Bamford notes other positive effects outside the direct exposure JCB gets to the 60,000-plus fans in attendance at any given Monster Jam event (and millions more each year on television and the internet).
“We sold [a machine] from the Pit Party today,” says Bamford from the 18 May World Finals, referring to a Monster Jam pre-event festival that’s held outside the hosting stadium for each competition. “But we’ve also hired a lot of service techs, because they’ll see DIGatron and think it’s the coolest thing, and they’ll say, ‘Can we come and work with you?’”
JCB North America’s president and CEO, Richard Fox-Marrs, confirms their exposure through Monster Jam should help bolster direct-sales to customers. He said the company has done well in North America through its rental segment, but he said JCB is now figuring out how to sell more directly to end users.
“We’ve done really well in terms of the rental side of our business,” he acknowledges during the World Finals event. “But our opportunity to grow further is the grassroots, construction-equipment user; the guy who buys one to five machines.”
In particular, Fox-Marrs notes strength with the company’s North American sales of telescopic handlers and materials-handling products. As has been the global trend, he notes compact equipment demand is expected to remain high and potentially grow in the region.
“So, our skid steers, our telescopic skid steers, they’re going really well for us, as well as mini excavators,” explains Fox-Marrs. “Really, 70% of the market by volume are those compact machines, and it’s exactly those kind of customers that are buying those machines who are coming to Monster Jam.”
Bamford hopes JCB & Monster Jam have long partnership
The DIGatron monster truck from JCB. (Image: Mitchell Keller)
All this behind-the-scenes and on-field time, Bamford views, as being one of the most valuable aspects of the JCB/Feld Entertainment alignment.
Added to it, JCB’s “Dancing Diggers” (a more than 60-year-old JCB showcasing tradition), a fleet of excavators and skid steers and their operators, are regular performers at Monster Jam events. It’s essentially a construction stunt show, with the machines running through a choreographed routine or “dance”.
It’s all a package that JCB hopes will turn into familiarity; especially for young ones who might be eager to bring home a JCB-branded miniature for their plastic construction fleet in the toy bin.
“JCB really becomes a memory of happiness,” remarks Bamford. “We’re in someone’s household. You’ll be sleeping in the JCB sheets, wearing the gear.
The JCB DIGatron monster truck, in lead, does an introductory lap at the Monster Jam World Finals on 18 May. (Image: Mitchell Keller)
“But it’s from the inside out; it’s a really natural thing.”
She adds JCB and Monster Jam agreed to an initial five-year partnership, but she said she’s already eager to consider extending it.
“We are obviously a British company, but we manufacture here in America in Savannah, Georgia, and soon going into San Antonio, Texas. It’s hugely important for us to show our American roots, now, and our American heart,” she says.
Source link : https://www.constructionbriefing.com/news/can-monster-trucks-help-jcb-make-headway-in-north-america-/8037493.article
Author :
Publish date : 2024-06-19 04:48:32
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
