Going National.
Operator.
Hello,
How do you build a nation-wide campaign that satisfies the needs of clients, stakeholders and a network of certified dealers?
Well, you make it all about their customers.
Trust me. They love that kinda thing.
Of course, it's never that simple. We pitched our concepts in early 2019, after all. But most everything else seemed fairly routine at the time. This was Gelia's brainchild, and we'd worked on it for years.
At this point, the Retail Awareness campaign was a tradition. A year-long, yearly-refreshed program that's all about perception. From the beginning, ts express intent was to make Cat dealers more approachable and Cat products more attainable.
This year though, we were asked for more.
From offers to incentives. Social media to tradional. Our MARCOM clients needed a unified messaging platform with enough legs to extend to an entire division.
For the uninitiated, Caterpillar's BCP division consists primarily of smaller machines. Its big brother, the GCI division, consists of the bigger machines you might typically think of when someone says "Cat".
See what I mean? Perception.
brief insights
target
OWNER/OPERATOR
Owns 1-3 machines
Intimidated by Cat and its dealers
Incentivized by cost
goals
DEFINING SUCCESS
Improved dealer perception
Increased market share
Demographic diversity
challenges
THE UNEXPECTED
Increased participation
New trade dress
Oh, I dunno. COVID?
In The Beginning
CONCEPTING
Up for the challenge.
Our target was the coveted, but elusive, owner/operator.
This enigmatic creature is distrusting of corporations like Caterpillar. They don't feel seen by their local Cat dealers. Sure, they have money to spend, but they believe Cat machines are out of reach.
After hundreds of hours of creative concepting and iteration that aimed to cut to the point with a notoriously prickly, but ultimately loyal customer base, we landed on a fresh direction for Caterpillar and its dealer network.
Hello, Operator was born from a desire to flip the script. And after countless focus tests, regroups and revisions. We finally had a concept that challenged perception.
By glorifying the customer and the work they do, we built a campaign that reflected their values. In turn, making Caterpillar and its dealers more approachable and its products more attainable.
Plus, we did it all just in time for COVID.
Yeah, sorry. We set that trend.
Trust The Process
PRODUCTION
Respect the unexpected.
My first big commercial shoot.
And I sure as hell wasn't gonna go in unprepared. So we storyboarded and prevised. We contracted and cast. We scouted and scooted.
After all...
A 2-day shoot with dozens of crewmembers and a few dozen tons of iron could be a bit of a logistical challenge.
Challenge met, as far as I'm concerned.
But of course, where there are challenges, wrenches are sure to be thrown.
In the months leading to the shoot, Caterpillar unveiled an updated trade dress, and all new materials would have to include it. They'd certainly be scarce in the wild, so we reached out to every dealer who'd answer our calls.
Well good on ya, Mustang Cat. You came in clutch.
So we shot, wrapped and got to work. We got some killer content, and a fresh new perspective on life.
Buying Time
PAID MEDIA
We’re buying.
And then it happened. Wrench, consider yourself thrown.
Wouldn't ya know, our fresh campaign all about relationships and the machines behind them was met by a global pandemic and supply-chain shortage.
But call it luck, because the campaign's tone still worked — maybe even better. Sure, we had to make a few compromises to deal with the weird political climate, but the foundation remained.
New rule: No handshakes between dealer and customer.
After some last-minute tweaks, our campaign launched conceptually intact. So we bought some national placements and sent a few GBs of creative content to almost every Cat dealer in the country and let them run havoc on their local markets.
CAMPAIGN REFRESHES
Let’s Get Pivotal
What's old is new again.
Hello, Operator was built with enough substance to last a year. But remember that thing I mentioned about wrenches?
The time came to begin work on the 2020 campaign, But as global supply chains broke and WFH emails flowed like wine, we got hit with an unexpected ask...
Just keep going.
The catch?
No shoot this year.
Sure, we saw great success with the campaign. But dealers and clients (not to mention my creative team) were all growing a little tired of the same ol' thing.
The solution?
Revise. Redesign. Recontextualize.
And for another year (mostly from home), we just kept going and going. Not unlike a certain battery mascot.
Hello, Operator was built with enough substance to last a year. But remember that thing I mentioned about wrenches?
The time came to begin work on the 2020 campaign, But as global supply chains broke and WFH emails flowed like wine, we got hit with an unexpected ask...
Just keep going.
The catch?
No shoot this year.
Sure, we saw great success with the campaign. But dealers and clients (not to mention my creative team) were all growing a little tired of the same ol' thing.
The solution?
Revise. Redesign. Recontextualize.
And for another year (mostly from home), we just kept going and going. Not unlike a certain battery mascot.
What’s In Store
PAID MEDIA
We’re buying.
And then it happened. Wrench, consider yourself thrown.
Wouldn't ya know, our fresh campaign all about relationships and the machines behind them was met by a global pandemic and supply-chain shortage.
But call it luck, because the campaign's tone still worked — maybe even better. Sure, we had to make a few compromises to deal with the weird political climate, but the foundation remained.
New rule: No handshakes between dealer and customer.
After some last-minute tweaks, our campaign launched conceptually intact. So we bought some national placements and sent a few GBs of creative content to almost every Cat dealer in the country and let them run havoc on their local markets.