Other articles in this report:
The changing fortunes of car sales: page 28
Riding in style: Luxury car sales are down but the market still holds promise: page 30
Minivans: They got a warm welcome 11 years ago, but is their day over? page 32
Nick Matthews is a principal of Avenue Marketing Associates and former director of marketing for Valvoline Canada. He can be reached at (416) 322-7839.
What does a car falling off a bridge have to do with selling motor oil?
Where are the race cars and the techno-babble explanations about engine performance?
Those are the questions I have been asked a few times since this spot ‘Murphy’s law’ started to appear on Canadian tv screens last fall.
The answers are, respectively, actually quite a lot, and, not relevant.
The campaign for motor oil maker Valvoline was made in Canada to address the concerns of Canadian drivers, and is quite different to the advertising the company is running in the u.s.
Motor oil advertising has traditiionally used motor sports as proof of performance and has leveraged the consumer’s interest in racing and the excitement that goes with it.
Data on the Canadian and u.s. market revealed the level of watching motor sports on tv and of spectating at motor sports events is significantly higher in the u.s. than in Canada.
It, therefore, makes a lot more sense to use racing in motor oil advertising in the u.s. than it does in Canada.
Another critical issue that forces us to take a distinctly Canadian approach to our advertising is the different definition of our target market.
For a variety of reasons, the number of drivers who change their own oil (diyers) is much higher in the u.s. than in Canada.
Motor oil advertising in the u.s., and which originates in the u.s., tends to target diyers.
In Canada, we wanted to reach the Canadian diyers but we also wanted to reach people who have no intention of changing their own oil.
These are people who go to their local service centre, and who specify the brand of oil to be put in their car.
Peter Holmes, of ad agency Holmes/ Donin/Alloul, chose humor to communicate our brand positioning.
Holmes says he felt the Valvoline campaign ‘had to be distinctive, memorable and engaging.
‘It had to be relevant to the brand and to the consumer, and, most importantly, it had to move product,’ he says.
In the 30-second tv spot a car slows to a stop at the side of the road. Seeing the oil light on, the driver realizes his car has just broken down. He gets out and raises the hood, just as a Valvoline truck drives by. The driver closes the hood and goes looking for help.
The voiceover says: ‘Murphy said anything that can go wrong will,’ just as the viewer realizes the car has stopped in the middle of a drawbridge that is opening.
It cuts to a shot of the car falling from the raised bridge into the water. The voiceover says: ‘Murphy probably didn’t use Valvoline motor oil – People who know, use Valvoline.’
As the client, I had faith in Peter’s judgment, but felt this would be a high risk as it was so unusual and might not be understood by our consumers.
We tested the concept with consumers, selected customers and our own salesforce.
They understood what the spot was saying and they liked it.
So, did it work?
Our tracking study showed that unaided brand awareness jumped by 20%, and in the key market of Ontario, almost doubled to put us in at a No. 2 position behind the longtime brand leader.
More importantly, sales off the shelf at Canada’s two principal automotive retailers increased by up to 30%.
With this creative strategy we were trying to deliver a message to the Canadian market that is relevant to the Canadian market, and, at the same time, consistent with the positioning in the u.s.
The results we obtained indicate the strategy worked.
