An Inside Look at Innovolt’s 1963 Fender Guitar Giveaway at EHX

One of the most competitive categories within the custom and specialty electronics market is power conditioning.

Wanting to gain some attention for itself at the just completed EHX Spring 2010 show in Orlando, the Atlanta-based power conditioning company Innovolt decided it would mount an aggressive marketing campaign that would bring attention to its product line.

With support from the EHX show staff, Tom Fritschi, regional sales manager for Innovolt, enlisted the help of his friend John Cruz, master builder for the Fender Custom Shop, and devised a promotion that leveraged the appeal of Fender’s brand status.

Fritschi’s idea was based on the concept that musicians and integrators share many of the same interests and needs. “Both musicians and audiophiles need their investments into their equipment protected,” he notes.

After consulting with the EHX staff, Fritschi decided to roll out a marketing promotion in which the company would give away a rare Fender Custom Shop 1963 reissue Custom Shop Stratocaster to one lucky EHX attendee through the assistance of Cruz. “An old friend, John Cruz, who I grew up with in Southern California, is a big influence in the guitar world as a master builder so it was an easy fit,” Fritschi says. “When I heard that EHX was going to host a CE Pro All-Star Band I thought it would be a great fit and I looked up John to see if he could build a guitar for EHX.”

The promotion revolved around the company’s sponsorship of the CE Pro All-Star Band, which featured custom installers, manufacturers, manufacturer reps and CE Pro staff members covering classic rock songs from artists like ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, Gary Moore and Santana.

As part of the marketing campaign Innovolt officially unveiled the guitar between songs during the industry concert, and it featured the Custom Shop Stratocaster in its booth for attendees to see.

Dealers Get Excited
Leading up to the actual giveaway Fritschi estimated that over 200 people entered the contest and he said that many attendees, including installers like Butch Madden, owner of Quality Stereo in Litchfield, Minn., were excited about the chance to win the Stratocaster. “I love Fender and I am into collectables,” says Madden. “I have an actual 1958 Gibson 335, and I saw the [CE Pro All-Star Band] concert, saw the guitar and I thought that Cruz was quite the guitar player.”

The lucky winner of the guitar was Chad Luke of NTouch Media Entertainment in Matthews, N.C. (Ironically, Luke doesn't play guitar.)

Reflecting back on the promotion, Fritschi admits that Innovolt is very much like a custom installation company trying to compete in a market where large retailers have been long established. He says that Innovolt needed to bring attention to itself in a category that already has several respected manufacturers, and through the work of his colleagues at Innvolt, the EHX staff and the band members, the promotion worked.

Going forward Fritschi notes that Innovolt is trying to attain the levels of success that Fender has achieved where consumers know the brand and respect its product line. Realistically however, he says it’s going to take some time before it reaches that status, but the staff looks forward to the challenge. “We at Innovolt are trying to reach what Fender has built in a quality name brand with trust to the end user. That’s the whole focus of what we’re trying to do and if we reach that plateau we’d be honored.”