Iconic Brand shows it’s playful side and goes viral

Published April 30, 2014 at 8:44 am

When developing a new campaign for an iconic company, marketers must be careful to maintain the integrity of the long-established brand, while adding a new twist that will get attention.

What can a company that’s nearly 100 years old do to stay relevant in today’s world of viral marketing?

Caterpillar, manufacturer of heavy construction equipment, has released a new ad that has quickly become a viral hit. The ad depicts five Caterpillar machines participating in a giant game of Jenga, renamed “Stack” for copyright purposes, Ad Age reported. The creators of the ad used a space equivalent to the size of two football fields, and 600 pound blocks to create the structure. The goal in the ad is for the operators using the equipment to move the 27 blocks into different positions using Caterpillar machines, while maintaining the integrity of the structure, much like a giant game of Jenga.

The marketing director for Caterpillar told Ad Age that the brand is sometimes misperceived and they wanted a way for the company to seem friendly and more accessible to potential new customers by showing a different side of the company. It seems that the brand has accomplished this goal, as the ad has received over 1.5 million views on YouTube.

“When we started planning this video last fall, we knew our customers were very active on YouTube and hungry for video content, but we didn’t want to create just another product video,” Caterpillar’s social media community manager Nicole Serena told Marketing Land.

The success of Caterpillar’s video shows that knowing your customers, and taking the time to find a creative way to demonstrate a product’s capabilities can go a long way to promote a brand. Presenting a well-established brand in a new light can be a challenge but can also result in some of the most creative and memorable marketing campaigns.