The airport was promoting its Park-Ride Reserve parking lot, which was underutilized. To generate excitement, a NASCAR team brought a stock car into the airport terminal overnight. The next day, people who received parking promotion mailers with keys could try unlocking boxes for race tickets or free parking. Over 29,000 dummy keys were used. The promotion greatly exceeded previous sales and engagement, signifying its success.

1. The back sTory:
how do you sneak a race car inTo The aTlanTa airporT?

2. Maybe a beTTer quesTion is why?
It was all part of a promotion for the airport’s
Park-Ride. At midnight on August 21, Tribe
moved Tony Stewart’s #14 Old Spice/
Office Depot Chevrolet Impala SS into the
center atrium of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport.

3. clienT probleM
Although parking is the airport’s largest source of
revenue, the Park-Ride Reserve parking lot was going
virtually unused. Park-Ride Reserve is a members-only
lot located 2 minutes from the terminal with guaranteed
parking for $12 a day. Members prepay through a
transponder that they keep in their car, and their credit
cards are automatically billed for the days they park.

4. sTraTegy: park like The pros
With such a huge fan base, NASCAR turns a lot of heads and represents speed, time
savings and efficiency. We reached out to Greg Walter, Vice President of Sales at the
Atlanta Motor Speedway. He loved the idea of the world’s busiest airport teaming up
with the Atlanta Motor Speedway for a promotion and put us in contact with the team at
Stewart-Haas Racing. They arranged for Tony Stewart’s car to arrive at the airport the night
before the contest was to begin.

5. The park-ride proMoTion
The first step of the promotion was a direct mailing to people who have used off-airport
Park-Ride services in the last couple of months. The direct mail piece included an actual
key. Recipients were invited to bring their keys down to the airport for a chance to unlock
boxes holding tickets to the Atlanta Motor Speedway or transponders with up to a year of
free parking in the Park-Ride Reserve lot.

6. so how Many keys do we need?
The clock was ticking with the Pep Boys Auto 500
at the Atlanta Motor Speedway just 6 weeks away.
And believe it or not, there aren’t a lot of people out
there with 30,000 car keys ready to ship. But after
a bunch of phone calls and Internet searches, we
finally found a company with 30,000 keys sitting
in their warehouse.
The day before the direct mail piece was
scheduled to drop, our UPS guy showed up at
our office with 30,000 keys. We held a Facebook
fan page contest to give away a free lunch to the
person who could guess the weight of the 30,000
keys (420 pounds, if you’re curious).

7. under The cover of nighTfall
You can’t just wheel a stock car into the airport during the morning rush. So at 10:30
p.m. on the Thursday before the contest was to begin, the Tribe team headed down to the
airport to set up before meeting the team from Stewart-Hass Racing at midnight.
At this point, the only thing standing between Tony Stewart’s #14 Old Spice/Office Depot
Chevrolet Impala SS and the airport atrium was a 1,000-pound planter, one of those big
cement ones where people hang out smoking. But airport operations had everything under
control and showed up with a forklift to move the planter and make room for the car.

8. The unveiling
At 10 a.m. the next morning, the contest was
officially launched with a press conference. We
even had a few people waiting with keys, eager
to see if they’d won NASCAR tickets.

9. MeeT The proMo TeaM
Our promo team was stationed at the car for the
morning and afternoon/evening rush periods. They
approached travelers passing by and discussed Park-
Ride with everyone who approached the display.

10. you senT Me a buM key?
Only 215 keys would actually open a box. The
other 29,785 were duds. The promo team also
signed up interested passers-by in a raffle to
win race tickets.

11. iMpressive resulTs:
• During our two-week promotion, sales were triple the average sales for the same time period over the past two years
• We were able to engage 15,400 travelers in discussion about Park-Ride
• 900 of those people filled out opt-in forms, saying they were willing to have future contact
• The Twitter account we established for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport gained 361 followers in its
first few weeks
• Next phase: further sales efforts directed towards our 900 opt-in prospects