Operation Free Petrol

Background

Makro, a national supermarket chain in Belgium, wondered whether it would be possible to both attract new customers and at the same time get more visits from the regular clients.

Idea

Consumers feel the credit crunch most at the petrol station, where they are often shocked by the rising cost of fuel.

So the agency created a modern Robin Hood, John McRoe, a Texan oil baron who roams the world prospecting for oil and giving away petrol for free.

The campaign was tolled out in two phases.

In the first, teasing phase, a viral video in the form of a CCN newsflash spread a rumour about free petrol. The website www.freepetrol.be challenged visitors to guess where John McRoe would find oil in Belgium via a clever Google Maps application.

Bloggers and Belgium's biggest newspaper tried to find out who was behind it all.

In the second phase it was revealed that John McRoe was a spokesman for Makro. And Makro were giving away 200,000 litres of fuel free.

National TV News jumped onto the story. In the shops, hosts handed out scratch cards enabling costumers to win free petrol. With a lucky winner every 15 minutes!

As well as using field-marketing techniques, email was also used to talk to the database of existing Makro card members and postcards were mailed from John to dormant Makro customers.

Huge inflatable oil derricks were erected in front of stores and inside hostesses handed out free scratchcards to win free petrol, with a winner every 15 minutes.

Radio ads drove awarenessm which was given a boost when the story was picked up by newspapers and even made it to the evening news on prime time!

Results

Campaign appreciation: 7.1 out of 10, the highest score ever for a retailer.

Traffic increased to Makro stores by a factor of +13%

Turnover was up 7%. And every euro invested in the campaign returned an additional 7,35€ in turnover

Our Thoughts

This would probably have been a successful promotion if they had simply run radio ads announciung ‘free petrol’. There was no real reason to create the fictitious John McRoe, a man so grateful to the places where he finds oil, he dishes out free petrol. But the fact that Makro did play games with their customers tells you a lot about the brand. That it knows these while these may not be the best of times, you don’t have to be po-faced about them. While there was an immediate uplift in both shoppers and sales, my guess is this would have had a long tail.