Freightliner’s Frontal Attack

The Cascadia gave us an opportunity to revisit the Run Smart manifesto.

Breathing New Life into “Run Smart”

Freightliner Trucks is the left brain of the trucking world. They make durable heavy duty trucks that run until the wheels fall off. They pride themselves on total cost of ownership, uptime, and ROI.

They are, however, almost apologetic about it. When they launched the new Cascadia truck — their first new truck in nearly a decade — we tried to change that.

The oil crisis in 2007 and 2008 sent diesel prices sky-rocketing. Carrier contracts could absorb small swings in diesel prices over a quarter or two, but fuel was double and triple what it was.

And here was Freightliner with a truck that got better fuel mileage, looked hot, and, unlike previous trucks, had a luxury car ride. After all, this is a company owned by the parent of Mercedes Benz.

So rather than touting the numbers, we went on the attack.

We used drivers talking about their test drive to give the claims credibility. And we used Google to target competitor’s search terms and steal their traffic. And we could get away with it because Freightliner had done their homework in the wind-tunnel out on Swan Island. Freightliner provided us with direct comparison fuel saving numbers*.

We gave the numbers context. Saving money became a cause. Run Smart meant more than padding the pockets of the owners — it meant keeping everyone working.

A few weeks afterward, Frank Roehr of Young & Roehr fame, stopped by our offices. He saw the Hard Facts manifesto on the wall, and said, “When I came up with Run Smart, this is exactly what I had in mind.”

* Postscript: As it turns out, the numbers we received were disputed. We ended up taking the campaign down. Seems to me the thing to do would’ve been to fix the numbers and move forward, but I don’t know all the details.