In the far corner of your local Walmart store is the automotive department – a less-traveled aisle stocked with items like motor oil and filters, wiper blades and cleaning products. There you’ll also find several brands and varieties of fuel additives. They’re brands like Lucas and Seafoam and STP—brands that, despite their relative lack of product differentiation, enjoy bases of loyal buyers who are motivated by strong word-of-mouth and auto racing associations. There’s also Gumout – a brand that, despite its technological superiority to competitive brands, had been losing share in a shrinking category.
Gumout was updating its full line of products, with a proprietary cleaning technology called CarbonClear. Independent testing proved that no other brand on the market could match the cleaning power of CarbonClear. But auto DIY-ers aren’t easily converted by arguments and logic. Gumout needed to find a way to connect with enthusiasts who may have written them off. The brand needed to generate interest in its new formulations and start to win back some of its lost share.
We knew that DIY-ers were an “all-in” kind of crowd: Anything worth doing is worth taking to 11. And the high potency of CarbonClear certainly had the potential to scratch that itch. (Lab tests showed that the cleaning power was 25% greater – or better – than anything else out there.) However, we also knew that these were opinionated guys who can’t be argued into something, no matter how great the data look.
We knew CarbonClear was the lead, but we needed a way to tell the story that would be fresh and disarming. So, we looked around to other categories these guys were passionate about – things like music, outdoor activities and sports. We spent a lot of time thinking about the competitive nature of our audience and the delight he took in winning. And then we made an interesting connection: Using a product like Gumout is a lot like an athlete using a performance-enhancing substance, because it gives you an unfair advantage.
“Secret Meeting” introduces Gumout with CarbonClear in all its high-potency glory via a 30-second video that parodies a wise guy drug deal orchestrated under a bridge. In the clandestine meetup, a younger driver looking for better performance takes advice—and a bottle wrapped in a brown bag—from an experienced DIY-er. “Oh, it (Gumout with CarbonClear) will work,” the older guy assures him... but because it’s available over the counter, they “don’t have to keep meeting like this.”
Consistent with the sports performance theme, the campaign ran in sports environments including ESPN.com and Spotify sports podcasts.
Social engagement in the campaign was high (nearly 1.6M—that’s less than a penny per engagement) as was shopper engagement. On the heels of the campaign, the auto category buyers at Walmart noted significant new interest in the Gumout line with CarbonClear technology.
Importantly, performance enhancement for DIY-ers’ engines netted a performance enhancement to the bottom line of Gumout and its parent company ITW. For FY2021, the brand captured a 14% gain in sales, representing a 2% gain in share – reversing a 3-year slide in both measures. And Gumout’s category-leading potency is no longer the secret it used to be.
