CAMPAIGN SUMMARY Breaking conventions for business growth

Transcription

1 Category: Campaign Title: Client: Product: The Campaign: Best B2B Campaign Trackpal League Caterpillar Construction Machinery Trackpal League CAMPAIGN SUMMARY Breaking conventions for business growth How can the world leading company in the construction equipment business, which is virtually invisible in China the world s largest construction equipment market get new business leads worth over RMB 95 million (USD 15 million) in just 45 days? Conventional wisdom says that if we want big bucks we need to invest big bucks. So that is what we should do, right? Wrong. By turning industry marketing norms on their head and engaging end users of equipment instead of burning piles of cash on the hard to reach buyers, Caterpillar was able to improve the reach of communication and generate tangible new business leads to a scale never imagined. In just 45 days, the campaign succeeded in clocking over 7 million impressions, which lead to 108 validated sales leads. This amounts to incremental revenue of RMB 108 million (USD 17 million) in potential sales.

2 CAMPAIGN BACKGROUND Late to start marketing in China but free from category paradigms Caterpillar is the market leader globally but nowhere near the top in China. As one of the fastest developing countries there is big potential for Caterpillar, but the competition is huge and Caterpillar is a late entrant. Add to this the fact that Caterpillar products are priced 15% higher than their competitors. Much like the construction industry as a whole, the customer base in China has not yet matured. They focus on the price of initial purchase and do not understand the lifetime value of machine. Caterpillar equipment, though priced higher, is much cheaper over a longer period of time when other machines start having frequent breakdowns and cost of maintenance creeps up. Whereas the customers may not be familiar with this, their operators will see and have to deal with the effects daily. The construction industry in China has grown very fast and is very fragmented. There are many regional players marketing products at prices unimaginable in the quality conscious world of Caterpillar. Add to this the cost of media, which is continually going up as brands are prepared to invest more to sustain growth. The key challenges facing the campaign could thus be summarized as: 1. Customer s Limited Knowledge Not many customers know enough about how to decide which machine is better other than looking at price and assurance from sales man. Not all customers know that their machine operators are knowledgeable in advising on long term product purchase decisions. 2. High Cost of Media Public and industry media is very expensive and circulation has a higher concentration in Tier 1 cities (like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou etc), with little effect in rural areas. 3. High Priced Products Caterpillar, on an average, is more expensive than any other competitor by 15%. 4. Stiff Competition Caterpillar is facing fierce competition from both international brands (e.g. Komatsu, Hyundai, Doosan, JCB and Volvo) and local brands (e.g. Sany, LongGong, XiaGong, LiuGong among others). All of them with disproportionately higher marketing investments than Caterpillar. The communication challenge was thus to achieve higher customer reach and generate new leads without increasing the marketing investment. CAMPAIGN STRATEGY Making the invisible machine operator visible Taking a deeper look at our customer s daily habits gave us a key insight. Customers spend a lot of their time on site with their operator workforce.

3 Through this analysis, we realised that there was a number of people that had otherwise been invisible and not yet been spoken to. These were the machine operators. The customer may pay the money but the machine s user is the first port of call and holds strong influence in decision making. DAY IN THE LIFE OF A CUSTOMER: TOUCHPOINTS Breakfast: Newspapers On site: managing operators On site: managing operators Commute: Radio & OOH Commute: Radio & OOH Lunch: potential client Dinner: with peers Relax: Local TV Working with Cat dealer, Westrac, we looked further into the relationship between the customer (company boss) and the end user (operator). What we learnt was a revelation not just for us but also for the entire category in China. Good operators are commodity in the more developed market in West but not in China. Out here business owners value operators that specifically have special skills to drive the machines with care and get the more value out of them. As a result, when operators express their views about a machine, their boss listens. Most of the operators are very young over 50% are between years of age. And over 75% of leisure time after work is spent online. Li Wei is a typical operator in China Name: Li Wei Age: 26 Lives: In a rural area in Hebei (in north China) Education: Senior high Experience: 2 years in the industry Technologies: Access to shared computer, smart phone Relationship with boss I have a good relationship with my boss. We have worked on many projects together and we respect each other. Since I have more knowledge than him, he asks me for feedback when making a decision about work processes or a new machine. Relationship with workmates I get on well with my workmates. We socialise together and sometimes talk about work. Future outlook I like the work. I d like to get better at what I do and have my own machines. I could make more money that way

