Going National

Your

World.

Your

World.

Ah, 2021.

A simpler time.

As Gelia geared up for the concepting phase for the 2022 Retail Awareness campaign refresh, we were met with some pushback. No, not for the merits of our creative. And not for the metrics from the last two years either. But for how we would move forward.

Ya see, Hello, Operator was a verifiable success from our standpoint and that of our clients. But the economic and logistical realities of COVID still lingered like the smell of a wet dog.

So, what to do?

Why! Keep going.

Again, of course!

But this time, two years after shooting and launching the previous edition of our Retail Campaign, at least we'd get to have a shoot again. But traveling to customer jobsites was off the table. So was hiring a remote crew. Not to mention, ongoing supply chain issues continued to be a thorn in everyone's side.

But I guess I like the challenge of limitation.

target

OWNER/OPERATOR

Owns 1-3 machines
Intimidated by Cat and its dealers
Incentivized by cost

goals

DEFINING SUCCESS

Flexibility to last two years
Produce content without travel
Increased sales and participation

challenges

THE UNEXPECTED

Rethinking production
Supply chain shortages
Post-production pipeline

CONCEPTING

Don’t Get Any Big Ideas

Yet another refresh.

Concepting began under the impression that this would just be another reskin, just with a fresh coat of paint and some new assets in our pocket. A Hello, Operator 3.0, if you will.

So we began tinkering.

We knew we wanted to maintain the tone but shift the style as dramatically as possible. And whatever solution we came to, we'd have to contend with limited access to new assets. We came up with some solid solutions, and some concepts still make me wonder "what if"?

A STORY FIT FOR A BOARD

Any one of them would almost certainly have proved easier than where we landed.

Either way, as concepting progressed, and feedback was absorbed, we started to hone in on a unique solution. What if we could streamline production all while targeting specific regions, demographics and industries?

Real machines. Real people. Illustrated backgrounds.

It’s almost too easy.

PRODUCTION + LOOK AND FEEL

Parlaying The Foundation

Setting a new template.

Setting a

new template.

We approached Remedy with an idea, a timeline and a budget. They must have thought we were really cool, because they said yes anyway.

So we got to work developing a rig. One big enough to cover the machines so our friends at 19 Below could rotoscope them in post, and small enough to do it all locally. Then we still had to wrangle a variety of machines as dealers couldn't stock them fast enough. And we needed a location.

Like I said before. Too easy.

But it all came together eventually. Over some fairly challenging months that are directly attributable to my current hair count. But regardless, I'm immensely proud of what we were able to achieve. And challenging as post-production would prove to be, we set ourselves up for success, given that we had to keep this thing fresh for another two damn years.

Gelia Creative Team

Nick Jibben

CD

Yours Truly | Luke Neumann (Copy)

ACD

Ginny Boehm | Randy Marx

AD

Robert Ray | Margeaux Shore

Sena Celik | Ian Myers

Jenny Seeliger | Kent Weigle

CW

Jo Eberts

ILL

Blake Hall | Brad Pipkins

DD

Production Partners

Allen Baker (Remedy)

DP

Josh Sliffe (Remedy)

PROD

Trey Morgan (19 Below)

POST

Gregory Poole Cat

DLR

Edward J Rapp CTC

CAT

MEDIA ASSETS

Built To Scale

And we’re live.

#Blessed.

That’s because this creative team was truly an embarrassment of riches. In both talent and tenacity.

While our post-production partners hunched over their computers for weeks on end bringing our TV spot to life, we kinda did the same thing. Through a painful run of trial and error, led by a hungry young Art Director, Ginny, and brought to life by our in-house illustrator, Jo — we devised a production pipeline that enabled us to pump out unique pieces under consistently increasing demand. To my knowledge, we never missed a deadline.

Might have written off a few budget overages, though.

OFFERS + INCENTIVES

The Real Dealer

Throughout the Retail Awareness campaign, offshoots like National Offer and Conquest came to Gelia with unique needs and goals. We continually revised and tailored the look and tone of the overarching Your World campaign to satisfy each.

Dealers noticed. So did their customers.

And as the economy started picking back up, we were there to back dealers with the same expertise and support as before, but with a fresh new coat of paint.

Incentive is a four letter word.

CAMPAIGN EXTENSIONS

Remixed Media

A solid outline.

Again, this was all meant to last for a couple years. So planning for a few refreshes and offshoots was always on the menu. When year 2 rolled around, we were greeted with a nice surprise. We were a go for another shoot. Immediately we knew we wanted to up the wow factor without upping the difficulty. Aside from a somewhat rocky start in our post-production process, we felt the biggest downside to our first run of the Your World campaign was that the content often felt a bit rigid.

Job 1 for year 2 — move more.

Tricky. Especially given our spatial limitations. But once again Remedy and 19 Below came through. The resulting TV spot featured more movement than an under-60 spin class, and the photos we captured breathed new life into our static executions.

LETTERING + TYPOGRAPHY

It Takes All Types

An illustrated approach.

In general, Caterpillar is pretty flexible when it comes to type. They've got their brand-approved fonts, sure. But it's a pretty big sandbox.

According to the brand guidelines, one way to speak directly to (and sometimes for) the customer is to utilize a hand-drawn font or lettering.

And utilize we did.

From custom, 3D lettering to simple manipulation of some handwritten fonts, the illustrative nature of this campaign gave us a fresh foundation for wordplay.

MINI EXCAVATOR CAMPAIGN

A Weave Of Their Own

MINI EXCAVATOR CAMPAIGN

Caterpillar's product groups often like to develop their own unique campaigns, whether for product launches or more general awareness. In this case, the Cat Mini Excavator team loved what Gelia was doing elsewhere within their division. They set out to create a campaign and TV spot that touted the products USPs, all while upping the wow factor once again.

A one-shot oughta do the trick.

And holy cow, was this one tricky. Whip-pans and quick-zooms galore. All compiled to give the illusion of one long take that moves seamlessly from jobsite to cab, and everywhere in between for a dynamic spot that let us highlight each of the product line’s USPs.

The mini goes mega.

MINI EXCAVATOR SWEEPSTAKES

Social Butterflies

Drawing a following.

The Mini Excavator offshoot campaign was a pretty big deal.

Certainly the first time we'd ever done an entire TV spot for a single product line. And on the social front, that offshoot lead to another — The World's Greatest Worktrip — a social giveaway that promised to bring 4 crews out to Caterpillar's Clayton, North Carolina training facility for 3 days of operator training, culminating in the biggest, little souvenir of all.

More fun for us though. With clients wanting another illustrative twist, we gave them a set of knick-knacks to remember.