The concept of “stress-free travel” may sound like a distant fantasy, but Hertz is on a mission to alleviate travel anxieties through its Gold Plus Rewards loyalty program—and a pack of friendly golden retrievers known as the Gold Squad.

First introduced last summer to help airport travelers decompress, the brand’s highly trained group of pups has since begun infiltrating select Hertz locations, where the company says they’ve been very well received. But the Gold Squad, and the brand, really found their calling on Feb. 7, serving as presenting sponsor of Goldens in Golden, an annual celebration in Golden, CO, that this year drew more than 5,500 golden retrievers (and their humans) from around the country. Hello, dream event.

To bring the intangible perks of its loyalty program to life, the brand kicked off its sponsorship at Denver International Airport, where it unleashed the Gold Squad to relieve travel stress and spread some love to Hertz customers.

Then it was on to the main event, Goldens in Golden, where the brand hosted the Golden Pup Cup Café, a community-centric activation anchored by an Airstream trailer—where the Gold Squad made plenty of appearances—that provided humans with warm lattes and, of course, matching treats for their fur babies.

The footprint also included a branded mural that doubled as a photo op and featured “Feeling Golden” messaging, as well as swag and room to sit down and socialize. Outside of the activation, the Gold Squad mingled with human and canine attendees, alike, across the event.

“Ultimately, it was about: how can we have a meeting spot for folks to be able to sit down, entertain their dogs, interact with each other, and just have the best possible experience, and keep it all aligned to what we’re trying to achieve as a brand and as a company—that customer experience comes first,” says Brian Canning, cmo at Hertz.

Naturally, the Gold Squad and the café inspired social sharing on-site, but Hertz also drove hype in the leadup to Goldens in Golden with the help of its dog influencer partners, a group of golden retrievers (and their parents) that the brand has worked with over the last six months while expanding the Gold Squad campaign.

“This was an event that just made perfect sense for us in terms of being able to not only show up and make the event a little bit better from our perspective, but also to have golden retriever influencers [come] from all over the country, show the joy of a road trip, especially with your dog, and show off our cars and what you can do with Hertz vehicles, and the power of our Gold Plus program,” Canning says. “So it really aligns to what we want to do and how we want to represent ourselves as a brand and in the community.”

SQUAD GOALS

The good news for dog lovers is that Hertz is just getting started on translating its brand promise, and product, into an experiential platform. In fact, the company is currently recruiting for a Gold Squad Pack Leader, a role that will entail strategizing for, and producing, Gold Squad appearances and activations.

The goal, Canning says, is to grow the program exponentially. “We’re doing more and more cities. We’re going to be doing more events outside of the actual Hertz locations. So it’s just going to get bigger and bigger. [The Gold Squad] are going to become a part of our brand DNA, because it aligns, again, with what we’re trying to do in investing in the customer experience.” Agency: Preacher.

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The post Hertz Unleashes a Pack of Dogs and a Pop-Up Café at the World’s Largest Gathering of Golden Retrievers appeared first on Event Marketer.

USAA’s annual Salute to Service Lounge at the NFL fan festival offers an exclusive space for military members, veterans, USAA members and their families to hear from and meet NFL players and legends, participate in EA Sports’ Madden NFL experiences, and see the impact of the brand’s military support initiatives and nonprofit partnerships.

While the panels, talent appearances and venue design change to fit the SBX’s host city, the lounge’s aim remains the same: to reflect USAA’s “deep commitment to serving those who serve our country for over a century,” says Krissy Gorsuch, director-sponsorships at USAA, who takes us inside the activation’s strategy, development and touchpoints.

Optimizing Schedules and Venues

USAA expanded the lounge’s programming this year in San Francisco, adding a third day to have it open on the SBX’s Military Appreciation Day on Feb. 4, when all military members and their families receive free admission, courtesy of the Wounded Warrior Project.

“For the seven sessions that we had, we reached max capacity every time. We always are able to get every single body in that room for these sessions, and we get great feedback from them,” Gorsuch says. “We started to see, the past couple of years, that we have a lot of repeat visitors who have been to this before in prior years at the different markets that we’re in, and they love it so much that they continually come back to SBX just to seek out the Salute to Service Lounge. It’s been really exciting to see that it’s gained that much momentum.”

This year, lounge visitors enjoyed a new vantage point away from the Moscone Center’s main convention floor with other brand activations, instead convening in an upstairs ballroom. The enclosed space allowed for a more intimate, private setting—no crowd noise or thumping music peripherally heard during Q&A sessions.

