CASE STUDY: How Volvo CE made a game out of construction machinery

Background

China's rapid economic development has seen the country being actively involved in the building of infrastructure.

Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) saw a potential marketing opportunity to be a long-term pioneer of fuel efficiency in the construction industry to ultimately improve its brand value.

The company’s analysis of the Chinese market indicated that if all of its one-million excavator operators maintained their equipment in a fuel-efficient manner, China would save 1.44
billion litres of fuel—an equivalent to 3.76 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Strategy

Armed with this knowledge, Volvo CE's agency Daniel J. Edelman (DJE) devised the concept of 'Operator Idol', a nationwide contest for excavator operators in 2012 organised in partnership with the China Construction Machinery Association (CCMA).

Volvo CE positioned the contest closely with the government’s aims of developing a sustainable
and environmentally-friendly economy in its 12th five-year plan to increase the influence of the event.

This was part of Volvo CE’s mar-com enhancement plan to help attain its “Fit for the Future” strategic objectives in China between 2011 to 2013.

Volvo CE realised that the only way to deliver tangible environmental benefits would be to change the behaviour of individual excavator operators.

But how could these operators be persuaded to embrace fuel efficiency when they would not directly benefit from any cost savings?

The solution devised by the agency was to celebrate the operators' expertise and make heroes out of these important front-line workers in the construction industry.

Operating excavation equipment is an under-appreciated but highly-valuable skillset requiring years of training. The work of an excavator operator is not particularly interesting or appealing to non-specialists, including journalists.

Making the operation of construction equipment fun and competitive provided excitement. Being the first of its kind in China, 'Operator Idol' is a unique show in which operators were challenged to scoop buoys out of water tanks, shoot basketballs into hoops and paint on pieces of paper–all whilst driving a 20-ton digger and using as little fuel as possible.

Media outreach extended beyond trade media to general and business media in order to maximise exposure of the contest and deliver the core messages of the Volvo CE brand.

By appealing to the operators’ sense of professionalism and providing them with an opportunity to become famous, Volvo CE was able to enthuse and educate operators while delivering environmental benefits for the country as a whole.

“Operator Idol” consisted of a six-month contest programme with first rounds in 34 cities, four regional semi-finals and a final.

Contestants were recruited through a dedicated hotline, SMSes, radio ads, WAP ads, and online ads. Before the contest, they were given training in fuel-efficiency and opportunities to test-drive Volvo CE machines.

A micro-blog account for the campaign was established to complement other media channels. Event costs formed 75 per cent of the campaign budget, with 17 per cent spent on digital media advertisements.

Results

The campaign increased the company’s share of voice in the local construction machinery market and built relationships with excavator owners, construction businesses and key government stakeholders.

One construction business owner in the Fujiang Province, Xu Qi, was able to reduce fuel consumption by ten per cent, which helped him save RMB 10,000 annually.

There were more than one million visits to the official contest website. 135,915 Qzone users followed the official contest account.

157,942 excavator operators signed up for “Operator Idol”, accounting for nearly 15 per cent of
all the operators in China.

1,803 media reports across TV, radio, print and online outlets were published, generating approximately US$2.6 million (RMB 16 million) in PR value with 450 million impressions.

Volvo CE’s China President was awarded in the CSR 2013 Business Innovation 50 by CBN
Weekly due to the campaign, the only winner from the construction equipment industry.