Ensuring employees are connected and supplied with all the information and materials they need when they’re in the field is a common concern for field managers. But what if those employees are driving a giant hotdog on wheels? Turns out connectivity is just as necessary for Oscar Mayer, whose field marketing employees traverse the country year-round in the company’s fleet of six Weinermobiles.

When the giant hotdogs, built on a GMC W4 Series truck chassis, hit the road in June with new crews, the folks inside (called “Hotdoggers”) will be equipped with laptops, iPhones and tablets to stay connected. In the past, Oscar Mayer restricted access to calendars and other work-specific information to company laptops. But it was a problem for the crews, which are constantly on the go, traveling to interviews and events throughout the summer. So, Oscar Mayer built an app.

CITEWorld’s Todd Weiss has the scoop:

  • “Oscar Mayer is in the process of developing its own mobile app to allow Hotdoggers to securely log into the company’s scheduling systems from their company-issued tablets or smartphones, wherever they are located. They’ll even be able to stay in touch from inside the Weinermobiles, thanks to on-board WiFi capabilities that were just added this year.
  • The changes will make it easier for the Weinermobile crews to do their jobs. ‘The Hotdoggers pitch local media people as they travel the country, identifying reporters in the markets they go to,’ said [Ed Roland, mobile marketing manager for Kraft Foods]. They book their own hotels and make other arrangements as well, so they’ll now be able to be more productive on the road and in-between event stops.’”

A giant WiFi-connected hotdog on wheels isn’t your standard service van, but it’s the technology inside that counts, right?