4 This new learning about operator s knowledge and influence of the purchase process inspired us to focus our communication towards them. CAMPAIGN CONCEPT Transformational thinking From traditional media, to online engagement. Operators spend a lot of time online but they had never had a community devoted to them. Caterpillar gave them one. We were the first to build an online community specifically for operators that gave them a voice of their own. From Caterpillar doing the talking, to user interaction. Operators never had an engagement platform. We created a platform for them to connect with others like them, share their experiences and get involved in online events. From focus on machinery, to focus on lifestyle. To generate more traffic, we needed to have a kickoff event to draw operators in, and so appealed to their fun side with the Trackpal League Talent Show. The show ran over the course of 6 weeks with one winner each week and an overall winner at the end of the show. Submissions were voted publicly, pulling their friends, family and acquaintances into the site. Key transformation in targeting and communication strategy From Appealing to decision maker Caterpillar does all the talking Traditional media Focus on machinery To Focus on users Users talk together Online engagement Focus on customer/operator CAMPAIGN EXECUTION Simplicity for effectiveness BUILD INDUSTRY WEBSITE Industry media coop (D1CM) website build and launch. Utilise industry media's social network sights to build hype for website launch. Operator database homepage LAUNCH WEBSITE AND COMPETITION Competition launched for a six week period. Entries sent to the website as either a photo or video illustrating talent. Continuous online voting. Entries flooded in. Visitors flooded to the site.

5 Electronic Public Relations (E PR) Live posting on Weibo, QQ groups and BBS to announce draw attention to the website and give key news about the competition who is in the lead, weekly winners, monthly winners. Weibo and QQ are China s biggest social media sites with 500ml+ users REWARDS Final winner announced and rewarded with a much coveted pair of Cat boots. Second prizewinner receives a Cat watch. Four runners up receive Cat caps and bags. The online winners receive their prizes at an offline rewards ceremony. CAMPAIGN RESULTS Unconventional thinking leading to unconventional rewards 1. Reach 7,000,000 potential impressions 2. Engagement 355,713 visits to campaign site 254,729 clicks on BBS posts 3. Acquisitions 7,188 operator members 4. Validated Leads 108 By looking at category reality rather than existing marketing paradigms and by focusing on our target instead of the product we were able to not just meet but exceed our original objectives. 1. Reach Through the E PR generated, there were over 7,000,000 impressions made. 2. Engagement With 355,713 unique visits to campaign site and 254,729 clicks on BBS posts, and the highest scoring winners receiving more than 23,000 unique votes the site captured the attention and engagement of a huge audience.

6 3. Acquisitions 7,188 operators signed up to the website. The campaign had an effect on a large number of people, increasing affinity towards Caterpillar and building a pipeline of future customers. 4. Leads Generation The campaign created 108 validated sales leads equating to potential incremental sales of RMB 108 million (USD 17 million). They exceeded expectancy by 13%. 5. Collateral Benefits Not only did the campaign reach operators using Cat machines but it also began to spread to those operating our competitor s machines. And the community continues to grow. CONCLUSION Creativity for business growth Insight and creativity helped us not only in gaining potential revenue through sales leads, but also gave Caterpillar a new way to engage in the market From buyers to through users From traditional media to online engagement From talking to them, to enabling engagement Through effective use of social media and word of mouth we were able to gain attention in the most rural areas, defeating the need for expensive industry media placements and relying on the fact that peers groups listen to each other and support each other. We see this is not just an achievement for Caterpillar; it is the making of a new category and communication paradigm.