Every day, Cat® machines are subject to wear and tear, contamination and ultimately costly, unneeded downtime. Caterpillar wanted a way to show they offer solutions to help keep their equipment running strong, even in the worst settings. The goal was to increase engagement with Cat equipment owners and drive traffic to dealers. And they partnered with Simantel to do just that – characterizing the worksite’s “Most Wanted” criminals and creating an award-winning campaign.
Meet the Criminals
Simantel and Caterpillar came up with a creative, fun way to make the elements not just a boring pile of rocks or sand, but criminals with character. Take Sand, an abrasive, sneaky element who finds his way into places he shouldn’t be. Or Mud, an unpleasant puddle of sadness and despair who excels at weighing things down. Gravel is a little guy who flings a constant barrage of small rocks and insults. He’s been known to target windshields. Finally, we have Rock. Large, stubborn, arrogant and dismissive. While he claims to be a gentleman, he specializes in obstruction.
The Unique Campaign Consisted of Five Total Videos
See the full video series here.
Bringing the Characters to Life
See behind the scenes footage here.
Promotional Materials
The Results
This campaign used these characters to show how the full line of genuine Cat parts offer extended wear life and reduced maintenance. Helping owners and operators stand up to “the elements that want to steal profits.”
The character creative across product lines and target audiences showed a 2.5X increase in CTR when compared to the historic media benchmarks for the participating client business units.
The Awards
Across the industry, judges agreed that the characters and the campaign were criminally good. Caterpillar’s Worksite’s Most Wanted campaign was awarded for its creativity again and again, taking home the following medals:
44th Annual Telly Awards:
- Silver Award for Branded Content – B2B Campaign
- Silver Award for Branded Content – Craft, Character Design
- Silver Award for Branded Content – Campaign Animation
29th Annual Communicator Awards:
17th Annual Hermes Creative Awards
In the end, this team of bad boys may not have been able to break through genuine Cat parts, but they proved they could still tear things up off the worksite – winning their way into customers’ hearts and stacking up some shiny new hardware for Simantel and Caterpillar.
