Off-Road Course Construction
October 16-18, 2018
Sunbelt Ag Expo was the final stop on a successful summer farm show season for Ram Truck and Gordinier Group.
Ag shows are a great way for Ram to take a more grassroots approach to experiential marketing. In contrast to Ram’s auto show ride and drive activations, the guest interactions are longer and more personal at farm shows. While Gordinier Group drivers can’t churn through the staggering numbers of people like at an auto show, it is nice to shift gears and have an opportunity to form more of a bond with the heavy truck-biased demographic and be able to spend more time addressing their questions and concerns. It really feels like the trade-off is worth it.
This year’s tour began in California, hitting 5 total stops before finishing up in Moultrie, GA at Sunbelt. The 2018 2018 tour featured stops at:
World Ag Expo – Tulare, CA
Wisconsin Farm Tech Days – Johnson Creek, WI
Farm Progress Show – Boone, IA
Husker Harvest Days – Grand Island, NE
Sunbelt Ag Expo, Moultrie, GA
The Ram program consists of in interior off-road track surrounded by a perimeter towing track. This allows the team to give guests two different experiences – a ride along over the technical off-road features, piloted by Gordinier Group drivers. Similar to the auto show model, drivers give product specs and explain what the truck is showing on each obstacle.
On the tow track, guests drive and tow the load while GG personnel ride shotgun, answering questions and giving pointers while the guests actually feel the truck’s power and towing capability first hand.
With this model, the consumer experience is genuine and very informative. We are looking forward to getting back to the fields in 2019!
October 5-6, 2018
Camp Jeep piggybacked onto Cal Jam, a giant, Jeep-sponsored music festival in San Bernadino, CA. With headliner Foo Fighters (and featuring other huge acts such as Iggy Pop and Tenacious D), we knew that we would have the perfect audience/demographic to deliver an authentic, on-brand experience to.
Given the gorgeous mountain backdrop of Glen Helen Raceway Park, it made sense for this Jeep off-road course to be built from mostly organic materials. We supplemented the Jeep mobile mountain with formed dirt articulation mounds, berms, off-camber tilts, a side-hill wedge, and a boulder pile. Building organic off-road tracks is one of Gordinier Group’s core competencies and this course didn’t disappoint.
Both days of the festival saw guests lining up in droves to experience rides in the new 2018 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon as well as the new 2019 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk and the new Jeep Compass Trailhawk.
Gordinier Group pro drivers were behind the wheel, navigating the new Jeep vehicles through the extreme obstacles while delivering product info along the way. Feedback from the guests was great at this event.
Hats off to the Jeep and FCA for continuing to sniff out big events with just the right mix of interested guests.
The brand new Mahindra Roxor was introduced to the media and dealers over a 3-day event at the San Antonio AlamoDome, and the Gordinier Group was there to build and operate the off-road course.
If you aren’t familiar with Mahindra, they are an enormous ($19B), Indian company, who produces a large line of vehicles overseas as well as owning a large segment of big agriculture equipment abroad and in the US. The new Roxor will create a segment all its own – something between a side-by-side and a Jeep Wrangler. At first glance, the vehicle obviously has Wrangler visual cues (Mahindra has maintained license from Willy’s since the 1940’s to build this vehicle), but with its 2.5L turbo diesel motor, manual transmission and leaf-sprung suspension (and the fact that it’s not street legal in the US), the similarities end there. What it is, is a super fun and very capable off-road only vehicle that feels very durable, well-made, and appears to be able to chug through the ugliest of trails with ease (as well as being able to tow 3,490 lbs). It seems perfect for ranch or farm use and it would be great fun on difficult off-road trails such as Rubicon and Moab. You can read more about the Roxor below.
Dealers and media outlets converged in San Antonio, eager to learn about the Roxor and excited to get behind the wheel. GG operators built a course in the AlamoDome parking lot that both challenged the vehicle and driver, but was still able to throughput the several hundred amped dealers. As an added challenge for the course design, all Roxor test drive units had manual transmissions (as well as 2-speed transfer cases). This can sometimes be tricky when the public is driving. Luckily, the Roxor had so much low-end torque, it was easy for novice manual drivers to crawl over the boulder pile, log tilt, side hill, and other steep obstacles created for this unique test drive.
February 13-15, 2018
Ram Trucks had a lot to offer guests of the World’s Largest Agriculture Show, in Tulare, California.
Not only did Ram bring two of the new 2019 1500 DT models for display, but they also offered 2 experiential opportunities – an off-road ride and a towing drive where guests could get behind the wheel to really feel Ram’s towing capabilities. In fact, the headliner of the tow fleet at World Ag Show was a 3500 Limited dually, with the 6.7 Cummins turbo diesel and max tow package. It’s hard to imagine a more capable tow rig. This one was saddled with a Big Tex gooseneck trailer that held a 15,000 lb Case tractor. That sounds like a lot of weight when you factor in the extra weight of the trailer, but with a maximum towing capacity of over 30,000 lbs (and 930 lb. ft. of torque), it was an easy haul. Many guests were shocked at how easily that truck was able to tow that payload and how comfortable it felt doing it.
This year’s show had great weather many interested and enthusiastic farmers, making it a great event for Ram!
