Campaign Summary

Shell Vietnam launched an integrated marketing campaign centered around a powerful film designed to challenge common misconceptions about mechanics and highlight their essential role in society. The film featured real mechanics sharing their personal stories, emphasizing their expertise, dedication, and the critical role they play in communities. To maximize impact, the campaign employed a targeted content strategy, tailoring messages to four distinct audiences: mechanics, motorcycle owners, car owners, and truck/heavy drivers.

Strategy

Objective

• Brand challenge. Despite being the No.1 global lubricants supplier, Shell Vietnam was facing low preference and recommendation from mechanics.
• Social challenge. There is a paradox in the lubricant industry — 98 percent of consumers rely entirely on mechanics when it comes to maintenance. But mechanics are always taken for granted and it seems that society doesn't value the important role they play in people's lives.

To change this perception, Shell wanted to:

• Share the untold stories of mechanics and empower them through a purposeful program.
• Awake and ignite social recognition and empathy toward this workforce.
• Enhance the brand's meaningfulness and reconnect with mechanics and end-users to win the hearts of its core audience — influencers and buyers.

Context

As the No.1 global lubricants supplier for 17 consecutive years, Shell has always worked toward its mission to empower progress for everyone. However, Shell Vietnam is still a small brand and needed to close the gap across market share, brand love, and brand preference from mechanics and users.

Shell understood that winning over mechanics would be key to accelerating growth, given their strong influence on purchasing decisions. To this end, the brand shifted from the typical transactional, benefits-driven approach to engaging mechanics to building deeper and stronger emotional connections with them.

Target Audience

Shell's primary target were mechanics — the unsung heroes who, despite being critical in ensuring smooth journeys for drivers, are victims of societal prejudice.

The secondary target was lubricant users for three different sub-categories:

• For Shell Advance. 18 to 54-year-old motorcycle owners
• For Shell Helix. 20 to 40-year-old car owners
• For Shell Rimula. 35 to 54-year-old male truck and heavy-duty transportation drivers.

Despite being fragmented across these three sectors, these end-users have similar behaviors and perceptions: They rely entirely on mechanics when it comes to maintenance but ignore the important role they play in their lives.

Creative and Media Strategy

Shell launched "Nhất nhất" — a platform flipping common misconceptions about mechanics and celebrating their expertise and determination to provide the best service. The campaign tagline was Nhất nhất theo đuổi, nhất nhất tiến tới (Always striving for the best, always moving forward).

Shell chose not to launch its initiative through a traditional TV commercial, but rather an authentic film sharing inspiring, real-life stories from mechanics.

Execution/Use of Media

Shell's campaign tactics included:

• Tease. Shell generated social buzz by releasing a film teaser which was a deep-dive interview video with mechanics sharing misconceptions about them. The brand also collaborated with PR, communities, and influencers to trigger discussions.
• Launch. The film highlighted untold stories to give its audience a deeper understanding about the three most common misconceptions about mechanics. The brand awoke millions of people and inspired thousands of conversations with various film-cutdowns using the "Nhất nhất" tagline. The brand also invited photographers and content creators to act as paparazzies — capturing beautiful moments of mechanics — and share these photos like movie posters.
• Engage with fans. Shell invited mechanics to join its Tik Tok Capcut contest and share the nuances of their career. Lastly, the brand created excitement for thousands of people with the Mechanics Festival & Award Day — a festival honoring the mechanic profession.

Three deployment strategies maximized the campaign's media effectiveness:

Turning Fragmentation into a Source of Voices

With a limited budget, Shell took a strategic approach to engaging its four audiences by shifting from a brand voice to amplify the voices of mechanics. The brand used these authentic voices, influencers, and creators to produce diverse viral content, and leveraged PR to attract thousands of people.

Hijack Misconceptions in the Right Context

After identifying the most common misconceptions, Shell created contextually relevant content and served them through relevant channels for each audience.

Online to Offline Integration

Shell combined an integrated marketing communications program (IMC) — incorporating digital (mobile-first, and digital out-of-home (DOOH)), traditional radio, and offline (experiential event activations) — with optimized budget allocation that considered pool size and the sales contributions of each target, ensuring cost efficiency.

The brand also created its proprietary loyalty-app "SHARE" — a loyalty platform dedicated to mechanics and facilitating direct communication, online orders, and sales. In addition, Shell engaged mechanics on TikTok for the first time to create authentic content and amplify reach.

Business Impact

Shell achieved remarkable results.

Business

• Market share increased by 0.6 points.
• Volume increased by 62 percent.
• Margin grew by 31 percent compared to 2023.
• Shell Rimula grew 101 percent, proving that the creative successfully influenced an older audience that's typically hard-to reach digitally.
• On-boarded 2,000 new garages/stores through the SHARE loyalty app.
• In-store brand share increased to 46 percent.

Brand

• Brand love/preference increased by 11 basis points (bps).
• Brand usage increased by 10 bps.

Campaign

• Reached 72 percent of its target.
• Earned over 20 million views, including its film which generated over 16 million views.
• Earned a view-through-rate of 75 percent — 300 percent more than Shell's last campaign.
• Had a 35 percent engagement rate among 45- to 54-year-olds.
• Earned a CTR of 0.8 percent — 400 percent greater than Shell's last campaign.