#NextGenScania new truck launch
In August 2016, Scania launched their new S-Cab, their first truck launch in 20 years. For those unfamiliar with the trucking world, this was a MAJOR EVENT, awaited avidly by a worldwide fanbase for whom the terms “rabid” and “obsessional” are understatements.
To whet that appetite, Scania did something they’d never done before – fully embracing social media to tease this voracious audience with titbits, leading up to the grand unveiling in Paris. #NextGenScania did this to an almost unprecedented extent.
The theme we adopted for #NextGenScania was the imminent arrival of a new baby to the expanding Scania family (Scania are very big on thinking of their fans as members of the family). This allowed us to exploit all the familiar areas from scans to heartrates to genetic features, ideally suited for teasing our audience on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We knew there was a solid fanbase out there, but were completely taken aback when they responded to the tune of over 7 million impressions on those platforms in its very first week.
This simple video of the new arrival’s heartbeat was one of our first Facebook posts, deliberately giving very little away as every single detail about the truck was top secret prior to launch. It still managed to amass nearly 500,000 views (plus another 14,000 on Instagram) and 2,000 shares on its appearance. It also attracted nearly 300 comments, some of them quite mad like “feels like it has a soul”.
Maintaining the impending arrival theme, here’s a heartrate gif that got the punters excited.
Part of the thrust of this social campaign about the new arrival was to also embrace the wider reaches of the Scania family. These dedicated die-hards really really love the company, so we featured a competition asking them to prove their place in the family. We got tons of entries, along the lines of tattoos and the chosen mode of transport to high school proms. And you wouldn’t believe the number of people who arrive at their weddings in a truck. In Week 1 of the campaign, over 1,000 people submitted photographic proof of their love for Scania.
Of course all of this was ultimately leading up to the Big Event – the unveiling of the new truck at the Grand Palais in Paris. This impending arrival came complete with its own countdown clock. This was live-streamed on Facebook with 22,000 people signing up for or expressing interest in the event. And when the reveal finally took place on the 23 August, the Facebook video was viewed 774,000 times and shared by 6,000. Quite the welcome.
After the tease, came the details. Through a series of long-playing video clips, Facebook canvas ads and carousels, we took the eager audience on a journey round every single aspect of the new truck. Scania spent years redesigning their baby from the ground up so there was lots to tell, from new seats to an improved dashboard, to crash testing, wind tunnels and extreme weather trials. All put together, these tell a remarkable story and – with the posts averaging 10,000 views and nearly 1,000 shares – it’s a story seen and enjoyed by many.
And here's a video case study of the whole thing. Apologies for the ghastly pun at the end.
