WD-40

WD-40 basically had no real competition as the multi-purpose metal lubricant of choice, a fact that led our client to believe there was no real need for any ongoing marketing efforts. And while that might've seemed like a privileged place to occupy, the truth is the brand was actually starting to plateau and sales were stalling except for a short-lived surge during hurricane season. So we needed to convince our client that there was a lot more we could do with it to incentivize sales year-round, using the consumer's existing advocacy for the product as a catalyst rather than a deterrent for new ways to promote it. They reluctantly agreed and gave us the green light, albeit with minimal marketing dollars. But we took what we got and set out to demonstrate that a little creativity and some elbow grease (pun intended) could go a long way.

Our first effort was a simple print ad that illustrated the product's benefit in a rather unexpected way in order to showcase its versatility. The print ad directly below didn't only manage to win the brand its first award but, more importantly, it helped boost sales and allowed us to roll out the new print and radio campaign that later followed.