As some of you know I work for IRWIN Industrial Tools, specifically as the Consumer Promotions & Events Manager for our Motorsports Marketing program.
For the last ten months I have been working on a promotion called the Ultimate Tradesman Challenge. Basically a skilled contest where you have to measure, mark, and drill a 2x6 using IRWIN products. Thrity fastest times at local events, qualified for three regional events, and then we end ed up with three final Tradesman competing in Phoenix for the title. Winner, Bruce Quigley from Clarkston, Mi took home a custom Roush Stage 3 F-150 (worth $60,000) and $30,000 cash from the regional and final events. He also won trips to see the Texas and Phoenix NASCAR races.
The full story was just released on NASCAR.com.
http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/business/11/13/irwin.challenge.winner/index.html
He had a shot at winning $1.26MM if he picked the correct tool bag from 26 total. (like deal or no deal) He picked bag 13, when the big check was in bag 14. His buddy told him to pick 14 before he went up. Now he has to listen to “I told you to pick 14” for the rest of his life…
It’s pretty rewarding to see a promotion go from original concept to completition while far exceeding original metrics. In total, we had 150 events, 9,000 competitors, and over 50,000 people attending shows across the country. If anyone is still reading this long post, and you are interested in competing, we will be holding a UTC 2 in 2008. check www.irwinchallenge.com for details.
Xander and Jeller flew out to Phoenix to attend the Championship event and the race. This was just a bonus as they were really there to party it up in Scottsdale and visit AKA-Ferrari who recently moved out to there.
Here we are sort of enjoying the race. Yes, it was boring, but it was free.
cliffs: I spent almost a year working on a promotion and some dude from Michigan won a bunch of cool shit. oh, and Xander, Jeller, and Aka-Ferrari were in Phoenix enjoying the weekend with me.