Tyres? Women? Can we use both words in the same breath?Our campaign aimed to market tyres directly to women. Each year, women buy around 44% of all tyres sold in the US, but because brands do not market to them, they have no brand loyalty. So we developed a partnership that allowed Goodyear to create a tyre-buying guide aimed squarely at women and distributed it in dealerships, through press and online. Dealers were gratified to be handed a key role and the promotion did much to warm a sometimes chilly relationship between Goodyear and its partners.

More than 7,800 women entered the prize draw and 4,000 downloaded the buying guide. Dealerships spearheaded the campaign, distributing all 500,000 guides. Their buy-in, in a business where dealers regularly feel cut out of the marketing process, represented a priceless coup. The client will extend the programme into 2007.

Tyres operate on simple principles, which the creative reflected. An online prize draw touted “5 things you should know about your tires” and supported it with a chance to win a set of tyres and a session with a personal organiser. The guide itself was fresh, simple and entertaining.

Women don’t care much about tyres, but they care about safety and they don’t want to feel intimidated when buying something they need .We couldn’t expect women to hunt for tire tips, so we put them exactly where we knew our target female consumer would already be - inside Real Simple, the American housewife’s favourite magazine and website. Reprints in dealerships reached as many as 500,000 other women, turning reluctant buyers into confident, well-informed consumers.