doing next rather than what you've done or what you're doing next now. Yeah. It kind of puts the burden of innovation on you. Obviously, I love the backdrop with the cmo and the conversation about the past, and I can see where that all plays out in the work. But was that sort of the first and only iteration of it? I can imagine it's storyboarded out depending.

B (27:02)

On how many details we want to get.

A (27:04)

Let's go in. Let's go in, baby.

B (27:07)

It was actually not. The ads of the past inspired it. And absolutely will has a library of the old ads. And if you go look at them, they are very product centric, but they still support the brand. They feel like brand lines. They feel very impactful. And then all the other stuff we did with the blimp and with racing and with F1 and anything all factored into that, but it was the fact that we're still doing it. And there's examples of the blimp still doing things. There's the camaro that went to le mans and raced in the 24 hour at Le Mans.

A (27:39)

Right.

B (27:40)

And we had the tires on that car. There's all kinds of different things that we're doing today that are still just as exciting as the things that we used to do in those great, impactful ads. We're just not talking about them anymore. And I think another credit to will for kind of unlocking the music side of it and thinking through the song and how well that song would deliver that message almost immediately and sort of shortcut people into this world of the ad that we were creating. And then I think it was to the agency and to Shane Reed, the editor, and all the great people that worked on was about finding the right cadence of material and about editing the right way and just creating that craft that you're talking about. And we had such amazing stuff to pull from giving the brand's involvement in culture. And so anytime you can open an ad with the DeLorean from back to the Future, people's attention, and then it drops a Dre song. That's one of the most famous rap songs in the world. You know, it was all. It was all really crucial to building that feeling that got people to sit up and pay attention. And I got a better response on that ad than I think I've gotten on any piece of creative I've ever worked on in my life. When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious.

A (28:56)

Guess who was back.

C (28:59)

Check me out.

A (29:15)

The best tires in the world have.

B (29:17)

Goodyear written all over them still the.

C (29:21)

Beats bang still doing my thing Since I left bank Too much chill game. And even when I was close to defeat I rose to my feet.

A (29:49)

The question becomes, where does it go from here? Because do you. Then what's like, phase two? Because obviously this ran. It ran for a period of time in 2025. You don't turn a brand around in six weeks or a flight or two months or three months. It takes a couple of years to sort of reframe it effectively. Where do you go next?

B (30:12)

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a logical story, right? So we talked a lot about what we've done, and we're going to talk a lot about what we're doing right now. So it gets tighter in on some. On certain product lines and certain. And we're not treating anything as an individual product. So you'll see work come out. I mean, it. We. We'll have work coming out early. Early next year. That is kind of the next chapter of still. And as opposed to comparing ourselves or sort of reminding people of what we've done and that we're still doing it, it just gets more specific about why Goodyear matters and why we are a premium tire, a modern brand, and something that they should keep in mind when they shop for tires.

D (30:55)

The beauty of that platform, too, is it's quite flexible in tone. Like, the next iteration of work feels very different than still did. And I think it allows us to hit on a lot of different tonal notes. We were really conscious about, like I keep saying, planting the flag, planting the flag. But it was. It was our plant the flag moment. Get people to think about it differently. Exactly how you talk about the brand was the. Or the ad was the intent of the ad initially. And so for this next chapter, I think we can be a little bit more pointed with what we're trying to say and direct as it relates to certain products that we're trying to elevate. So I'm excited, at least about the range of tone we're playing with. Everything is iconic at its core, but it does flex nicely.

A (31:43)

I worry when I hear marketers say, okay, we're going to the next phase. The next phase could be dangerous because the first phase isn't planted deep enough. Enough. How do you take the theme, that sort of iconic theme, and bring it into, Is there a strategy behind that, or is it sort of like, okay, we got to move to a different example of a message that sort of doesn't necessarily reflect all that we've earned so far?

B (32:09)

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a concern. I think we had a ton of internal discussions around how much weight to put behind still, how much investment to put behind still, and how far we would push it and whether it could run for much, much longer. I think with a spot like that, you'd be surprised at how well it does and then how well people start to go, okay, I see this everywhere. It really sticks in people's minds really, really well, which is great. And I think it changed the course of the brand for sure. So the next thing isn't going to be from a who we are or as a reflection of the POV that we believe in. And the positioning of the brand won't be wildly different. I think executionally, to Lindsey's point, it will be be different. It will feel different. It will be about a different thing, but to people, to consumers.

A (32:55)

But why does it need to do that? That's my problem. It's like, why does it need to feel different? Why can't it feel the same?

B (33:01)

Because we want to sell a certain tire. We want to sell a type of tire.

A (33:04)

Oh, a type of tire. So you'll get into maybe more product specific.

B (33:08)

Yeah. So it's not a product. You know, it's not a specific product. It's not anything like that. But I think to your comment about what we're known for, there are certain level levers that we can pull where product acts as brand and where we continue to drive recognition of the brand and reassessment of the brand. But we're also doing so by telling a story that's closer into what we're actually selling.

A (33:31)

Let's talk a little bit about how this rolls out from a comms strategy point of view and then those. Some memorable tactical expressions of it.

B (33:40)

Yeah, I mean, it's fun because the spot's kind of like a canvas. Right. So you've got all of these different reference points from culture and from racing and from the historical places we've been, the places where we want to go. And we kind of found really interesting ways, I would say more non traditional ways to show up in places occasionally where maybe we weren't allowed to be, but that we knew the right people would be that represented some of those things. So if you pull the racing out of it. We had some print work in the brochures that were at the Indy 500 and obviously another tire company owns that race. But when people were sitting in the stands reading through the pamphlet, they would run into still and they would. Would run into Goodyear and our historic presence across all of racing. We had this great ad that talked about, I think we're the only tire company that's won all four of the major races in the same year and we've done it 10 times. And so we had, you know, we called back to that and. And showcased it at the race that they were sitting in.

D (34:42)

My favorite is we obviously can't talk about F1 because Pirelli owns F1. And so we bought the pre roll of Brad Pitt's F1 movement. So people would sit down to see F1 and we'd run still, which I just thought was brilliant.

B (34:56)

There's great social posts of people saying, I just left the F1 movie. That Goodyear ad was awesome. That played before it. And I mean, that's exactly what we wanted to do.

A (35:06)

I mean, it's a perfect tie in because you can't watch that spot enough. Think you fricking own F1.

D (35:12)

Yeah.

A (35:12)

Come on. It's the spirit of so much of it racing is.

D (35:15)

Yeah, it was when the media team brought that, I was like, that is just perfect.

A (35:22)

So these are pre roll spots in the cinema?

D (35:24)

Yes.

A (35:25)

Love it.

D (35:25)

Yeah. So people would sit down with their popcorn and they'd see Goodyear and then they'd cut to the F1 movie. So it was kind of a fun moment to hack.

A (35:32)

Love it. It is Taylor Grimes, VP Global Marketing for Goodyear, and Lindsey McNabb, CMO of BBH in New York. Thank you so much for your time. It's a good year. We'll drop the creative work on our website and we'll drop it into the show too. Thanks for your time today, guys. Good luck with phase two. I'm gonna nervously waiting for it to see what comes up.

D (35:52)

Hopefully you'll have us back and we can talk about that one next.

B (35:55)

We'll do our best.

A (35:56)

That'll be brilliant. Thanks a lot. And we'll see everybody on the next episode.