Project: Master of The Pit Promotion

Agency: Traction Factory

Mission: Create excitement and participation for a new iteration of a previous Snap-on Franchisee credit collection promotion.

Hats worn: Conceptor, raconteur, ideator, copywriter.

What was Ryan thinking? The goods R+R served up for the previous year’s Summer Sizzler promotion were so good, Snap-on needed another taste. This time, Ryan Strode hit ‘em with the smoke they wanted.

For the deep details, hit “All In Your Grill” on the Goods main page. This time around, the ask came down to this: “Can you repeat what you did last year, kinda sorta the same thing – but not exactly the same?”

Say no more. The grand prize was in the same ballpark, but with a difference Ryan honed in on. The winning Franchisee would nab a Traeger wood-fired grill (as opposed to a Weber grill.) A kind of flavor owing to the wood pellets. Coming from a barbecuing family, he thought about larger-than-life pitmasters and barbecue culture, and then sketched up a concept built around a pitchman. The promo was christened “Master of The Pit” (from a list of names Ryan submitted) and the creative process was stoked.

As things evolved, the pitchman was tweaked to incorporate country singer Tim Montana – enough of a grilling aficionado and influencer to get the crowd fired up. You can see the original flavor of Summer Sizzler and get a taste of Ryan’s concepting and selected copy elements throughout the campaign collateral, point of purchase materials and other touchpoints.

All in all, Master of The Pit outperformed Summer Sizzler and upped Franchisee participation by an additional 15%. Plus, the shop netted a Graphis Gold Award and a spot in the Milwaukee Adworkers 99 Showcase:

https://adworkers.com/projects/traction-factory-master-of-the-pit/

Hey, this dude’s got some sauce for these food-themed promos.

P.S. If you know who inspired the title for this page (without Googling it), we need to get on the horn. It ain’t Tim Montana, either.