Volume 26/Number 25; April 29/May 6, 2013
Dalton—Mohawk is hitting the road this year and taking its SmartStrand with DuPont Sorona with it. The mill will continue to prove SmartStrand’s performance attributes in the coast-to-coast “License to Spill” carpet showdown tour in partnership with the nationally syndicated lifestyle television show, “The Better Show.”
The tour, which will make at least 12 stops, will showcase the cleanability and performance of SmartStrand at festivals and home show events. Attendees are invited to spill everything from ketchup and Kool-Aid to wine and coffee on SmartStrand carpet to see if it will clean with just water or mild detergent. Mohawk will promote its local Floorscapes and ColorCenter members at each tour stop and encourage consumers to visit their nearest aligned retailers to take advantage of promotional offers.
HGTV celebrity designers Taniya Nayak and Chip Wade will make guest appearances at a number of tour stops. Each event will also feature either J.D. Roberto or Audra Lowe, the two hosts from “The Better Show,” and highlights of each tour stop will be shown nationally to over a million viewers on the TV program.
The campaign is also being actively supported through social media integration, including a variety of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Vine. Mohawk’s social media initiatives are designed to both increase consumer brand awareness and drive aligned retail store traffic. For example, the mill’s Pinterest page is incorporating images of local retailers who are participating in their own License to Spill challenges. These images link back to retailer websites and are shared on Mohawk’s Facebook page, which provides exposure to more than 33,000 fans.
In addition, bloggers throughout the country are also participating in the License to Spill challenge and sharing the SmartStrand experience with their consumer audiences. These initiatives have been quite successful over the initial events with an average of over 2.5 million social media impressions per stop.
To complement the tour, Mohawk has created a License to Spill kit so Floorscapes and ColorCenter retailers can take advantage of events in their local communities and host their own showdowns. Participating dealers will be given a License to Spill point-of-purchase kit containing everything they need to engage consumers, drive traffic to their stores, and, ultimately, help boost sales.
To obtain a License to Spill event kit, visit mohawktoday.com. For more information on the License to Spill road show, log on to mohawkflooring.com/tour.