It weighed 5 tons, came with six sets of wheels and cost $20,000. Buying a military-grade 1970 Jeep M818 may sound like a midlife crisis, but to Shawn Maynard, co-owner of Bullfrog Spas in Layton and Ogden, Utah, it was a savvy marketing idea.
“For the last couple years, we’ve decided guerilla marketing is the way to go instead of traditional media,” Maynard says. In addition to the usual marketing tactics, Maynard tried to spread the word about his business by attending local events with a small display and a spa model.
“And that’s great, but it doesn’t draw a crowd by any means,” he says.
So Maynard sought the perfect tool for generating buzz in a viral way.
“There’s a place in my town that gets these Jeeps from the military and converts them into a single-axel truck for 4-by-4 enthusiasts,” he says. “I saw a little story on them on TV and thought, ‘That’s fun for a 4-by-4, but it would for sure make the best billboard ever.’”
In June 2011, Maynard took the plunge and bought a truck for $20,000. But before it could hit the street, it went through six months of restoration: the extra axel and 8 feet of truck bed were cut off; a new, custom-fabricated bed was installed (leaving just the right amount of room to haul a hot tub, which Maynard often does); the interior redone; the truck painted and graphics applied. Oh, and he opted for 54-inch tires instead of the 44-inch tires the truck came with.
“Bigger is so much better,” Maynard says with a smile.
Finally, the truck was ready to show off. Maynard takes the truck to as many local events as possible: Founder’s Days, car shows, charity events, college games and parades. (For one such parade, the truck hauled a fully-operational hot tub with kids enjoying a soak.) And yes, he even uses it as his day-to-day vehicle, allowing him to draw a crowd no matter where he goes.
“I’ll go to Walmart and come out and there will be a crowd around it of people getting their picture taken with it. ‘Look at me next to the giant tire!’ We’ll stand here for a few minutes and we’ll see half a dozen people taking pictures with it,” he says.
But it’s not just passersby who enjoy Maynard’s truck.
“The people at Bullfrog love it,” he says. “It represents the brand and draws attention to what they’re trying to promote.”
In fact, the honchos at Bullfrog like it so much, they asked Maynard to bring it to 2012’s PSP Expo in New Orleans. It sat in the front of the convention hall while Maynard proudly looked on.
“For the last three days, I heard over 100 times, ‘Holy cow, did you see that truck?’” he says.
But does a massive, tricked-out truck lead to any sales?
“I wish I could say, ‘Yes, people see it and run into the store,’ but that’s of course not how it works,” he says. “It’s all top-of-mind awareness. People don’t buy a spa every day, and so it’s important that when they think about buying a hot tub, the first thing they that comes to mind is your store. And for me, if you go to the local gas station a mile down the road and asked everybody, ‘Hey, can you name a hot tub store near here,’ they’d all give you directions to my store because they’ve seen this and stuff like it.”
The truck might not directly influence sales, but Maynard says the attention the truck attracts is just as valuable.
“Everybody need to think outside the box and find a way to get noticed,” he says.
