Global Launch Campaign
Kawasaki Strong

The Challenge.

Launch a Global Brand

Kawasaki invented the utility vehicle category. However, after years of focusing their efforts on other categories, competitors had taken market share and they were in desperate need of a complete overhaul. They approached us with the challenge of creating a disruptive brand and sales plan for one of their staple categories.

The Strategy.

Own Strength

After extensive research and competitive analysis we discovered that Kawasaki 4-wheel vehicles are born from Kawasaki Heavy Industry DNA. Engineers from Japan responsible for designing their bullet trains, freight liners, and heavy-industry machinery, are the same engineers that design their utility vehicles. Heavy-industry design standards are infused throughout their utility vehicles, resulting in the most durable and powerful machines in the industry. Once we unearthed this truth, we looked for a disruptive way to get the word out.

The Solution.

When your competitors own speed and amenities, we took a hard look at our undeniable advantages, strength and quality, we called it Kawasaki STRONG. Not only did we launch a strategic 5-year campaign and brand building strategy, but we introduced an unprecedented Warranty that put backed our bold claim.

Kawasaki Strong

My Role:

  • Lead strategic research, creative brief and competitive analysis
  • Directed creative brainstorming sessions
  • Wrote brand platform, messaging, positioning and tagline
  • Created campaign deck, developed campaign tactics
  • Creative directed commercial, visual design, photography
  • Creative directed commercial, visual design, photography, social media and other supporting campaign tactics

Video.

Global Branding.

Kawasaki Utility and Recreational Utility vehicles are born from Kawasaki Heavy Industry DNA. From bullet trains, freight liners, to their utility vehicles, Kawasaki builds the most durable and powerful machines to not only tackle the toughest jobs, but have a little fun when the job is done.

Website & Ecommerce.

Kawasaki.com Mobile

Retail.

Social Influencer Campaign.

In today's social world, only disruptive and targeted strategies reach and engage, so we looked for a disruptive way to get the word out. We rounded-up a group of influencers who shared the same principles and embodied our brand. Powerful, rugged, principled and rogue personalities that know how to have a good time. The perfect fit, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, JB Mouney and rowdy Hank III. Having the right game-plan sets the stage for the most impactful campaigns to inspire, educate and capture customers individually.

Kawasaki.com Mobile

PBR Champ: JB Mouney

Reigning world-champion of the Monster Energy Professional Bull Riding organization, JB is absolutely the toughest guy around. Tapping his fans who value strength and power was a perfect match.

Kawasaki.com Mobile

Stone Cold Steve Austin

WWE wrestling legend, movie star, and host of CMT The Broken Skull Challenge. This gritty Texan won't accept weakness from anyone or anything and that's the bottom line.

Kawasaki.com Mobile

Hank Williams III

Son and Grandson to Country Music legends Hank William Sr. and Jr, Hank III is a country renegade like no other who loves fast rides and fast music. We made a non-stop action series that captured not only views, but the hearts and minds of our fans.

Kawasaki.com Mobile

PBR Champ: JB Mouney

Reigning world-champion of Monster Energy's Professional Bull Riding organization, JB is absolutely the toughest guy around. Tapping into his fans who value gritty strength and power was the perfect match-up.

Kawasaki.com Mobile

Stone Cold Steve Austin

WWE wrestling legend, movie star, and host of CMT's The Broken Skull Challenge. This no-bs Texan won’t accept weakness from anyone or anything … and that’s the bottom line.

Kawasaki.com Mobile

Hank Williams III

Son and Grandson to Country Music legends, Hank William Sr. and Jr., Hank III is a country renegade like no other. We made a non-stop action series that captured not only views, but the hearts and minds of our fans.

Ride Like A Boss.

We introduced the MULE PRO-FXR side x side as the true boss machine along with a supporting cast of other MULE side x sides. Stone Cold is the “boss”, displaying extraordinary feats of strength. The spot received over 2M views across social media and generated over 88K social engagements.

With Steve Austin leading the charge, we excelled on Facebook with an industry-leading Facebook Canvas Unit. This allowed for Kawasaki consumers to connect with the MULE Family through an interactive experience, native to the Facebook mobile platform. Our behind-the-scenes posts garnered one of our highest performing click-through rates and one of our lowest CPM on Instagram.    

Interactive Experience.

Kawasaki.com Mobile

Wireframes

Planning a first-of-its-kind responsive campaign website that includes, transparent video, motion, 3D parallaxing and multiple layers of content is not small task. So we planned and mapped out every last detail and prototyped the interactivity to ensure our game-plan was solid.

Responsive Design

With a consumer target primarily viewing our content on their laptop computers, designing an immersive 3D parallaxing world is ideal. However, in today's mobile world, it was vital that the experience be equally as usable and engaging on all devices.

Interactive Experience

The MULE vehicle experience is a fully immersive 3D gyroscopic interactive experience responsive for any platform. It houses launch campaign materials, Kawasaki STRONG branding, product videos and integrated video curation by our brand ambassadors.

Kawasaki.com MobileKawasaki.com Mobile

Results.

Business Transformation

Summary:
Unprecedented growth in market-share, brand recognition and complete inventory sales among multiple industry awards are just a few wins of this effort. Today, Kawasaki's 4-Wheel category is once again an industry leader with other manufactures now following and copying our lead.

Highlights:‍

  • Global Platform
  • Millions of video views
  • 100% inventory sales
  • Accessory Builder with ShopifyPlus eCommerce
  • Double-digit growth in market share
Explore.
Home
Work
About
Resume
Contact
Social.
LinkedIn
Contact.
949.244.7522
michael@michaelrberg.com
Built with Love in Webflow