Ep. #20 - SalesAI turned an IndyCar sponsorship into a city-wide activation

A race car sponsorship is one thing. Turning it into a brand awareness campaign that touches 53 billboards, airport ads, interactive AI voice agents, a documentary, and a city-wide community initiative — that's a whole different playbook. In Episode 20 of Behind the Campaign, I sit down with Sterling Curran (COO) and Troy Purdue (Director of Marketing) at SalesAI, an Indianapolis-based AI messaging and voice agent platform, to break down exactly how they approached their second year as an IndyCar sponsor. What started as an organic opportunity through a relationship with Jack Harvey and the INVST team became one of the most ambitious local brand campaigns a startup their size has attempted. What we cover in this episode: Why they went beyond the car and built a 53-billboard OOH campaign across central Indiana How they created interactive AI voice agents tied directly to the campaign (including a "Things To Do in Indy" agent and a race-specific track agent) What it really looks like to measure brand awareness when you're running this many simultaneous channels How a B2B company justifies a consumer-facing sponsorship — and who they were really trying to reach What they learned from year one that completely changed their approach in year two Subscribe to Behind the Campaign for new episodes every two weeks — real conversations with marketers about the campaigns they're most proud of (and what went sideways along the way).