nav1 nav3 nav10 poll
How long have you worked in the promotional products industry?





  
menufoot
Article Tools: Print | Email

Drive Time
By: Audrey Sellers, Associate Editor
Issue: August-September 2009


To get the wheels on the tour bus rolling to turnpike plazas, HMSHost motivated drivers with a rewards program.


Free food is a great motivator, especially if you have a job that keeps you busy carting people to and from restaurants and fun destinations all day. HMSHost, a concessionaire for turnpike service plazas, wanted to offer free meals to tour bus drivers who brought a bus full of people to a turnpike plaza.

The company called on Nancy Berman with distributor Zebra Marketing Corporation (UPIC: ZEBRAMC) in Altamonte Springs, Florida, for help building a campaign. “We needed a promotional product that would encourage drivers to visit the plazas but that also provided pertinent information about HMSHost Service Plazas located along various state turnpike systems,” Berman says.

The solution was Gus Busman, a characterization of a jovial bus driver with a fun and easy-to-remember name. Berman created “Gus Busman’s Pocket Plaza Pass (GBPPP),” a customized pop-out map showing all locations of HMSHost Service Plazas, a listing of each plaza with the mile marker location and a list of restaurants at each plaza.

“The inside cover had a clear vinyl pocket to hold the ‘Plaza Pass,’ which is much like a credit card that rewards drivers with a free meal every time they bring 20 or more passengers to a turnpike plaza,” says Berman. “The product was created as an easy, convenient way to keep all the information about our plazas in an easy-to-carry format.”

Drivers received the GBPPP after registering for the program and could start earning rewards immediately. After each qualifying visit, they swiped their Plaza Pass, providing HMSHost with market data. After 15 valid visits, drivers collected a refillable, $30 MasterCard gift card imprinted with Gus Busman’s face.

As long as drivers shuttled passengers to the plazas, they raked in $30 for every 15 visits. They could also check on their account balances and any updated information by logging on to the Gus Busman website.

“Prior to this promotion, HMSHost had used various programs targeting tour bus drivers, but the programs were unable to establish a presence in the marketplace,” Berman says. “In the first 12 months of the Gus Busman Pocket Plaza Pass Program, membership skyrocketed to 9,837 members.” Plus, the campaign allowed HMSHost to collect useful information such as the number of passengers drivers brought to the plaza and the time of day they arrived.