FINDING FOOTING FOR A FOREIGN BRAND.
Although LiuGong is one of the fastest growing construction equipment manufacturers in North America, they are still relatively unknown. In a part of the world long dominated by U.S. companies like Cat, Deere and Case, it’s not easy for a Chinese brand to find a footing. To further complicate gaining awareness, we found that most North Americans also struggled to pronounce their name (it’s “LOO-gong”). To overcome these issues, Nelson Schmidt developed a campaign that cleverly countered the challenges the Chinese brand was facing.
The name on a machine in North America matters, so we found a clever way to make the LiuGong name meaningful.
WE COULDN’T CHANGE THE NAME, BUT WE COULD MAKE IT MEMORABLE.
Leaning into the fact that the first part of LiuGong sounds like a well-known American name, we intuitively co-opted “Lou” and used it throughout the campaign, which made the pronunciation of the brand both fun and simple. Making light of a difficult-to-pronounce name also allowed us to get into heavier conversations about why LiuGong was the smarter choice. And provided license for an underdog brand to get buyers questioning the big dogs.
Sometimes your toughest challenge can become your greatest opportunity.
GENERATING AWARENESS GARNERS GROWTH.
The high quality and extreme value of their machines made LiuGong an attractive option for dealers and customers. Especially as a struggling economy and supply chain disruptions pushed buyers to consider alternate choices. Our “Go With Lou” campaign brought awareness of the brand and its distinct advantages to the masses, attracted new dealers and in turn attracted the attention of end-use buyers to drive business to these dealers.
RESULTS
The campaign has helped LiuGong increase its North American revenue by an incredible 583%.
A critical component of the effort was dealer recruitment, which grew North American dealer coverage by 324%.
The campaign achieved high marketing metrics, including digital ad CTRs 1,240% above industry benchmark and PR efforts that resulted in an ad equivalency of $655K.