Network
Car giveaways are nothing new. Since the early days of the automobile there have been a variety of ways to win a new car. Motovicity has put a twist on winning a car with their Ticket To Ride promotion, creating a unique contest, the likes of which most of us have never seen before. We recently spent some time talking with Motovicity’s Brett Kinsfather to find out more about this popular promotion for the performance and mobile electronics parts supplier’s clients.
What is Motovicity
If your shop needs it, chances are Motovicity hast it. Kinsfather tells us Motovicity stocks their distribution center deep to make sure they have parts ready to go when customers call. This photo is from them filling the shelves with a new product line that just arrived.
For those unfamiliar, Motovicity is a large distributor of aftermarket performance and upgrade parts. They sell everything from car audio components, turbochargers, diesel performance, and all the parts in between. Since Motovicity deals strictly with shops for wholesale and not the general public, the people taking orders on the phone have to know what they’re talking about. Kinsfather tells us, “Our sales reps are not order takers, we’re very particular about who we hire for these positions, each one of them has their own unique passion and strong specialty area in performance so that when a client calls the sales rep they talk to understands that client’s needs.”
In the past Motovicity has been primarily known for specializing in the import and tuner markets. However, Kinsfather says that the company not only wanted to expand their business offerings, but also saw more crossover between the late model muscle car performance enthusiasts and shops that were typically known for import tuning. “There’s a certain skill set in tuning a car, and what we were finding is a lot of our import customers were doing work on domestic performance cars as well,” says Kinsfather.
Motovicity operates a large distribution warehouse just outside of Detroit, and takes pride in getting their clients needed products to them quickly. “We understand having parts on the shelf when our clients need them for a build is the best way to offer service to them, if we have it on the shelf we can get it to our customers quickly,” says Kinsfather.
Ticket To Ride
What we wanted to do is show off the capability of the winning shops and the brands that we carry. -Brett Kinsfather, Motovicity
With Motovicity’s recent expansion last year into the late model muscle car and domestic performance market the company wanted to generate some buzz that they were going to be as much about domestic performance as they have been about import and tuners. The Ticket To Ride promotion was born, with the idea of appealing to both existing and new customers.
This program will give two lucky shops a brand new 2013 Mustang GT or 2013 Scion FR-S. These cars are blank slates for modification and both are hot items within their niche of the performance world right now.
To enter, current Motovicity customers simply need to notify their sales representative or go online with Motovicity and enter via the online form. New shops/clients must first go through the application, and verification process to make sure they are a legitimate business operation. When signing up for Ticket to Ride shops can choose which car they’d like to enter to win, either the Mustang or the FR-S.
Simply throwing your shop’s name in the ring is not enough, though. Shops get entries by buying parts from participating manufacturers through Motovicity. One entry is generated for every $100 of a participating manufacturer’s product that is purchased. For example, a BBK Performance air intake and throttle body might generate two to three entries depending on the cost of the parts.
Participating companies for the Mustang part of Ticket to Ride include:
- BBK Performance
- Exedy
- Gates
- KW Suspension
- Royal Purple
- Sparco
- Stack
- Stop Tech
- Vibrant Performance
- Whiteline
Shops can also earn bonus entries, by purchasing $1,000 of each participating product line in a single calendar month. Normally that much in product purchases ($10,000) would qualify for a total of 100 entries into the contest. Under such special circumstances however the number of entries would double to 200.
The Build
There’s more to the Ticket To Ride promotion than just winning one of two shiny new cars, as Kinsfather tells us “What we wanted to do is show off the capability of the winning shops and the brands that we carry.”
This means that Ticket To Ride isn’t simply over when the winners are announced shortly after the program ends on September 30. Winning shops will each send a representative to Motovicity headquarters for some VIP treatment. Along with a shop tour and meeting with representatives from manufacturers, the winners will also be presented with the keys to their new winning rides.
There are two ways to sign up for ticket to ride. Shops that are already existing clients can simply let their sales rep know they want in. They can also go online and fill out the sign up form. New clients can also sign up for a Motovicity account and to participate in Ticket To Ride. Once their information is verified and an account created they can start purchasing qualifying products to earn entries.
The cars will then be shipped to their new owners – this is when phase two of the program begins. Along with the cars, the shops will receive a pallet of new parts from the participating manufacturers. The shops will have approximately two weeks to transform the cars into high performance machines using the parts provided and the shop’s specific skills and talents. Each build will be documented and the entire process will be promoted by Motovicity. This means each shop gets to show off their capabilities and gets copious amounts of free publicity as part of the contest.
Design Contest
Not to sound like a game show host or a car salesman, but we have to say…wait there’s more! Since Motovicity is nestled just outside the capital of the US auto industry, aka Detroit, Michigan, they’re also working closely with the College for Creative Studies, a design school that sends many of it’s graduates to the auto industry.
CCS students have worked to design custom wraps for each vehicle. Voting will be taking place on the Motovicity Facebook page to determine which wrap each vehicle will get. The voting is open to anyone who likes the Motovicity page, so we’d encourage each person reading this to head over there and vote for how the cars should look.
Students from the College for Creative Studies will create designs which will then be voted on at the Motovicity Facebook page. The winning designs will add style to the rather plain, white cars, and highlight the manufacturers involved. The cars will be wrapped with their design prior to delivery.
The Shootout
Within the first week of the contest announcement the number of entrants had already exceeded the desired participation goal by more than double. -Brett Kinsfather, Motovicity
Finally, after the builds are completed we’re on to the high point of the Ticket To Ride contest. Since the builds will take place in the fall, the cars will be sent to a warm climate track somewhere within the continental USA. There track testing will be performed to find out which car was the better platform for the build, and who improved the performance of their car the most.
“We’re working right now on rounding up two celebrity drivers for the testing,” says Kinsfather. The testing process will also be well documented and videoed for what’s sure to be some viral action on YouTube when it’s all said and done. We can think of a couple of driver’s that should be on the short list to get behind the wheel, no word yet though on who Motovicity is trying to contract for the job, regardless it should make the face off that much more interesting.
Bigger Than Expected
Following a documented build, the two cars will be taken to a warm-climate track to face off in a series of challenges. The contest is an opportunity for the winning shops to be put into the national spotlight.
Obviously with two cars on the line and a pallet full of upgrade parts we think clients would be knocking down the door to get a chance to win this contest. Kinsfather tells us that, “Within the first week of the contest announcement the number of entrants had already exceeded the desired participation goal by more than double.”
If your shop is in the performance business and you haven’t signed up with Motovicity yet you’re missing out not only on the Ticket To Ride promotion, but on doing business with one of the nation’s largest aftermarket distributors. There’s still time to enter the Ticket To Ride contest, as it runs through September 30, and is open to both old and new active Motovicity clients. For more information on Motovicity or Ticket To Ride check out the Motovicity web site. And be sure to stay tuned this fall for the excitement as the builds and showdown are documented.
