Protyre Great British Road Trip

9,299 total players

37,236 total games played

Over 4 games per player on average

Summary

Protyre Autocare, the UK’s fastest-growing supplier and fitter of tyres and automotive services, wanted to maintain momentum through the quieter summer months. With their headline sponsorship of CarFest 2025 on the horizon, they saw a perfect opportunity to connect their digital audience with a real-world event.

Enter The Great British Road Trip – a gamified summer campaign that sent players on a virtual journey across the UK, culminating in the excitement of CarFest.

Getting in gear

Protyre’s marketing team identified the summer window as a challenge: fewer retail triggers, fewer seasonal offers, and a risk of audience drop-off. Following the success of their Summer of Sport campaign in 2024, they wanted another playful, measurable way to engage customers.

The idea was to create an interactive ‘road trip’ that mirrored the brand’s partnership with CarFest. Players could join in online, driving awareness and anticipation ahead of the event itself. The campaign narrative was to join the animated Protyre technician as they ‘travel’ from Edinburgh to CarFest.

As Joe Whitlock, Mechanical Marketing Manager at Protyre, explained:

“We wanted something that would fill the summer lull, connect to our CarFest sponsorship, and build momentum going into the event. The game did exactly that.”

“We wanted something that would fill the summer lull, connect to our CarFest sponsorship, and build momentum going into the event. The game did exactly that.”

Joe Whitlock, Mechanical Marketing Manager, Protyre

Plotting the journey

Using a ready-to-go Rally Rivals game, the Protyre team created a branded experience featuring an animated Protyre technician travelling from Edinburgh down to CarFest. The creative and data strategy worked hand-in-hand – encouraging play, tracking results, and driving traffic across digital and in-centre channels.

The campaign ran over 13 weeks, supported by a multi-channel mix made up of four key pillars:

Paid and organic social (top-performing channel) 📲
PPC advertising 👀
Customer email campaigns 📩
In-centre POS digital screens 🏪

Customers engaged steadily across all platforms, with the biggest spikes during July and the run-up to CarFest at the end of August. This coincided with the big prize on offer – 2x Merlin Platinum Passes (worth £600)!

Protyre Great British Road Trip Game Menu

Protyre Great British Road Trip Game Character Select 1

Protyre Great British Road Trip Gameplay Yellow

Protyre Great British Road Trip Gameplay Blue

Protyre Great British Road Trip Game Character Select 2

Protyre Great British Road Trip Gameplay Orange

Protyre Great British Road Trip Game Submit Score

Festival connection

The Great British Road Trip directly linked to Protyre’s CarFest 2025 sponsorship, reinforcing brand presence both online and on the ground.

Visitors at the festival even mentioned the game to the team on-site – a clear sign that the digital engagement translated into real-world recognition.

Campaign performance

The game was a hit with the Protyre audience, with over 9,000 players and 37,000 total games played!

Notably, social posts around the campaign achieved strong organic traction, outperforming incentivised posts from other partnerships (such as Pirelli) even without engagement-bait CTAs (like, click, share).

The road ahead

The success of The Great British Road Trip reinforced games as a core part of Protyre’s marketing strategy. The campaign not only entertained customers but also bridged the gap between digital engagement and real-world activation.

Joe summed it up neatly:

“The campaign did what we wanted it to do. It drove engagement during a quiet period, tied perfectly into CarFest, and gave us clear year-on-year growth to measure against. It’s set a great benchmark for what comes next.”

“The campaign did what we wanted it to do. It’s set a great benchmark for what comes next.”

Joe Whitlock, Mechanical Marketing Manager, Protyre

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