They gave away shoes for test drives?

[Heraclid]

I just read that in what was shaping out to be an "off" year for them (2000), Isuzu had a promotion offering free Reeboks for anyone who test-drove an Isuzu SUV, using the Ironman sponsorhsip to pull it all together. And they had a nice brochure with a "silverprint" photo... anyone seen the pic or got a pic of it they can post? Apparently Isuzu gave an ad firm a meager budget and a bad set of pics to work from and told them they wanted to sell 500 VXs in 4 months, sight-unseen! And word is that 500 did... in 3 months.

[Dallas4u]

Couldn't they have picked a brand better than Reebok? Come on! Who buys Reeboks anymore?

I haven't had Reeboks since velcro and tight-rolls!

[JAFO]

I have a pair of compact binoculars with a black Isuzu case from an insentive to test drive a VX.

[Heraclid]

My Reeboks always held up better than my Nikes, actually. I've had cheaper shoes that are better than both, like my current waterproof Faded Glorys and Globes.

I don't know for sure but it could have been that Reebok was already an official sponsor for the Ironman competitiion along with Isuzu so they went with them on that basis.

Remember the old pump-up Reeboks? I liked SNL's spoof on it with the pump-up Thanksgiving turkey, if you've ever seen that. :-)

[AnalogVX]

I got a VX after a test drive. ;) :p

[WyrreJ]

I got $14.5K in the bank for waiting to buy my VX!

[paultvx]

Just about any shoe lasts longer than Nikes. BTW, Nike owns Converse now. Addidas are the only shoes I've ever owned that lasts. Maybe that's why they haven't done as well as Nike?

Isuzu marketing strategy has always puzzled me. Hell, still does.

[Dallas4u]

Originally posted by Heraclid
Remember the old pump-up Reeboks? I liked SNL's spoof on it with the pump-up Thanksgiving turkey, if you've ever seen that. :-)

He... yeah, I DO remember it. Just puuuump it! Pretty funny.

I have to say, I have always been a big Air Max wearer. Within the last 4-5 years they HAVE been wearing out quicker. I bought some Shox off Nikes website a few years ago (custom made), and they are still going strong! I always wore Adidas when playing soccer, and (of course) they always lasted a couple seasons.

[Triathlete]

I have never liked Reebok or Nike...too much flash not enough performance (of course if they paid me multiple millions to wear them I'd think they were the greatest...if your reading this I need sponsorship!;Dy; ). I wore Saucony for a long time...they last long but don't fit narrow feet well. Next I wore Adidas because they were the first to make a dedicated trail shoe...I run off road a lot...but the toe box never worked for me. I got a lot of missing toe nails from them. now I only wear New Balance. Great shoes that come in several widths for people like me with narrow feet and those with normal and wide feet. And they make a really great trail shoe!

[SGT.BATGUANO]

And NB's are made in America.

I think they also gave away computers with a purchase, at one time. Something like a DELL 300 Mhz Desktop.....WHOOT!

[Cyrk]

2000 Silver: American Isuzu Motors Inc.,
Ironman Promotion


http://www.worthington-levy.com/Ironmanbox_sm.jpg



Promoting multiple products in a single direct mail package is traditionally a disaster ready to happen. In this case, being given that mandate by Isuzu, WLC and M\S Database marketing combined efforts to find the perfect glue to both hold the campaign together...and catapult it to massive success. That "glue" was the Ironman triathalon, which Isuzu sponsors, along with Reebok, a sports shoe manufacturer who M|S approached for our gift-for-testdrive. This promotion led to incredible test drives in an 'off' year, plus huge conversion rates for test drive to vehicle sale.

[johnnyapollo]

Hey Dave,

Where did you find that?

-- John

[Cyrk]

John, Not mine... just pulled from a website...

[Triathlete]

That "glue" was the Ironman triathalon, which Isuzu sponsors,

Actually when Isuzu had their corporate shuffle in 2000 they ended their sponsorship deal with Ironman, buying out their contract and only partial sponsorship for the 2000 Ironman North America season.:yesy: :deady:

[Heraclid]

I was on that same website a few weeks back... let's just say I may have more on that later. :-)

[Daver]

Originally posted by SGT.BATGUANO
And NB's are made in America.

I think they also gave away computers with a purchase, at one time. Something like a DELL 300 Mhz Desktop.....WHOOT!

