Corporate Events
The Gordinier Group team brought in the holidays with Santa! With Ram being a proud sponsor of the 2018 Nashville Christmas Parade, Gordinier Group drivers geared up for the task of pulling the festive parade floats for all to enjoy. As the title sponsor of the parade, Ram trucks towed all of the parade floats, including the life-size gingerbread float that housed Santa. Ram provided 15 trucks in all, as well as, provided seats for many heartwarming patients and their families from Monroe Carell Jr Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt to enjoy the parade first hand.
It was smiles all around!
November 8, 2018
It isn’t every day that we get to set up R+D courses for big, class 4 and 5 work trucks, but with last week’s launch of the new 2019 Navistar International CV truck line, Gordinier Group got to do just that.
Navistar is on the leading edge of medium-heavy duty truck manufacturers who use experiential marketing as a sales tool. In this case, dealers and media guests were invited to a CV immersion, part of which involved them getting behind the wheel of the new trucks.
Nestled in a large asphalt space between Soldier Field and McCormick Place on scenic Lake Michigan, we put together 2 courses with the guidance of Navistar engineers who had specific attributes that they wanted to show in their new truck line.
The event was very well attended – especially considering the cold windy conditions typical of November in Chicago.
Another great partner activation with the George P Johnson Company that was delivered flawlessly and on brand!
The brand new Mahindra Roxor was introduced to the media and dealers over a 3-day event at the San Antonio AlamoDome, and the Gordinier Group was there to build and operate the off-road course.
If you aren’t familiar with Mahindra, they are an enormous ($19B), Indian company, who produces a large line of vehicles overseas as well as owning a large segment of big agriculture equipment abroad and in the US. The new Roxor will create a segment all its own – something between a side-by-side and a Jeep Wrangler. At first glance, the vehicle obviously has Wrangler visual cues (Mahindra has maintained license from Willy’s since the 1940’s to build this vehicle), but with its 2.5L turbo diesel motor, manual transmission and leaf-sprung suspension (and the fact that it’s not street legal in the US), the similarities end there. What it is, is a super fun and very capable off-road only vehicle that feels very durable, well-made, and appears to be able to chug through the ugliest of trails with ease (as well as being able to tow 3,490 lbs). It seems perfect for ranch or farm use and it would be great fun on difficult off-road trails such as Rubicon and Moab. You can read more about the Roxor below.
Dealers and media outlets converged in San Antonio, eager to learn about the Roxor and excited to get behind the wheel. GG operators built a course in the AlamoDome parking lot that both challenged the vehicle and driver, but was still able to throughput the several hundred amped dealers. As an added challenge for the course design, all Roxor test drive units had manual transmissions (as well as 2-speed transfer cases). This can sometimes be tricky when the public is driving. Luckily, the Roxor had so much low-end torque, it was easy for novice manual drivers to crawl over the boulder pile, log tilt, side hill, and other steep obstacles created for this unique test drive.
Gordinier Group teamed up with longtime partner George P. Johnson to deliver a 7-week program at TAC – the birthplace of the modern Jeep Wrangler.
In an effort to boost morale at the plant, the Jeep Immersion at TAC was designed to give employees an opportunity to grow their enthusiasm for the brand. Employees from each department in the plant spent a full day learning about Jeep history, participating in team-building activities and ultimately driving the vehicles that they build on a challenging off-road course.
Gordinier Group was charged with designing and constructing the off-road courses and providing drivers and safety spotters to operate them. We developed two courses – an extreme ‘Rubicon Only’ course that our drivers took passengers on as well as a ‘Trail Rated’ course that was driven by the employees with our spotters on hand to help them to navigate the course.
We came into this event with the experience earned last summer at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant (JNAP) Jeep Immersion under our belt. The timing and logistics of getting over 100 employees safely through both courses each day had been dialed in, and guests LOVED the experience. Participants used off-road driving lessons given by GG drivers on the Rubicon course to pilot their Wranglers through the Trail Rated course without incident.
Activating an event in Toledo at the home of the Wrangler was a special opportunity for our drivers, who are all die-hard Wrangler fans. It didn’t go unnoticed that just a few feet away, 2018 Wrangler JLs were rolling off of the line… Exciting times for Jeep fans!
Below you will dfin a couple of clips that appeared on local Toledo media sites:
Toledo Blade article and videos
