EZ Street Company, a producer of temperature-resistant asphalt, launched a direct mail campaign on March 17 targeting media and government officials.
The company is using the effort, called “the spoken wheel,” to drive attention to the state of US roads and urge state and federal authorities to increase funding for America’s highway infrastructure.
The company will distribute more than 1,000 recycled hubcaps with toe tags describing their “cause of death.” The tags urge consumers to visit www.pothole.info, where they can get more information on US roads. EZ Street is also running a 30-second video on the Web site.
EZ Street will distribute the hubcaps in 16-inch square pizza boxes. The company hired writers to create 500 “cause of death” stories for the toe tags. EZ Street created the campaign in house.
Dag Seagren, president of EZ Street, said the company used real hubcaps so consumers can see the damage potholes can cause.
“We wanted to remain authentic, and part of that was not cleaning them too much,” he said. “We want the recipient to see that this was really something that came from the side of the road.”
Seagren said EZ Street will use Web analytics to monitor site traffic and SEO and SEM to drive users to the microsite. He declined to disclose the campaign’s budget.