It was a Gateway, I think. I got that deal. Sold the coupon for the computer to a friend. :)

-Daver

[Heraclid]

Hey everyone,

I recently contacted someone with the ad agency that Isuzu assigned to the task of producing some VehiCross promotional items. This came about as a result of my stumbling across the same website where Cyrk later found the pic posted earlier in this thread. The "packages" referenced below are the same Ironman/Reebok promo kits as posted by Cyrk. I thought I'd share the following correspondence with you - just thought you might find it to be an interesting read...


On 9/8/03 David Benkendorf wrote:

Checked out your website... are there any of those Ironman kits or
Vehicross programs still sitting around? I know many folks who would gladly purchase one or both from you if you have any available!

Thanks,
David

-------

On 9/16/03 Carol Worthington Levy wrote:


Hello David,

I don't sell the samples -- don't have that many left, and to be honest, it seems funny somehow to sell portfolio samples. However, I appreciate your candid request!

Please tell me what you might plan to do with it - who you work for and what you have in mind.

I'm available to present a talk about these programs, but the samples themselves don't mean anything without the background and strategy.

Best regards,
Carol Worthington Levy

-------

On 9/16/03 David Benkendorf wrote:


Hello! :-)

I am a member of an online gathering of proud Isuzu VehiCross owners who have established the vehicross.info website. We organize frequent regional meets to get together to discuss our vehicles, take them off-roading, just hang out, etc. Several of us collect VehiCross memorabilia, such as the HotWheels, posters, brochures, magazine reviews, etc... the list goes on. I just bought my VehiCross back in late April and I'm having a blast with it.

My own interest as well as that of the other members of our group who may be interested in the VehiCross brochures (and VehiCross IronMan kit as well) your organization produced would be purely as collectibles. There are no plans to reproduce the brochures for distribution or anything else of the sort that may infringe on copyrights, etc.

Actually I won an Ebay auction for one after I had already contacted you and I should be receiving one of them in the mail shortly. Anyway, on behalf of other VehiCross enthusiasts, there would still definitely be some interest from other "VX" owners if any were available. Our vehicles are exceedingly rare and these even rarer programs would be highly cherished by collectors among us.

I would find it interesting to discuss the marketing strategy and other related details with you further but at this time I have never laid eyes on one in person so it may be something of a moot point until then.

Thank you very much for your reply and best wishes,
David R. Benkendorf

--------

On 9/18/03 Carol Worthington Levy wrote:


Hi David,

Well this is absolutely a first for me! Last time someone wanted one of my packages, they wanted to copy it to sell a completely different product which was kind of a howl in itself because it was a direct mail package for a web portal and they wanted to use the exact same package with different copy for life insurance. Live and learn.

But this is too great! VehiCross is a terrific little vehicle, and my writer partner on the project, Otis, and I, enjoyed time exploring prototypes when we did this direct mail. We never got into a final, final vehicle and the direct mail shows illustration/photo combos that hide the things that were changing about the VehiCROSS at the time... It had just completed development when the package dropped in the mail.

The story, if you are interested, is that only ten vehicles were in the USA, and using this direct mail package, we were able to generate 500 sales, most of them sight unseen til they took delivery of the VehiCross that they had committed to. NOBODY backed down.

Only about 2000 packages were printed, and 1800 were sent to a database of prior Isuzu owners and enthusiasts and people who we call "early adapters" - people who we knew from the data had a yen for getting first shot at new things like, say, DVD players etc.

The other 200 packages were distributed over a wide range of people in command at Isuzu, including a package to each Isuzu dealer with our dealer preparation kit that we sent out to each dealer... I got ten packages (I sent three of them to the Direct Marketing Association for entry into the DMA Echo Awards, and two of them to the John Caples Awards). I had one stolen from a portfolio I sent to a client (!!), and one of my portfolios with a sample was LOST by the (stupid) client. One of the three I have left is missing the Outgoing Envelope (I think it was destroyed in transit from a portfolio review) - so I have two packages in pretty good shape, plus one each of the vellum letter, the gift buckslip, and two of the round-ended brochures.

I believe the round-ended brochure actually had a much higher quantity, since they also printed those for use by dealers - my guess is that there may have been another 15,000 of those, but I wasn't involved in that printing.

Hope this is interesting information and useful to you as a collector of memorabilia.

