Why Turo is letting users rent an ice resurfacing machine

For Canadians who have always dreamed of taking the wheel of a Zamboni, car-sharing company Turo has a tempting new proposition.

The brand has introduced a mini ice resurfacing machine to its fleet, aimed at making professional-grade ice accessible to all Canadians. The launch was inspired by a simple insight: though a love for hockey is often born on small community and backyard rinks, all aspiring stars of the sport want to play on the best ice.

“Canada is home to the most ice rinks worldwide, but we all know that they’re not treated equally,” says Bassem El-Rahimy, head of marketing for Canada at Turo. “For the smaller rinks, there wasn’t an easily accessible vehicle or machine to take care of them. But everyone grows up wanting fresh ice, whether on their community or backyard rink.”

Enter Turo’s SK8: a fully electric mini ice surfacing machine available to book for $29, just as one would any other vehicle on its platform. The machine can be taken home or to a local community, which El-Rahimy says will make high-grade ice more accessible to the masses. But the marketing for the machine borrows heavily from automotive advertising tropes to give it “the feel of a luxury vehicle model.” Turo is donating and matching all of the proceeds for SK8 bookings to Kidspot, a charity that provides financial assistance to children who need it to pay sport registration fees and equipment costs.

To boost awareness for the machine (and the brand) across Canada, Turo has supported SK8 with an integrated campaign that began on Wednesday. The launch was teased ahead of time through an experiential partnership with Canadian Olympian and hockey star Marie-Philip Poulin (pictured, top of story) and hockey content creators On The Bench that saw Poulin driving the SK8 through the streets of Toronto in search of ice to skim.

The campaign has since lived online through influencer partnerships, paid and owned social featuring a hero OLV, and PR. The effort was developed with No Fixed Address, and was designed “with the goal of breaking through in a truly Canadian way.”

The out-of-the-ordinary vehicle is line with recent marketing efforts Turo has adopted to break through in the Canadian market. Late last year, “Open the Door to Extraordinary” aimed to differentiate Turo from the likes of Zipcar and Communauto, as well as traditional car rentals, by focusing on adding “pizzaz” to car-sharing, including with vehicles one might not expect to see through such a service, like a Corvette.