Caterpillar Wins Two Communicator Awards

What happens when you bring together a great group of people to promote a great product and drive value education? You create award-winning campaigns, that’s what.

Simantel is excited to announce that our “Fluidium” effort with Caterpillar Inc. for Cat® Fluids has been awarded two Communicator awards—an Excellence Award in the Integrated Promotional Campaign category and an Award of Distinction in the Video category.

The Communicator Awards recognize big ideas in marketing and communication. This leading international awards program has been around for more than two decades and now receives more than 6,000 entries annually.

The Campaign

Known as the world’s largest heavy equipment manufacturer, Caterpillar rarely gets lost in the shuffle. But in the machine fluids market, customers typically view all brands the same—a misunderstanding that clashes with Caterpillar’s premium quality position.

Caterpillar ultimately needed to educate customers otherwise: Cat Fluids deliver proven results with more life and less wear for machine and engine components. The marketing challenge was getting customers to listen to that message.

Customers rarely think of fluid performance until there’s a problem. This campaign encouraged them to reconsider the fluids they’re using by describing an imaginary condition called Fluidium, a widespread issue caused by using non-Cat fluids. By simply choosing Cat Fluids as the antidote, people—along with their equipment—could be back on the road to recovery. The concept features tongue-in-cheek scenarios of human “performance problems” brought to life by Fluidium sufferers, which drove customers to the web page where value messaging, case studies and dealer outreach were available.

Along with a Fluidium-specific web page with rich educational content, this quirky concept was also bolstered by precise audience research. This research included customer focus groups to better understand buyer perceptions and channel preferences, which ended up unveiling specific barriers in product education and confirming heavy to moderate internet usage among our target audience.

To reach Caterpillar’s target audience, a comprehensive campaign was launched, which included display, social, video, search and email. Media was even served prior to local inclement weather forecasts to engage these customers in real-time and capitalize on prime buying opportunities.

Additionally, customers actively purchasing competitive products were targeted through the use of sales data. The placements included Fluidium creative, as well as traditional product creative. To maintain interest, six different Fluidium scenarios were introduced over the course of the 2018 campaign with the goal of exceeding previous engagement benchmarks.

The Results

The results speak for themselves—clickthrough rates increased by 125 percent, driving over 160,000 site visits. Customers logged more than 7,500 hours of value story education, 53 percent more than the original campaign goal.

“We’re honored to be recognized by one of the largest international marketing awards programs,” said Mike Tomlinson, Marketing Communications Supervisor for Caterpillar Filters and Fluids. “Armed with proper market research, customer focus group input and a heavy dose of collaboration between Simantel and Caterpillar, we were able to explore some pretty innovative thinking, allowing us to take some risks that really paid off,” he added.