Turning a swerve into a stop

ScottishPower's sales teams work in retail spaces where the standard response to a branded stand is a polite swerve, and where you have about ten seconds to prove you are worth stopping for. So how do you make an energy conversation something people volunteer for, and bring their kids to? 

We stopped selling greener living technology and started running an energy pit stop. A full race garage dropped into the middle of Centre:MK, with a wrapped EV on the line, circuit-inspired chequered flooring, a timed wheel-change game against a live clock and Bruce, ScottishPower's mascot, working the floor. Speed was the whole idea. A pit stop is fast, the rules explain themselves, and it gives someone a reason to stop that has nothing to do with their energy bills. 

We recruited and trained a brand ambassador pit crew who ran the game, held the crowd and handed warm conversations to the ScottishPower sales team stationed inside the green energy garage. A winner’s podium worked as both photo moment and natural hinge from playing to talking, so people arrived at the sales conversation already engaged rather than ambushed. Add a prize draw to win the EV car, instant-win vouchers, 3,300 branded bags and a steady stream of shoppers determined to beat the clock, it was a busy activation that exceeded all targets. 

Over 11 days, the Pit Stop became the strongest performing sales location in the network, at double the productivity of comparable sites. Not bad for a game about changing a tyre.