The Furnace: Firehouse's Blog (About Advertising and Other Shenanigans) » Interstate Batteries

7 Dallas ADDYs

Sarah — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:28:34 +0000

Can you spot the 7 Dallas ADDYs that Firehouse took home in this pic? Read more about the wins in the News section of Firehouse’s website.

Interstate Batteries Unveils New NASCAR Look

Tripp — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:51:01 +0000

Interstate Batteries took the wraps off their newly redesigned NASCAR last week during a press conference at Joe Gibbs Racing. Unlike most car designs, whose design parameters seem to be about how many decals you can stick all over it, this new Interstate car takes a more conceptual approach. Designed by Firehouse’s very own Everett Wilder, the hood shows what appears to be a giant Interstate battery bursting through. And while this Toyota would appear to be a hybrid due to the “battery,” trust us, this ain’t no grocery getting Prius. The new car will be driven by Kyle Busch and make its racing debut on March 5, 2011, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Can’t wait to see it on the track.

Firehouse finds new appeal in paid search

Sarah — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:10:17 +0000

We’ve always been big believers that paid search coupled with a right display campaign makes sense for most brands, but just recently have we been able to add even more relevance to our client’s digital strategies thanks to search retargeting.

Until now, paid search has always been a pull medium with unknown amounts of inventory. The amount you get is dependent on the amount of times searchers hit the search button — which is currently around 530M times a day. This seems like a lot of inventory, but advertisers want more. Because of the consistently high ROI that paid search delivers, a lot of brands have allocated more and more of their budgets to it over the years. And even though this is good news for the medium, several industries are seeing a rise in rates to record highs — posing an uphill battle in continuing to achieve effective ROI metrics.

Behold…

Access to more scale is now available with search retargeting. Here’s how it works. I like to think of it like a boomerang.

A searcher types something into a search engine, but then they get distracted or they aren’t happy with the search results and walk away. A day or so later, that same person receives a display ad that is directly related to what they’ve recently searched for. In other words, it takes a qualified lead based on real and recent consumer intents, and gives your brand another chance to get in front of that person moving them along the purchase funnel. They threw something out there with search, and a relevant offer or product came back around to them through display – like a boomerang.

Even cooler are the different ways to target based on the search query data. You can target by keyword, topic or category. Location targeting is also an option. And frequency capping is another important consideration.

We’ve now met with over 10 ad networks that offer searching retargeting based on search queries from Google, Yahoo! or Bing. And as we introduce more clients to this product offering, we hope to have more success stories to share. There are endless opportunities for targeting scenarios and compelling creative! More boomerangs to come.

A spot in Thanksgiving Day traditions

Evan — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:44:34 +0000

Firehouse and our client, Interstate Batteries, can claim a literal spot among Thanksgiving Day traditions this year when Interstate Batteries’ new commercial is aired during the Texas vs. Texas A&M game. How rich is this tradition you ask? These teams have played on Thanksgiving Day over 60 times in a rivalry that dates back to 1894.

Look for the 60-second spot on ESPN during the second commercial break at approximately 7:13 p.m. (Thank you Firehouse media planning.) Here’s a sneak preview if you just can’t wait or are fearful that sleep may set-in after a day full of turkey: Interstate Batteries on YouTube

It’s a wrap

Everett — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:14:29 +0000

The Interstate team at Firehouse has been in Canada all week shooting TV spots for Interstate Batteries. Here are a few snapshots from the good, the bad and the weird. With stunt drivers, cars crashing and a race against time we had all the makings of an action thriller. And after two all-nighters, working from 6:30 p.m. – 6:30 a.m., the team just called it a wrap this morning! We hope to be able to share the produced spots with you in a couple months.