In addition, one of my colleagues, the head of the agency for whom I did this work, actually has an odd item - one of the silverprint photos by Jesse Alexander. What makes her print unique is that she got one with a duplicate number (they are limited to 500 but there were actually 501 and hers is that extra one). The mistake was in the numbering. I don't have a clue as to how much they are worth but the edition was limited and the shot was taken just for us. They cost us about $200 apiece out-of-pocket, but the perceived value was even higher. Did you ever see the final silverprint photo? It's the VehiCROSS racing across the desert! I may know someone else with one too, but not sure.

So let me know what kind of shape your direct mail package is in that you got on EBay... Does it have the gift buckslip, etc? I am curious now!

I can't say I could sell all my packages but maybe I could give up the one round-ended brochure or perhaps an element from the un-enveloped one I have.

Cheers,
Carol

---------

Interesting huh? Neat inside info, I thought.

Please don't get your hopes up just yet, but if someone really, really wants an element from one of the packages or a brochure, I may be able to get it for you. One, maybe two people may be able to get something as there's not much to go around. Just let me know who's interested.

[Cyrk]

Ha funny when I found that website I contacted them to... I guess when I get back to work Monday I will get the same messages as you?


I almost bought the silverprint photos by Jesse Alexander off ebay a little while back he was selling it for 70 bucks or so.



-Dave

[Heraclid]

Yeah, I'd like to see one of those silverprints!

I almost bought the Automan VS-2 rearview mirror with built-in LCD monitor/rearview camera system on Ebay yesterday. Good price (half-price) considering what they normally go for, but I just didn't get good vibes from the seller.

[WyrreJ]

Originally posted by Heraclid
I almost bought the Automan VS-2 rearview mirror with built-in LCD monitor/rearview camera system on Ebay yesterday. Good price (half-price) considering what they normally go for, but I just didn't get good vibes from the seller. Did you write to the seller? I'm the buyer, put in a low snipe a few days back and since no one else bid the snipe went through. I thought that his hidden feedback was weird, but you could still see the summary totals and the only bad feedback he had was at least a month or more old. His paypal address is confirmed so paypal will insure delivery of the actual goods for about $18. But, if you learned something else that made you leary, please share.

[Heraclid]

I can't say for sure and I'd hate to steer you wrong... just got a bad feeling. Nothing was big and really jumped out at me and said "don't do it" but there were a lot of little things, and maybe it means nothing. <shrug> The feedback was one thing. Also all the AS-IS and other fine print just made me wonder... reasonable enough I guess, but my take on it was that he just kinda struck me as a hard person to deal with who was trying too hard to cover himself. I wonder if it was really "new in box." It was only a 3-day auction too, and he accepts only PayPal and nothing else. I don't know... just a feeling. Maybe I am just way too skeptical though. Like you said, his history looked fine.

I e-mailed him once and got a very prompt reply, but when I sent him another e-mail with some follow-up questions such as why he was selling it I didn't get an answer and he had plenty of time. I was on the brink - if he just said, "hey, I wanted to tie it into something else but it wasn't compatible", I'd have gone for it. I assume that's probably what the "NOT ALPINE - KENWOOD JL" on the listing meant. Still it was hard for me not to go out on a limb since it was half what they retail for. I decided not to do it with 16 minutes left for the auction. I figure even if I have to shell out more at least if I get it retail I'll be in a better position if I have problems with it.

He also ships FedEx Ground, and I do a lot of shipping/receiving through work - anything that goes Ground spends more time in transit because there's no hurry on it, and they tend to get very beat up in transit. Not a big deal though because for it to go from Michigan to Florida I would have paid more to get insurance on it and have it shipped at least 2Day just to minimize damage potential. But the red flag was his flat fee of $20 for shipping ground - ground is the cheapest way to go, and I think that is a lot more than his cost. It isn't that heavy either.

[SGT.BATGUANO]

Originally posted by Cyrk
I almost bought the silverprint photos by Jesse Alexander off ebay a little while back he was selling it for 70 bucks or so.



-Dave

I bought it. The guy listed it several times at various prices. I ended up getting it for about $60 shipped. #78/500. I believe Tone has one also.


http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/149j_a_p_-med.jpg

[Heraclid]

Sounds like you got a pretty good deal! Darn... me want too. Thanks for posting it... hadn't seen it before.