Project Spotlight: Nokian Tyres Experiential Marketing Activation
Project Background
Nokian Tyres produces world-class tires for cars, trucks, buses, and heavy-duty equipment. Known for its winter tire collection, Nokian is the only tire manufacturer with its own permanent winter tire testing facility in the world. Every year, the Nokian North American marketing team travels to ski resorts across the United States and Canada showcasing these high-end winter tires to winter sport enthusiasts. Having used pop-up tents in past years, the Nokian team wanted to take their roadshow display to the next level. However, this would be no easy task, as the activation would have to be both functional in cold and snowy environments and durable enough to withstand the harsh winter conditions while activated at ski resorts and while being transported all over the continent.
Having seen and been inspired by the experiential marketing activation we built for Adidas Golf, the Nokian Tyres marketing team reached out to ROXBOX with the goal of emulating that design for their own experiential marketing needs. As a company that prides itself on sustainability, safety, and eco-friendliness across the entire life cycle of their products, partnering with ROXBOX and up-cycling a shipping container for their next big experiential marketing project fit Nokian’s values and culture perfectly.
Enter “Roxanne”, this custom container activation – a 20’ one-trip shipping container modified into a truly badass experiential marketing activation that the Nokian team will be able to use for years to come. As highlighted below in the specs & modifications section, the unit has all of the customizations and equipment the team needs to successfully showcase their tires at ski resorts, trade shows, and events across the country. From two fold-down stages and a collapsible rooftop deck to a custom trailer and Nokian signage/branding, the unit is a true transformer that is sure to draw crowds and stand out in a field of pop-up tents. The wooden cladding on the back and interior wall of the unit even matches Nokian’s U.S. headquarters (shown in the Specs & Modifications section below)!
Specs & Modifications
- Rooftop deck w/ collapsible railings
- Push-button fold-down side and end-cap decks w/ detachable railings
- Electrical, lights, TV, heaters, and fans
- Credenza and flooring
- Two-tone paint job to match Nokian’s brand colors
- Custom signage & branding
- Cladding (interior & exterior) to match their U.S. Headquarters facade
- Custom trailer w/ a custom skirt to hide the trailer once activated
- Stairs for side decks and the rooftop deck
- A true transformer – folds up for transport and opens up when deployed at any location
The unit's interior & exterior cladding matches the facade of Nokian's North American headquarters
Location
The activation is traveling with the Nokian Tyres North America roadshow team to ski resorts, events, and trade shows throughout the country. The activation first stopped at Killington Ski Resort in Killington, Vermont in December 2021 for the Homelight Killington Cup (the FIS Women’s Alpine Skiing World Cup. The activation then stopped at Copper Mountain Colorado in late January for Copper’s annual Nokian Safety Fest. The unit was parked at the base of Copper Mountain’s main chair lift, where the Nokian team taught skiers and snowboarders about tire safety and showcased their world-class winter tires (two lucky winners even went home with a brand new set of winter tires that weekend). “Roxanne” is now headed to Mount Bachelor in Oregon and Snowbird Resort in Utah!
Nokian Tyres at Copper Mountain's annual Safety Fest
Timeline
Phase 1 (Design + Planning) for this project took about 3 weeks since the design is based on our “standard” 20’ experiential model. We worked collaboratively with Nokian to refine the standard model and to integrate their branding while incorporating some add-ons like the rooftop deck, cladding, and two-tone paint. Next we moved into Phase 2 (Shop Drawings + Quote) where we produced detailed shop drawings and the final quote for Nokian’s approval in ~4 weeks. We then dove into Phase 3 (Production + Construction) but encountered some supply chain issues for materials that forced us to adjust on-the-fly in order to meet the project’s timeline – can’t miss the first stop of the event tour! The production of “Roxanne” took ~7 weeks and produced one of the coolest single containers we’ve ever built. For this project, we implemented our Phase 5 (Tour Management & Logistics) to help coordinate delivery, film a set up and tear down instructional video for the Nokian marketing, sent out a team member to train Nokian’s team and help deploy the unit for the first time, and helped coordinate transportation to Copper for the second activation.
Project Development
Nokian Tyres napkin sketch
Nokian Tyres conceptual renderings
Work in progress photos of the unit in ROXBOX's Denver facility
Completed project photos
If you are interested to learn more about the Nokian Tyres Experiential Marketing activation or any of our other product lines of container modifications, click here to contact our team or visit our homepage for more custom shipping container structures.
