Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, is undergoing a radical business transformation. Selling off the company’s energy business, and merging all its transport companies, the new Maersk set out to expand the offer from shipping to end-to-end integrated container logistics. Our role at & Co. has been, and is, to create the strategy and campaigns that will change the perception of the Maersk brand globally.
The shift from a shipping company to a logistics partner, is a shift from a transactional relationship to a strategic partnership. Almost any bigger business in the world ships with Maersk, but to fulfil the business strategy the company needs to engage in new strategic conversation with a wider group of c-suite decisionmakers in customer organizations. To gain awareness among c-level is a key part of the journey.
To get the attention and engagement of the CEOs, CFOs and COOs of the world, we created a campaign based on the common denominator between Maersk and its customers: Transformation. Like technology has fuelled Maersk’s ongoing transformation, the same is the case for its customers. Everyone is navigating change and are looking for partners who can help them through this transformation. By talking about change, why it is hard, and how to navigate it, Maersk is offering C-level a leadership mindset towards change.
The campaign is based on a neurological fact that our reptilian brains will fight any type of change. The hero film is a dialogue between “Status quo” representing the reptilian brain and “Change” representing all the new ideas and impulses. Being aware of this ongoing dialogue inside our brains, will help us control the reptilian part of the brain and allow us to embrace the changes that is needed for us personally and for businesses to transform and develop. The campaign is further backed with interviews with Maersk leaders talking of the changes they have been involved in and examples of initiatives where Maersk has gone all the way to innovate and grow with their customers.
The campaign launch includes a 3-minute TVC on CNBC to be aired across all regions, on Social Media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WeChat), print ads in Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Financial Times and extensive use of digital media and programmatic.
Tapping into the universal insight about change and giving advice and tools on how to navigate it made the campaign very successful within the C-suite target group. The media numbers showed best in class performance within the B2B category, especially on LinkedIn where it is now the best performing campaign, ever.
”The video results we've seen with the brand campaign are by far the best I've seen to date. To put this into perspective, you can see your results vs. our global benchmarks which you are currently smashing.”
Lorraine Mannion, Account Director, LinkedIn
The film was viewed 92 million times and Maersk.com received a staggering 5 million visits during the campaign period. The film was also being received internally within Maersk with excitement and pride.
Anne With Damgaard, Global Head of Marketing Activation, Maersk says:
“At Maersk we are on a continuous journey of transforming our business. The constant need for change is also an everyday reality for the new target group we are addressing, and with “This is your brain / All the Way” we dramatize how to deal with this demand. This makes the campaign super relevant and shows how we can be a partner in that transformation. We’ve also communicated in a completely different way than we’ve ever done before – or others have, for that matter. It has required courage, but it has also been rewarded with recognition and started many conversations.”
Results include:
• 48.7m views from social and programmatic activity, 92.1m across all media channels
• Overwhelming response and engagement from the target audience on the prioritized social platforms on just the hero film:
LinkedIn: Likes 36721 Comments 2375 and shares 5902
Twitter: Likes 9978 Comments 746 and shares 1725
Facebook: Likes 97327 Comments 3048 and shares 8764
• The click-through-rate (CTR) on the hero video was phenomenal and over performed according to Industry benchmarks particular on the most dominant social platforms LinkedIn and Twitter:
LinkedIn: 1,16 % (benchmark 0,43 %)
Twitter: 3,24 % (benchmark 1,26 %)
Facebook: 1,29 % (benchmark 2,21 %)