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STUART ELLIOTT

Mumbai, 5 July

MADISON AVENUE wants to get its acttogether this summer and take it onthe road.

Advertisers and media companies

are sponsoring events and promotionsthat emulate the kinds of road tripsembarked upon each summer by mil-lions of Americans. Trucks, buses, RVsand even fire engines are being sentaround the country to bring brands toconsumers as part of a popular trendknown as experiential marketing.

The goal of experiential marketingis to build closer ties with consumersthan can typically be forged through tra-ditional tactics like television commer-cials or cents-off coupons. In thisinstance, the idea isfor people toencounter the brands

as they are out andabout for activities likecamping, attendingmusic festivals, sight-seeing and visitingamusement parks.

Among the brandsplanning summer-

time road trips are theCBS television net-work; Hendricks gin;the History cablechannel; Hot Rodmagazine, in partner-ship with Walmart;Jack in the Box, thefast-food chain; the sitcom New Girl,on Fox Broadcasting; Porsche CarsNorth America, teaming up with MensJournal magazine; and Sauza tequila.

In these days of digital, high-tech,social media, we cant forget howimportant the one-to-one is, said

George F. Schweitzer, president of theCBS Marketing Group division of theCBS Corporation.

Mr. Schweitzer is overseeing what isbeing called the CBS Buzz Tour, a busthat will spread CBS love throughoutthe country, he said i.e., promotethe network and its programming, give

away CBS merchandise and offer fansmeet-and-greets with stars.The CBS road trip will also have

new-media aspects. For instance, thebus has its own Twitter hashtag,#CBSbuzz. And computer users can fol-low the tour online, at cbs.com/buzz.

Another reason there are more road

trips this summer is the growing pop-

ularity of food trucks in local markets.Some tours operate as regional ornational versions of those trucks, likethe Cross-Country Cookout, a tractor-trailer sponsored by History that willserve up barbecue at events includingComic-Con and Cheyenne (Wyo.)

Frontier Days.We have always been focused a lit-

tle more on the one-off events, saidChris Meador, vice president for con-sumer marketing at History, referringto promotions to drive awareness forindividual series on the channel.

Another food truck on a road

trip with more than a local route isthe Jack Burger Truck from Jack inthe Box, which is visiting theSoutheast, a market where the chainhas recently expanded.

Were a fairlynew brand in theSoutheast, said

Tammy Bailey, divi-sion vice presidentfor regional market-ing at Jack in the Boxin San Diego, andwe wanted to con-nect with our con-sumers there on a

different level, on amuch more emo-tional basis.

At the first stop, atthe Country MusicAssociation MusicFestival and Fan Fairin Nashville, there

was a line a block long continuallythroughout the day, she added.

A road trip that would have prob-ably been undertaken no matter theprice of fuel is the one sponsored byPorsche Cars and Mens Journal. TheSpirited Escape Road Trip, 10 days

from New York to Birmingham, Ala.,features the former football playerDhani Jones promoting the 2013Porsche Boxster S.

This is the first time weve donesomething like this, said Scott Baker,manager for marketing communica-tions at Porsche Cars in Atlanta.

Saying road trip is not somethingthat new or unique, he added. Wewanted to work with a partner tomake it not just a road trip, but aPorsche road trip.

Those elements include reportsabout the trip on the Porsche fan pageon Facebook

2012 The New York Times News Service

Marketing, nowon the road

The CBS Buzz Tour, a busthat will spread CBS lovethroughout America, ispromoting the network andits programming

BOSTON.CBSLOCAL.COM