Successes happen almost everyday. And many brands are missing the opportunity to showcase a milestone or anniversary in their content marketing strategy. As special occasions come up, make sure to leverage the opportunity to boost brand awareness, strengthen brand perception and teach your audience something new.
And the best part – show off all your innovative work.
Why the Celebration?
In this particular case, Simantel helped Caterpillar develop a content strategy 
around the 40th anniversary of one of the most iconic Cat® dozer designs – and this occasion called for something memorable. Caterpillar started making track-type tractors with dozer blades back in 1905, and introduced one of the mot innovative design breakthroughs in 1977.
In 2017, Simantel worked with Caterpillar Global Mining to mark the Cat D10 Dozer’s enduring legacy. This multi-faceted awareness campaign celebrated not only the machine itself but also Cat employees, customers and the spirit of innovation that has been a hallmark of the Cat brand for more than a century.
More than Just an Article:
The goal: Create awareness and highlight the legacy of Cat innovation, while driving direct customer engagement.
To complete this unique assignment on a very tight deadline, Simantel’s team ramped up on the history and technical machine information to translate this into a larger human-interest story. With its emphasis on the people who brought the D10 to life and those who continue to build on its legacy today, the campaign put a more personal face on one of the most successful and famous brands in the world.
Rather than one article announcing the milestone, we created a holistic ccmapaign, including:
- Created a campaign webpage to introduce the theme “Pushing Forward for 40 Years” and offer various opportunities to explore the history and innovation behind the machine. The infographic style visually outlines the design breakthroughs, showing just how advanced the D10 was in its day and how it changed the course of dozer evolution – for Cat and its competitors – for decades.
- Executed an extensive social media campaign on the Cat Mining Facebook page to help build brand advocacy. Customers were invited to relate their own experiences, and people rose to the occasion. Many shared personal photos and stories of new and old D10s, voicing their enthusiasm for the Cat brand.
- Wrote an article that offered perspectives from past and present Cat engineers, showing how the legacy lives on in today’s Cat equipment and in the dedication of the people who build the D10.
- Developed an eBlast to direct people to the campaign page and provided links to other content, including the video and campaign articles.
- Scripted talking points for the Cat-sponsored NASCAR driver Ryan Newman, which he used to promote the anniversary at NASCAR events.
- Created materials such as commemorative posters, media ads and more to help spread the D10 innovation message to additional audiences, both internal and external.
- Shot and edited a video featuring recollections from the chief design engineer that brought the development team’s seven-year process to life through revamped archive footage and images.
This video featuring the chief design engineer for the Cat D10 development
project generated more than 50,000 views and 500 shares on Facebook.
Results
This campaign did staggeringly well on social media with more than 178,000 people reached and 50,000 videos views on Facebook alone. Not only did we drive awareness, but with more than 5,000 unique page views on the landing page, we engaged the target audience and educated them along the way. Out of these unique page views, about 42 percent came from Facebook.
Looking at the story of our metrics, we can come to the conclusion that social media, both paid and organic, was the right channel for us to reach our readers. Social shares and industry influencers who helped get the word out there were also a big part of the campaign’s success.
Highlighting a Design Revolution
When it was introduced in 1977, the D10 was the largest dozer in the world and considered by the industry an innovative breakthrough in design. Cat engineers came up with a revolutionary “elevated-sprocket design” that protected key drive components from shocks and exposure to rocks and debris. This “high drive” design soon became standard throughout much of the Cat dozer line.’
If you have a milestone coming up or are more interested in chatting about a content strategy, contact us to talk shop.
