Atlas Copco, a global manufacturing company, called in our help to launch a multi-use air compressor across European markets.

To add to the challenge, the company wanted to launch it under two different brands for two different audiences.

For the home owner consumer market, the compressor would be launched under the globally familiar Michelin brand. For the B2B audience, it would be released under ABAC, a well known brand of air compressor in the sector.

The challenge was set. We began with market research to hone in on the audiences and the insights that would be most compelling for them. Then from a solid strategic foundation, we developed two compelling campaigns…

1. Michelin – More time for family

From our research it became clear that active outdoor families presented the biggest opportunity for the Michelin air compressor launch. These are the kind of families who like to get out on their bikes and spend time together as a family.

But busyness and time pressures can stop them from getting the quality time they want. So this audience is looking for solutions that free up their time and fit in with their lifestyles.

These insights helped us position Michelin as a lifestyle partner to active outdoor families. The Michelin MBL-Go air compressor inflates bike tires much more quickly than a manual pump, allowing families to have more time out on their bikes. And the other inflating kits also make a host of other tasks much quicker, such as cleaning, painting and stapling.

These benefits were summed up neatly in our campaign tagline ‘More time for family adventures’. And it opened up the territory for a concept film that showed the multiple uses of the MBL-Go and how this enabled an active family lifestyle. It shows a typical family out on a bike ride, stapling a canvas ready for some artwork, painting an outdoor chair and pumping up an airbed ready for a night of camping.

2. ABAC – More time for customers

For the ABAC XPN launch, although it is exactly the same product as the Michelin MBL-Go, an entirely different approach was required. That’s because we needed to target bike shop owners – the audience that presented the largest opportunity according to our research.

We discovered that bike shops have evolved into service and maintenance centres as bike ownership has increased across Europe. The growing demands and expectations of customers have put pressure on the space, time and resources of bike shops. In turn, these pressures often squeeze out the time that bike shop owners have for their customers.

So how could the ABAC XPN relieve some of the pressure? In short, because it inflates tires so quickly, it frees up staff to be on the shop floor rather than spending so much time out back pumping up tires. Likewise, the other kits such as the cleaning and painting kits, free up bike shop workers so that they can spend more time with customers.

We summed up these benefits in the campaign tagline ‘More time, more customers’. A testimonial film shot at Balfe’s Bikes in London showed the ABAC XPN in action and highlighted the tangible business benefits of using it.

Pumped up

Atlas Copco’s new air compressor has only recently been launched, so results of the campaigns are yet to come in. But the company is excited, as are we, about the impact that they’ll have.

Marketing the same product to two vastly different audiences isn’t straightforward. But our thorough research enabled us to come up with a winning strategy. After all, that’s exactly what we do at Agency Inc:

We make the complicated simple.