Asphalt Care Equipment Inc., in Bensalem, Pa., northeast of Philadelphia, hosted an event March 15, 2024, to promote several of the dealership's line of versatile paving machines and other products and tools for its paving contractors.
A key part of the open house was Asphalt Care's showcase of Mauldin Paving Products and its "Raised on Blacktop"-branded machine — the Mauldin M415XT maintainer.
Joining the manufacturer at the Pennsylvania dealership was Matt Stanley, the originator of the "Raised on Blacktop" social media and branding campaign and himself a paving professional at his family's company, American Pavement Specialists in Danbury, Conn.
Stanley started the movement to both promote the paving industry's importance to America's infrastructure and heighten its awareness to the public.
As a result of the campaign, "Raised on Blacktop" has partnered with equipment makers like Mauldin and LeeBoy to put its brand on their paving machines.
Built by Calder Brothers Corp. in Taylors, S.C., Mauldin showcased three of its products in the Asphalt Care Equipment yard to, among other things, give demonstrations of its "Raised on Blacktop" lineup, including the co-branded Mauldin M415XT maintainer, its gravity-fed model 650 track paver and a conveyor-fed Mauldin 1560 track paver.
"We first collaborated with Mauldin on its M415XT "Raised on Blacktop" maintainer last year before it debuted at ConExpo in 2023," Stanley said. "When we decided to do some dealer events, Asphalt Care Equipment immediately came to mind because we are based only three hours from here."
He added that other than the trade shows that his "Raised on Blacktop" crew has attended, the Asphalt Care event was the campaign's first equipment-dealership sponsored display.
"Social media is great, and YouTube is awesome, but to be able to come to these events and actually talk to people, you realize everyone has a similar story," Stanley said. "This is seemingly a big industry, but once you start to meet the people in it — the manufacturers, the dealers, the contractors — you realize it is really just a small community and they are contractors like us."
Asphalt Care Equipment General Manager Bill Jainnini said that after LeeBoy's "Raised on Blacktop" pavers proved to be such popular models for that company, Mauldin was convinced to work with Stanley and his "Raised on Blacktop" people to create a branded lineup for it as well.
"Since we are one of Mauldin's largest distributors, they came to us and said, ‘Hey, we are going to get the opportunity to start this ‘Raised on Blacktop'-edition maintainer brand with Stanley and his guys,'" Jainnini said. "I told them that I would pay for the edition and give it to our marketing people to help coordinate this event. The whole purpose and premise of what we are doing here today was to invite the ‘Raised on Blacktop' people here to Bensalem to show off this Mauldin maintainer, but treat it as more of a meet-and-greet than anything else."
The event allowed Asphalt Care's customers to visit its facility, have a good time, enjoy great food and win free merchandise. Jainnini said the occasion was his company's way of giving back to its loyal customer base.
In addition, three different stations were set up. At the first one, guests could see the dealership's newest equipment, including Dynapac's new rollers and pavers; Marathon Equipment's unique melter kettles and tack units; and an assortment of Asphalt Care's small tools for sale.
The second station featured the live paver demos, highlighted by the Mauldin M415XT maintainer in operation. Around lunch time, another demonstration was held to demonstrate mastic mixing with Maxwell Products utilizing a Marathon MM250 mastic melter, according to Jainnini.
"Our guests can hop on these machines and play around with any of them with the assistance of the ‘Raised on Blacktop' crew," he said. "They are here to run the maintainer load and show how versatile that machine is."
A mini-excavator skills competition was held at the third station with the prizes ranging from exclusive Asphalt Care hats, co-branded with "Raised on Blacktop." In fact, everyone attending the open house received a "Raised on Blacktop" t-shirt co-branded with Asphalt Care and Mauldin.
Door prizes included Philadelphia Phillies baseball tickets as well as a grand prize of Diamond Club seats for a Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park. Mike McCone, vice president of operations of American Sitework LLC, Cinnaminson, N.J., won the Diamond Club seats.
"It is just a great local event designed to really get people into this equipment," said Brandon Granger, Mauldin Paving's product and trade show manager. "We are out here doing demos. You can see this equipment at the trade shows, but actually driving them around gives you a real feel and connection to the machines.
"Doing this collaboration with ‘Raised on Blacktop' has really brought a lot of new and younger eyes to our products, so we are very happy with it," he added. CEG
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