Objective

Caltex wanted to increase brand awareness for its Techron product, a fuel variety that the company claims works molecule-by-molecule to keep engine parts clean. The company wanted to change the perception that all fuels are the same, and to tap the storytelling power of video and interactivity to increase engagement.

Strategy and execution

Caltex and MEC partnered with TubeMogul to execute a regional cross-screen campaign, targeting young male drivers in Hong Kong, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore.

The campaign selected websites that rated highly for the target audience, and the video campaign included interactive pre-roll video ads, standard pre-roll and mobile video. The interactive pre-roll video ads, which made up 41 per cent of the campaign, featured a video gallery and a gamification element. (You can see the videos and play the 'Techron Blaster' game here.) 

Young and Rubicam was the creative agency.

The campaign ran between October and December last year.

Using TubeMogul's programmatic platform, the campaign was highly successful in reaching its target audience in all six key markets. Seventy percent of video views were achieved in Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia, while 30 per cent of views were distributed across Singapore, Hong Kong and Cambodia.

Using a mix of screens and video formats, especially mobile-optimised creative, helped achieve maximum reach and scale in these inventory-constrained markets.

The screen- and format-agnostic approach also successfully impacted upper-funnel brand metrics, driving brand preference for Caltex. A Caltex survey after the campaign measured the brand lift between a control group and the audience exposed to the creative, finding:

• A 2.7 per cent increase in ad recall
• A 3.8 per cent increase in message recall
• A 2.8 per cent rise in brand preference
• An overall 2.4 per cent increase in brand lift