How Maersk changed minds with campaign moved it from shipping to logistics
Maersk and Havas Business have won the Media category at The Drum Awards for B2B. Here is the award-winning case study.
Check the award-winning campaign here.
Maersk, one of the oldest shipping companies globally, is undergoing a transformational journey to become a modern logistics company capable of transporting goods from start to finish, beyond just across the sea. Through recent acquisitions, the business can now provide fully integrated logistics to address individual client needs, revolutionizing an industry marked by extreme fragmentation and complexity.
In its most basic form, partnering with Maersk means leveraging their extensive network of transportation modes, digital services, and expert insights to seamlessly move anything from point A to point B. This one-stop-shop approach connects a company's supply chain, allowing clients to unlock new business opportunities and incremental value.
The marketing challenge was to bring attention to this transformation and shift the perception of Maersk from a shipping company to an integrated logistics provider. The campaign aimed to increase brand awareness by 2%, along with achieving a 2% increase in perception shift and favorability.
Strategy: A critical challenge was to disassociate the brand from the negative category perception associated with chaos control and bearing bad news. The campaign aimed to show that partnering with Maersk enables businesses to use integrated logistics for exciting adventures. The concept incorporated Lara Croft and Indiana Jones, linking the challenges of logistics to those faced by adventure heroes.
Detailed ongoing brand trackers demonstrated positive perception shifts with emotional storytelling compared to conventional category communications. The adventure story aimed to stand out in the B2B environment, making Maersk relatable to logistics professionals and C-suite executives.
The hero asset, a 135-second video, followed a logistics professional named Diana on an adventurous journey with Maersk, emphasizing the transformation from a chaos controller to feeling like a hero who turns dead ends into new paths for the company.
The campaign, designed like a blockbuster adventure film, aimed to stand out on social media, especially targeting the C-suite and logistics professionals. The two-pronged approach involved building fame across Approvers (C-suite) and a more targeted category layer for logistics and supply chain executives (Buyers).
Results: The campaign exceeded expectations, achieving a 2% increase in brand awareness, with an impressive 8% uplift in Europe. Engagement metrics were remarkable, with a 40% View Through Rate (VTR) and a 0.87% Click Through Rate (CTR), both surpassing benchmarks. The campaign dominated conversations, showing a +46% MoM increase in Share of Voice (SOV) in integrated logistics. Importantly, favorability increased by 4%, doubling the initial target of 2%.
The non-traditional approach resulted in significant engagement and talkability, successfully shifting brand perception in line with the campaign's overarching goal.