Client: Caterpillar
Focused strategy plus radical approach equals attention-grabbing creative.
We joined forces with Caterpillar once again for a machine launch to create this campaign for the Cat® 306 CR mini excavator. A small but mighty machine, we developed a marketing approach to perfectly suit the product ask: short-form video, both hilarious and disruptive, that consumers couldn’t ignore — all on a nimble budget.
  • Community Outreach
  • Motion Media
  • Creative Activation
  • Content Strategy
  • Analytics

Challenge

A different kind of customer
The client team made one thing clear in onboarding: this wasn’t a traditional ‘big fleet’ customer. ‘Retail’ customers needed to be reached in a different way. They may not work with their local dealer and they may not care about an NPI launch like this. But the 306CR had a big story to tell that addressed demand: an industry-shifting 8,000 pound lift cap from a 6-ton machine.

Solution

Small, but mighty and from messaging to metrics

Hitting four key messaging topics with a benefits-focused theme, a hilarious concept placed the Cat® 306 in the weightroom to showcase how it could ‘Lift More’. With constraints preventing a greenscreen studio shoot, client and team worked through obstacles … by rolling a machine inside a real gym to lift real weights! A teaser, four spots and a photo shoot all wrapped in a one-day workout.

Our ‘Lift More’ campaign saw the right type of traffic relative to impression. The campaign served nearly 36 million cross-channel impressions. The video ads drove 100,000 clicks and nearly 3x better click-through rates versus a companion NPI campaign’s traditional ad creative.

Outcome

Well worth the ‘lift’
All that heavy lifting paid off, as the campaign took home a Bronze Telly Award in the branded content category. And our main character, ‘Jim Rat’, even sent a homemade ‘workout video’ congratulating our client on their work anniversary. Yet another example of teaming up with our hardworking clients to see sweat-equity marketing result in success.
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