Sylvania Automotive —

Who Thinks About Their Headlights?

SYLVANIA Automotive is enlightening drivers to think farther down the road. For years, SYLVANIA Automotive headlights have been the standard, enjoying a 92% market share in the US and an 80% market share in Canada. The only problem is, most of us aren’t concerned with how headlights work—until they don’t.

Client

Sylvania

Project

Think Farther Down the Road Integrated Campaign

Deliverables

Strategy, Media, Broadcast, Web Design/Development, Video Content, Social Channel Management, Social Content, Digital

THE
CHALLENGE

Consumers were unaware that headlights faded over time, or that they needed to replace two rather than just one for balanced downroad visibility. For that matter, most consumers don’t even realize that they can upgrade their stock or basic bulbs to a bulb with greater clarity and downroad visibility. Our challenge wasn’t to increase market share, it was to increase the awareness and education of the consumer about the importance of better headlight bulbs. From prior research indicating that this is a low-involvement category, we knew education was going to be difficult if it wasn’t engaging.

Taking into consideration SYLVANIA’s leadership position, we felt we could make them the de facto information resource for nighttime driving expertise. With the goal of raising the category tide, we launched the “SYLVANIA Proving Grounds,” an entertaining education-focused campaign. We kicked off the idea with a suite of broadcast ads that featured an off beat host leading the way. Since automotive headlights aren’t something you can keep droning on about,  we gave consumers a crash course in Headlights 101 in bite-sized and entertaining chunks—using a unique and stylized approach to testing our bulbs and demonstrating hazards, concerns, and the benefits of upgrading from basic bulbs.

THE
IDEA

SOCIAL
MEDIA

At the heart of the campaign is a complete revamp of SYLVANIA’s social media presence with an emphasis on targeted social ads that make product education and sales strategy a major focus. By utilizing animated product videos and fine-tuned branded content, we’re able to effectively drive engagement while increasing our reach.

As our campaign proceeds, the robust social media campaign is supported by high-impact digital display, broadcast, and radio, continuing to hammer home the message that SYLVANIA is helping its consumer see more at night and “Think Farther Down the Road.”

DIGITAL

RESULTS

Even in its infancy, the social media campaign has gotten off to an electric start with engagement rates 3x the industry standard, over 250 million views, and click-through rates between 0.21% and 1.24%, depending on the objective. As the campaign goes on, we are confident that these numbers will continue to increase and provide more incredible results for our client.