Jeepers, What A Bash!

DaimlerChrysler draws thousands to its annual Jeep rally, thanks to savvy event planners.

The men with those cool shades and slick fedoras—Elwood and Brother Ze—aka. Dan Akroyd and Jim Belushi, pound out their signature Chicago style of blues for those attending the closing ceremony of Camp Jeep.

From a distance, Lou Bitonti, events manager for DaimlerChrysler in Auburn Hills, watches the crowd watch the show, his smile getting broader as the guitars get louder.

Surrounding him in Branson, Mo., in the Ozark Mountains near the border of Missouri and Arkansas, throngs of Jeep enthusiasts yell, clap, wave flags and hoot for themselves and compatriots in car culture.

Nearly 9,000 Jeep enthusiasts traveled from 49 states to this former farm in the Ozarks for three days last
summer to participate in one of the largest annual auto-enthusiast events in America. DaimlerChrysler spent more than $2 million to host owners and friends. “When we first started this plan 10 years ago we hired ethnographerscollege psychology and social science professors who study why people are willing to drive across the country to associate with other automotive brand owners. We wanted to know what got them there and kept them there,” Bitonti explains.

Saturn had drawn more than 40,000 car lovers to its Spriughill, Tenn., factory in the late 1980s. Harley-Davidson holds annual revelries for its biker owners— crowds motor to Sturgis, N.D., or a week-long blast with other bikers. Auto shows fill up convention halls in major
cities across the country.

Camp Jeep, according to Bitonti, who coordinates about 35 events annually for DaimlerChrysler, is the ultimate focus group for car corporations. “For the price of a Superbowl game ad you are right there in front of folks, interacting with them as they touch, feel and drive the product,” he says.

Having done small-scale Jeep Jamborees—off-road sporting events for Jeep owners—for three decades, Bitonti and his crew had a sense of what owners wanted. With the help of special events organizers from Troy-based BBDO Detroit, media consultants, and their ethnographers, they profiled a mostly outdoors-loving family who vacationed and recreated by car. They invited more than a dozen lifestyle magazine publishers to hold tent shows for visitors, offering them a chance to know their readers.

Stay Tuned for the Forecast
Coordinating large-scale immersion events takes a special brand of person. Bitonti credits his Italian heritage for cultivating a role as the extroverts extrovert. He graduated from Eastern Michigan University in communications, finding a series of jobs in advertising. He sought a way to get closer with fans, compressing the gap between manufacturer, agency and consumer. DaimlerChrysler offered him that chance.

“You have to watch the weather channel a whole lot. You can plan out everything on paper, conduct a dozen dress rehearsals but what it all comes down to is how the weather performs,” Bitonti observes.

When the temperature neared 100 degrees at Camp Jeep, Bitonti made sure a couple of the tents had air conditioning and teams of individuals handed out bottled water to participants and workers throughout the day.

He called upon a consortium of consultants to help manage 9,000 visitors. Those include: Southfield-based Caponigro Public Relations, which helped WJR-AM radio to conduct live interviews from a tent on Camp Jeep grounds, among other media activities; BI (Business Incentives) brought 700 people from around the country to staff product sales, coordinate concerts and guide traffic (Camp Jeep worked with the Troy-based office of BI, a Minneapolis training and special events firm); and Wixom-based Gordinier & Associates converted a 900-acre farm into a facility with 189 tents, 36,375 AMPs of power and 14,000 gallons of water. They also oversaw more than 300,000 cubic feet of dirt and 100 tons of rocks and logs brought in for the extended weekend.

BBDO supplied 25 events planners, who oversaw every phase of activity from teen recreation to 4 X 4 off-road driving lessons. Before an event they met with representatives from hospitals, airports, traffic safety and hospitality to assure a large group can come and go from a spot. Some regions are inaccessible.

As for vehicle logistics, MSX in Auburn Hills assured that new Jeep Wranglers were tested and primed for off-road driving lessons, a fleet of new vehicles were available for media, and a series of Jeep concept and historical vehicles were placed in tents for camp-goers to view. They also provided staffing for a mechanical garage, so those with vehicle problems could seek help.

“We play better as a team,” says Bitonti, 55, who coaches football for his son’s team at Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield. “Our team of corporate and supplier representatives starts planning Camp Jeep at least a year in advance. We meet several times after to decide what worked and what didn’t.”

Bitonti says the Blues Brothers act was a hit. But next year, Camp Jeep expects to run two events on opposite coasts because Branson is difficult to get to.

Bitonti justifies the staff power by assuring a return on corporate investment.

To assure crowds would visit the Jeep Provisions store, containing strollers, camping rents, bicycles and skateboards, the tent was one of the only ones air conditioned. Given temperatures in the upper 90s, it drew throngs of people. Overall sales of Jeep merchandising materials can reach $375 million, according to Marvin Klein, the Chrysler Group’s manager for licensing.

Nearly 1,000 people passed through the engineering roundtables, Bitonti says, providing valuable feedback on what they liked, disliked and planned to buy in the future.

The 2003 Rubicon Jeep, in fact, was a vehicle high on the wish list of those attending the early engineering circles. People wanted a Jeep totally equipped for off road, instead of buying parts from a variety of aftermarket companies and having them installed. And there were plenty of Rubicons available for test drives on hilly terrain.

“We’re constantly tweaking the program, evaluating how many dollars we spend and how much comes back in value,” says Bitonti. “The program could be the greatest ever but it must get results. That’s the winning formula.”