Rolls-Royce has launched a year-long campaign to celebrate the UT Boat’s 40th birthday. Jessica McGreal investigates
It’s not just B2B Marketing celebrating a historic birthday this year – Rolls-Royce, perhaps most famous for its luxury cars – has launched a multichannel campaign to mark the UT Boat’s 40th anniversary, part of its marine work.
However, Markus Keiper, executive vice president of global marketing, communications and CRM of Rolls-Royce’s Marine sector, points out: “An anniversary alone isn’t enough [of an excuse for a campaign]. You must have a great story to go with it, and it must be relevant to the customer. For the UT 40th anniversary, we had this on our radar early last year, and spent a good amount of time discussing ideas and options – we didn’t feel rushed, and that’s important for something as significant as a campaign.”
As a result, ‘The ship that launched a thousand stories’ campaign aims to showcase the company’s history, as well as current innovative technology and corporate social responsibility. The target audience is its marine customers within the oil and gas industry, who have been familiar with the ship since the early 1970s. Rolls-Royce regards any wider brand awareness an added bonus.
Power of a brand
In order to engage and resonate with this very specific audience, the company put its customers at the heart of the campaign; asking them to share their UT Boat stories via a series of films, to be released throughout the year.
Working with creative agency Nomads, Rolls-Royce went in search of customers willing to share their stories with the global marine industry. But it didn’t have to look far, Keiper explains: “I think pride plays a big part. The people you see in these films have something in common. They’re extremely proud of these ships, and their involvement with them. That is very powerful, and once we explained what we wanted to do, and why, we were really pleased with their desire to get involved.”
Despite a great reputation or impressive heritage, many B2B brands find it difficult to harness the power of their customer advocates. But Rolls-Royce seems to have unlocked the secret. Firstly, the company allowed its customers to get directly involved in the campaign by being flexible and organised; securing filming slots with crews in between their sea courses. Secondly, it has been able to tap into the wider marine community by setting up an online platform where individuals can share their personal experiences of the UT Boat by revealing stories and pictures.
The content hub
The hub of the campaign is a dedicated website, an ‘eco-system’, allowing Rolls-Royce to share the range of content with a variety of groups, including its 55,000 employees. Rolls-Royce has chosen to focus on digital in order to make the campaign truly interactive, ensuring it reached remote shipping crews. The site includes a live map of the vessels, video content, best practice solutions and an ‘ask us’ feature.
The content will be promoted via social media, PR and exhibitions throughout 2014.
Corporate social responsibility
The activity will be complemented with print advertisements within maritime media outlets and Rolls-Royce’s In Depth customer magazine. These ads will promote the brand’s corporate social responsibility (CRS) message by highlighting the ship’s history: In 1974 Rolls Royce’s social and environmental commitments spurred it on to design a ship capable of working in the harsh conditions of the North Sea; the UT Boat.
Rolls-Royce has said since the campaign launched in May its online statistics are growing daily. It hopes this will continue as the campaign and its community develop throughout the year. Going forward the activity will focus around supporting business objectives in Asia and the Americas, connecting the campaign with the brand’s aftermarket services and active sales campaigns. Quite a celebration – happy birthday UT Boat.
