The Parker of the Year Championships (the Parkies) is a creative media idea – where the two disciplines come together.

The Parkies provided a media spectacle for the story of Ford’s hands-free parking technology to naturally appear in. The tension and drama of the sports arena had instant entertainment value as sports crazed audiences in NZ naturally gravitated to the rugby style sports action and commentary.

The spectacle of the live sports event naturally attracted the news media. We selectively invited key news media personalities to be involved in the event: the nations leading sports commentator called the action, motoring journalists volunteered as umpires, celebrity All Blacks and Netball players competed and reported. We encouraged these key media influencers to become our channels to reach wider New Zealand through news media. And, it worked a treat.

Earned media from the Parkies event reached over 1.6 million people, which is over 1 in 3 New Zealanders – an excellent result for the $120,000 investment in the event.

Media coverage included a 5 minute feature story on the hands free parking technology of the Ford Focus on the nation’s top rating prime time current affairs show. Not to mention page two stories in the nation’s leading Sunday newspapers.

The Ford Focus is now best known car for hands free parking.*

*Perceptive Omnibus Research