One of the leading tyre manufacturer, Michelin, has announced the launch of its first television commercial in the country. Themed ‘Safely Ahead’ this pan India campaign with the iconic Michelin man will make its debut on Indian television channels soon. The campaign, which has been produced for Television as well as for digital advertising, will highlight Michelin’s ability to provide safer mobility for motorcyclists and scooter riders thanks to its technological know how and its 125-year history of delivering landmark innovations.
The campaign centers around three elements that Indian riders negotiate daily while using their motorcycles and scooters:
– Bad roads: dictate the fitment of robust tyres.
– Wet roads: require good grip.
– Braking: stopping ability to minimise braking distances.
The TV advertisements will be seen on major national cable networks in India that would include general entertainment, movies and sports channels. It will also be aired on major regional channels across the country. The campaign was conceptualized by Publicis India. In Efecto, the French 3D animated film specialist executed the animation.
Michelin Safety Campaigns in India
Promoting road safety awareness has long been a priority at Michelin. Michelin is notably involved in the United Nations campaign launched in 2010 which targets the saving of five million lives worldwide in 10 years and a reduction of 50 million in the number of people hurt in road accidents.
In India, which is listed as one of the world’s most accident-prone countries, with a daily average of 1,374 accidents and 400 victims, Michelin does not content itself with ensuring a high standard of active safety for its tyres; it has also participated in two awareness programmes over the last three years.
The first concerns the New Delhi region where Michelin India is targeting school children up to their late teens in association with PVR Nest, the Foundation of PVR Cinemas. This vast awareness operation has already benefited approximately 500,000 children and adolescents. The second covers the area near Chennai, where the Michelin factory is located, and has educated some 4,000 youngsters aged between 6 and 17 to familiarise themselves with road safety essentials.
Here is a timeline of how Michelin innovations have revolutionised motorcycling over the past 125 years
- 1891: Michelin launches the first removable tyre for two-wheeled vehicles.
- 1898: ‘Birth’ of the Michelin Man.
- 1899: Michelin tyres win a number of motorcycle races, including the Nice-Castellane and Paris-Roubaix road races.
- 1905: Michelin publishes its first tyre catalogue exclusively for motorcycles and bicycles.
- 1928: Launch of the MICHELIN Confort-Bibendum tyre. Michelin publishes a 1:200,000-scale map of France for cyclists and motorcyclists.
- 1935: Launch of the MICHELIN Flèche d’Or and MICHELIN Zigzag tyres famous for their legendary tread patterns.
- Late 1930s: Michelin’s motorcycle tyre range features four bespoke tyres for four different types of use. Their common denominators are safety, comfort and long life.
- 1950: Michelin plays a part in the far-reaching changes to the two-wheeled vehicle industry and develops tyres adapted to new concepts: scooters and mopeds.
- 1974: Michelin launches the first slick tyre for grand prix racing, a revolution that considerably improved performance.
- 1976: Barry Sheene (Suzuki) and Michelin win the GP500 world championship, the first of many GP500 and MotoGP titles for the French firm.
- 1984: Michelin launches the first radial GP500 tyre, another example of its longstanding track-to -street philosophy.
- 1987: Launch of the first road-going radial motorcycle tyre, the MICHELIN A59X / M59X.
- 1992: Introduction of the first GP500 tyre to feature a silica-reinforced rubber compound, another Michelin innovation used initially in racing before being carried over to road tyres.
- 1994: Michelin introduces GP500’s first dual-compound racing tyre.
- 1997: To keep abreast with the popularity of increasingly higher-performance motorcycles, Michelin introduces ZR technology.
- 2005: The MICHELIN Power Race becomes the market’s first tyre to feature dual-compound technology (MICHELIN 2CT).
- 2008: Michelin and Harley-Davidson sign a landmark agreement covering the development of the MICHELIN Scorcher range. These jointly-developed, co-branded original equipment and replacement tyres are suitable for numerous models made by the American manufacturer.
- 2010: Launch of the MICHELIN City Grip. Designed for mopeds and scooters of up to 125cc, it delivers outstanding grip on wet roads thanks to a brand new siping technique (MICHELIN XST).
- 2011: MICHELIN XST is also used for the MICHELIN Pilot Road 3 which offers unprecedented safety on wet roads.
- 2014: Launch of the revolutionary MICHELIN Pilot Road 4 which combines dual-compound technology (MICHELIN 2 CT), an improved version of MICHELIN’s X-Sipe Technology (MICHELIN XST+) and MICHELIN’s innovative Dual Angle Technology (2 AT) architecture.
- 2016: Michelin returns to MotoGP racing.