Goodwood Festival of Speed, UK

Repositioning the Kwik Fit brand to attract a new audience at Goodwood Festival of Speed

Goodwood Festival of Speed is one of the world’s most prestigious motoring festivals. Held in the beautiful parkland surrounding Goodwood House, it puts race fans up close to magnificent cars, bikes and their drivers. And it attracts many luxury exhibitors such as Ferrari, Cartier and Veuve Clicquot. When Alive was asked to design, build and manage Kwik Fit’s stand for the 2022 event, the challenge was to ensure the brand sat comfortably alongside other, more glamorous, exhibitors. Because, while Kwik Fit has a solid heritage, it isn’t in the premium lifestyle brand space. It was a challenge Alive met, and the team was asked to continue working with Kwik Fit on its Goodwood stands for the 2023 and 2024 festivals.

A fruitful relationship
Alive was introduced to Kwik Fit through its marketing partner and began working with the brand’s head of retail marketing, Tom Gentle. Tom says: “Our goal for Goodwood Festival of Speed was to put Kwik Fit into an unexpected yet relevant space in front of a key audience. The main reason we chose to work with Alive is because they’re premium events specialists and have lots of experience in working with brands at Goodwood. But the relationship we’ve built with Alive over the last three years is what’s become really valuable to us.”

He explains: “Often, when working with suppliers, you don’t get the maximum benefit of their expertise because they don’t make the effort to build a relationship with you. Alive is different – they really get to know their clients and work hard to understand your needs. Having a good relationship makes a big difference on a strategic level and a day-to-day level, because you work with suppliers for long periods of time in the events business.”

Opening up conversations

A large proportion of Kwik Fit’s activation at the Goodwood Festival of Speed is around promoting its title sponsorship of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). The event’s attendees are typically motor enthusiasts and race fans. So, to attract attention and create positive brand associations, Kwik Fit wanted to use its stand to display BTCC cars and host driver interviews, signings, competitions, video gaming and so on.

The rest of Kwik Fit’s activity at the festival is about raising awareness of the brand and the work it does. For the 2022 event, Alive suggested creating a demo workshop on the stand and Tom really liked this idea: “Part of our activation at Goodwood is about changing perceptions among trade and consumer audiences. We want to make people aware that if you go to Kwik Fit, you get a higher quality service. Alive created an environment where we can talk to people who are interested in, for example, the technicalities of tyres, but maybe wouldn’t have thought to buy from Kwik Fit.”

A stand that turned heads

Having a demo space at the event not only showcased behind the scenes at a Kwik Fit centre, it was a cost-effective way for the brand to store and use its equipment at the event. And this kind of clever, considered thinking is typical of Alive. When you book space at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, you get an area in a field that may be sloping and uneven. Alive carefully contemplates every detail – large and small. From which way the stand should face to the placement of branding, entrances, utilities, disabled access, covered space, storage and more.

The care and thought invested paid off. At the 2022 festival, Alive created an impressive, two-storey stand for Kwik Fit. “The feedback from customers was that Kwik Fit sat naturally among the luxury big brands at the event,” says Tom. “Alive helped us create a stand that turned people’s heads and made Kwik Fit look like it belonged in this premium space. Which was a particularly big achievement, given that our budget will have been much smaller than most of the brands there.”

Maximising the budget

In 2023, Kwik Fit had to reduce its festival budget significantly due to the knock-on effects of the pandemic. But Alive still helped it rise to the occasion and, despite the restricted budget, created a stand that met the brand’s objectives.

“The challenge was even greater for the 2023 festival,” says Tom, “because we still needed an attention-grabbing stand that positioned Kwik Fit as a respected brand. Alive came up trumps though with a design that included a ramp for the all-important BTCC cars, a covered area for our simulators and even increased visual branding compared to 2022.”

Proactivity and initiative

On day two of the 2023 event, Alive approached Tom to say that high winds and severe rain were forecast for day four. They’d laid out different scenarios and the recommended action to take for each. This gave Tom the information and evidence he needed to take the decision to close his stand that day. The festival later followed suit and the event’s health and safety team praised Alive for its foresight.

Tom says: “There’s a real proactiveness to Alive around meeting any challenges we might face. Because of their experience at the event, they’re always one step ahead. In fact, to sum up in a word why Alive is so effective, it’s initiative. My role means I’m working on multiple things. And what I love about Alive is that I can be light touch or heavily involved when I need to be. I give them direction and they crack on and stay in regular contact. And there’s a trust on both sides that allows us to make very quick, sometimes difficult, decisions when needed.”

Open collaboration

For the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed, Kwik Fit was able to return to a bigger budget and is getting even better value for money from Alive. After each event, Alive has taken time to debrief fully with Tom so any learnings can be carried forward. This means that, in 2024, they’re taking the best elements of the previous years’ stands – such as the two-storey concept from 2022 and the strong branding from 2023 – and building on that. There’s now a VIP area, for example, and a one-way system to aid people flow, and the car ramp has a more robust, branded casing.
“Having a good relationship allows us to be really open and honest,” explains Tom. “It’s genuine, two-way collaboration. And that approach continues right the way through to the event where Alive collaborates closely with several of our partners and theirs to make sure everything runs smoothly.”

Happy to recommend Alive

Tom likes working with Alive so much he recommended them to Pirelli (one of Kwik Fit’s biggest partners) and Alive created the tyre manufacturer’s stand for the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2023. Tom concludes: “I have no hesitation in recommending Alive. I love how they’ve helped me maximise my budget each year. And they’re great to work with – it’s reassuring to have such a safe, proactive pair of hands on board.”