“Every year, placement is a little bit different. It’s highly dependent on the space, the capacity, what we’re able to do within the floor of SBX itself,” Gorsuch says. “It worked out well for us this year because we were really the only thing on that level before you went down to SBX, and we had a registration booth, which was the first thing you saw when you walked in through the doors, so people saw the branding right away and automatically knew that we were there.”

Distilling the Right Branding Combo

In December, USAA launched its new creative platform called “Taking Care of our Own,” which was incorporated into the lounge’s branding through large display panels and a video board that, during sessions, ran videos and messaging highlighting USAA’s year-round Salute to Service efforts. Gorsuch says the team takes into account the balance of Super Bowl and NFL branding with that of USAA.

“We know people are coming to SBX and to our activation with the energy of the Super Bowl, so we want to lean into that and leverage the spirit of the city, the color palette and the style guide that we work with the NFL on. But we also want people to understand that this is a USAA space that we’re bringing to our members,” she says. “When people walk in, they get the excitement of the Super Bowl branding, and as they’re walking out, the last thing they see on the exit walls is the USAA branding for a good reminder of how USAA is showing up for the military community.”

Leveraging Authentic Talent Partnerships

A special surprise for attendees, USAA invited Ellie and Emma, two golden retriever therapy dogs with more than 17 million followers on social media (@elliegoldenlife). Along with their owner Kevin Bubolz, an Army veteran, they spent time with attendees, gave out pawtographs, helped pack 2,500 care packages for veterans at the lounge, and introduced Salute to Service Award recipient Christian McCaffrey of the San Francisco 49ers on stage.

The dog influencers and McCaffrey were among several celebrities brought into the lounge, including Jaxson Dart, quarterback for the New York Giants; Emeka Egbuka, wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; CeeDee Lamb, wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys; Rome Odunze, wide receiver for the Chicago Bears; and, of course, brand ambassador Rob Gronkowski.

“One of the things that we look for when we’re partnering with talent is to ensure that they have an authentic military connection to maintain authenticity of the lounge,” Gorsuch says. “They’re coming to talk about their understanding and appreciation of the military, and it just comes through so much more authentically when they have that personal relationship and they understand the service and sacrifice behind what our service members go through.”

Bringing AI into the Mix

New for this year, an AI photo op was built into the queue space to engage fans as they waited for the lounge to open. In collaboration with EA Sports’ Madden NFL, of which USAA is the Official Salute to Service Partner, the photo booth ran an AI body scan of each participant, and they could then choose a Madden-inspired pose for the image that was available as a printout and downloadable file to share on social media.

“Last year, we had our own gaming kiosks so our guests who were waiting for the lounge could play Madden,” Gorsuch says. “And this year, we wanted to take it a step further so people could walk away with a keepsake and a memento of their time in the Salute to Service Lounge while keeping that interaction with Madden. It was a lot of fun, and we got some great feedback on it.”

Upcoming NFL Activations

In August, USAA and the NFL announced a multiyear extension to the longtime partnership. As the Official Salute to Service Partner of the NFL, USAA leads military appreciation throughout the season, particularly at Super Bowl, Pro Bowl Games, NFL Draft and NFL Kickoff. It is also the presenting sponsor of the Salute to Service Award, contributing $25,000 in the name of the award recipient to the military aid societies representing all U.S. military branches. New plans are on the horizon to enhance USAA’s international presence, and a one-hour Salute to Service broadcast show is in development.

Gorsuch says site visits for the next SBX in L.A. will start in the summer, and the team will evaluate the space to figure out how to “make the lounge bigger and better every year.” Talent partnerships are also on their radar year-round, with an eye particularly focused on the upcoming NFL Draft in April and working with incoming draft prospects who have military connections. Rookies and fan-favorites may be tapped for the next edition of the lounge.

“We had tremendous success this year with the content that came out of the lounge, and we’re looking at that a little bit differently—how we tell the story of the lounge, the veterans we invite to it and the talent and players involved in our Super Bowl experiences,” she says. “We’ve seen some great growth in our social engagement from last year to this year, which is a big indicator of the interest and excitement that people have for the lounge.” Agency: 160over90.

Photos: Courtesy of USAA; Juanita Chavarro Arias

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• Physical Recreations, Digital Engagements Power USAA’s Army-Navy Game Activation
• From Jersey Mike’s Shore to Visa Print Shop, Top 12 Activations at Super Bowl LX Experience

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