Michelin Tyres is one of the oldest and most prestigious tyre brands in the world. Michelin is also one of the most expensive brands on the market, with a reputation for incomparable quality and elite exclusivity. The company’s long and celebrated history of excellence is reflected in its brand partnerships and initiatives. Michelin introduced radial tyre technology to Formula One racing and was a tyre partner and supplier to the sport for many years. More than 100 grand prix victories were achieved with Michelin tyres. Michelin has also been developing tyres for Ferrari S.p.A for nearly 50 years and has been publishing the Michelin Guide since 1900. Michelin Stars, awarded by the Guide to restaurants, are a world-renowned symbol of culinary and hospitality excellence. From products to partnerships, Michelin is discerning and uncompromising on quality and satisfaction.

Despite Michelin’s excellent brand position, tough economic conditions and the availability of cheaper alternatives in a very competitive market led to a sales decline in South Africa. Michelin required a solution that would continuously drive its frontline salesforce in dealerships across the country to promote Michelin tyres to consumers. Vetro Media was tasked to develop a solution that would assist Michelin in gathering frontline sales data, forming an easy line of communication with salespeople and in, turn, reward the salespeople for selling Michelin tyres.

We proposed Michelin Torque, a nationwide always-on B2B loyalty programme that rewards salespeople for prioritising Michelin above other brands. The programme aimed to increase Michelin sales and foster long-term brand loyalty. The incentive mechanism was simple: sell a Michelin tyre in specific denominations, upload your invoice to the Michelin Torque platform, receive points tied to the sale and redeem the points for rewards. We built a robust, web-based application that requires a cellphone number and OTP for registration and login. All dealerships in South Africa selling Michelin tyres were loaded onto the platform.

Salespeople join the programme by sending their name, cellphone number and dealership name to the Michelin call centre (our office). We then register them as users, after which they can log in using their cellphone number and start earning points through sales. Users are required to submit invoices listing tyre sales for validation. Once validated on the back-end of the platform, points are loaded to their personal profiles. To redeem points, users navigate to a voucher section where a range of vouchers – from cash and airtime to food and retail – can be selected. The user sets the value of the voucher, submits the request and receives a digital voucher by SMS.

The platform also opened a direct communication channel to salespeople. Users are informed by SMS of brand news, new loyalty campaigns and special offers. The database is constantly updated and communication is streamlined. The Michelin Torque Programme was also reskinned to run B2C campaigns that promoted different product offers for different business units. Customers register on and login to the same platform, but follow a different journey determined by their user status. Using the same platform, eliminated the need for and cost of external campaign builds.

The success of the programme is evident in the industry and is to date one of the most successful B2B loyalty and rewards programmes that Vetro Media has created. A staggering 91% of points issued are redeemed every month. Torque sales accounted for 40% of total tyre sales and have resulted in a 28% increase in total tyre sales (2018-19 YoY comparison).