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FOR MARKET SHARE
Part of Dal's approach to selling trucks is to align itself with mass audience events such as the World's Strongest Man television spectacular. Karen Miles went to Portugal to examine the effectiveness of such publicity
SEE those agonised expressions, the pumping mucks and the sweat magnified on your television screen? The odd Daf truck, Daf sign, and child wearing a hat with Daf emblazoned over it has crept in.
If you watched the Dal Trucks World's Strongest — or is it most macho — Man over the Christmas holidays, you also saw the heavy goods vehicle industry's latest strange attempt to capture more of the market. Not that the BBC allows advertising, but the Dal name is estimated to have seeped into the vision of 11 million people in Britain alone.
Dal belongs to an industry which has tried most methods to bolster flagging sales — including one recent press advertising campaign which moved the then Labour Transport spokesman Gwyneth Dunwoody, to slap Leyland's wrists for draping attractive girls around its trucks in a rather suggestive manner. But the Dutch manufacturer, at least, seems to have found a recipe for success.
For the second year running it has sponsored the entertaining, astounding and often funny World's Strongest Man.
What were the returns of Pal's sponsorship investment? There is the British audience for a start.
And last year at least another 50 million viewers outside Britain watched the extravaganza. Daf is hoping that through the programme's screening in 28 countries this year, the worldwide audience will exceed this figure.
But Dal's strategic marketing targets with the programme are Britain, Australia, Sweden and Portugal. Britain is already Daf's second largest market and the company hopes that Sweden will show continued improvement although prospects there are limited owing to the strong home market presence of Volvo and Scania. Australia, however, is a new market which Daf plans to develop and Portugal, with just one dealer at Lisbon, obviously has room for growth.
Although it has to be difficult to assess how many of the millions of viewers will register that Dal is present at all, the television programme must still be a very cheap public relations exercise. Reports that the whole project cost as much as C100,000 were hotly denied by the company, so it's anybody's guess.
Although Daf hopes its name will reach more than 60 million people around the world, the logo means nothing if there is no understanding of what Dal represents. According to European Division director Mathieu Gijzen: "We need to make them understand what Dal Trucks means. That's why its good to have trucks included in the events, and why the first event (the truck pull) is very good."
With the truck pull opening the competition and with the competitive stress on the final event which includes loading a Daf 2100 Turbo 16-tonne flatbed truck with 10 loaded lobster pots weighing 30kg each, the show must increase public awareness of its products.
But the events were, of course, dominated by those eight huge men from around the world — all of whom wore their 'Dal Strongest Man' white jackets when the occasion demanded.
Resounding winner of the whole competition was Britain's Geoff Capes, whose 1.98m (6ft 6in) and 146kg (23 stone) frame brought him victory in four of the eight events. And probably rather to the embarrassment of his own regular sponsor, sponsor, Mercedes-Benz, too. No doubt the German manufacturer's chagrin increased further when Capes slapped himself frantically around the face and then proceeded to make an unofficial world truck-pull record. He dragged a Daf 3600 ATi tractive unit weighing 7.5 tonnes, over 30m in just 30.7 seconds.
ANOTHER dominating characte was Rick 'Grizzly' Brown whu entertainment of' the Portuguese crowd — and the millions of viewers worldwide — earned him the accolade t 'best personality' and i500 prize money Overall, he came sixth.
And he admitted to feeling "like the prettiest fat man in the world" when la(
311 the Crucifix — a kat which would leify any normal person. Grizzly held I2.5kg bell in each hand, with his rins stretched at his sides and elbows :Iced for 64.8 seconds.
No doubt Grizzly was helped along , his 89cm shoulder span — nearly a rd — which he expects to earn him an try in the Guinc..ss Book of Records. Other incredible characters tried to he al Trucks World's Strongest Man. Jon ill Sigmarsson, the 135kg (21 stone) iking strongman, who eats whale meat r breakfast.
Then there was the quieter Dutch • lkg (22 stone) Cees de Vreugd, who me third. I le had flown direct from e World Po werlifting Championships Helsinki in which he had won the iperheavy class. On the same plane as American George I lechter, who .me second to De Vreugd. And none the Portuguese crowd was likely to Ye him any trouble when they looked his 155kg (24.5 stone) frame.
The eight-man line up was completed Tom Magee, the Canadian pro .restler and the first and only Canadian ■ exceed 4,400kg (2,000lb) for the three I power lifts; Scandinavian 1.9m (6ft n) 130kg (20.3 stone) powerlifter oger Ekstrom and finally Frenchman .an-Pierre Brulois.
But none of the eight who sweated athe World's Strongest Man title — id indirectly for Dal's cause of course could exactly be called a pansy. They had that bullish, macho, idestructible image, which for better or rorse, seems to go hand in hand with te public image of the heavy truck.