Hitchhiking by truck a.k.a TasteAway.pl bloggers in #RabenExpress

Logistics and transport are the litmus paper of the economy. Analysts are able to foresee the condition of the market by observing warehouse stocks and shipments. That is why our flag CSR campaign “Transport is Necessary” aims at promoting the importance of transport and truck drivers among various groups of stakeholders; it emphasises the social role of transport because, as one of the campaign slogans says: “Without transport we would have nothing”.

The campaign includes actions like: marking trailers with slogans (“no transport, no yoghurt”, “no drivers, no cars”, etc.), educational meetings with kindergarteners, and many partnerships (foteliki.info, Happy Bus, the Police). There is also a dedicated website http://www.transport-jest-potrzebny.pl and a Facebook profile. Now, as part of the “Transport is Necessary” campaign, it is time for cooperation with influencers and the #RabenExpress action.

Objective

The objective of the #RabenExpress action was to promote the role of transport in the contemporary world (CSR) and to present the work of professional truck drivers and the trucker's lifestyle (employer branding), as well as to encourage young people to take on jobs in this profession. Additionally, we wanted to show that we not only apply innovative solutions in our sector but that we are also innovative in our communication.

Challenges

• Raben is a part of the TFL sector (transport, forwarding, logistics), which the young generation sees as a bit “stiff” - we wanted to break that stereotype and show that a company from that sector also can be “cool”.
• So far in Poland influencer marketing had been used mostly by consumer goods companies. Conducting an action with influencers is much more difficult for B2B companies and still not really popular in Poland, yet not impossible J
• There are technical and legal restrictions: e.g. apart from the driver, only one person can stay in a truck cab (hence only one blogger was able to get on the road). Hotel and parking infrastructure near roads (despite more and more strict regulations) is still relatively poor so the trip was connected with an overnight stay in the cab, etc. …

Target group

• Potential employee, divers (employer branding)
• Young people who do not realise the importance of transport (they get upset when a truck in overtaking on a motorway), and who don’t know how demanding a driver's job really is.
• Users of the social media and simultaneously potential customers of Raben Group.

Actions

The #RabenExpress action was carried out in November 2017 and it was based on the so-called influencer marketing, i.e. using the images of famous people to promote Raben brand. The first chapter of the campaign featured the founders of the largest travel blog in Poland, TasteAway.pl. Why them? We wanted to show that the profession of a driver is extremely responsible and it can be difficult at times, yet it is really fascinating. It is filled with continuous travels, wonderful views, discovering new places and cities, tasting exotic dishes and meeting people. Who will tell better travel stories that a travelling blogger? Or perhaps two of them? We asked the Good For You agency who they could recommend and so we started negotiations with TasteAway.pl

Łukasz Smoliński of TasteAway.pl recollects the beginning of our cooperation: “The campaign for Raben was unquestionably one of the most difficult ones in the history of our blog. How can you react, being a travel and culinary blogger, when you are approached by a logistics company which provides B2B services and which wants to run an advertising project together with you? The first thing that comes to your mind is - THEY ARE OUT OF THEIR MINDS! However, after some thinking we came up with an idea. Never before have we hitchhiked as we rather opt for more pricey a means of transport. But we came to a conclusion that travelling by truck would be an adventure for us and something new for our readers.

The idea for the #RabenExpress action was really simple. All we had to do was to send the traveller, Łukasz Smoliński, from the TasteAway.pl blog, with a Raben Transport driver, Mirek, on the road to Hamburg. The co-author of the blog, Natalia and her children, could not travel by truck due to legal constraints so she went to Hamburg by plane. Meanwhile both gentlemen were supposed to deliver goods of a Raben Group customer to the logistics centre near Hamburg. Naturally the blogger's additional task was to report on the action in the social media and prepare a review of the travel for his blog. Each post was marked with the campaign hashtag: #RabenExpress.

TasteAway.pl divided the campaign into three stages. In the first one the bloggers teased the action in a manner that the readers would get interested in their intentions but were not able to guess their actual plans. In the second stage the plans were unveiled as Łukasz Smoliński informed his fans that he was setting off to Hamburg by truck. The whole trip was reported on-line via TaseAway.pl social channels,on Instagram and on Facebook, as well as on the FB profile of Raben Group. The last stage was naturally the travel and culinary visit of the bloggers in Hamburg. An important element of the action was livestreaming from the road with the active participation of the driver, during which blog readers and Facebook fans could ask questions about the work of a driver, about the travel and about the campaign.

The first live session was in the evening and it attracted quite a large group of viewers (over 26 thousand displays). It is available at: https://www.facebook.com/tasteawaypl/videos/1419230124842759/

Results

• 4 days on the road (including two in the truck)
• One travel and culinary blog, two autjors: Natalia and Łukasz
• 13 posts on Facebook from the trip to Hamburg with Raben including 3 live transmissions showing the life of a truck driver, all with the hashtag #Raben #RabenExpress
• 12 posts on Instagram
• Almost 60 thousand displays of the live transmission
• Thousands of comments, likes and shares (Facebook, Instagram, blog)
• Reach of the campaign was close to one million
• More than a dozen publications in the media

The campaign turned out to be a success, it was very well received and had positive reviews not only from the TasteAway.pl fans but also from Raben Group customers, some of whom have turned out to be avid readers of this travel blog.

And this is just the beginning as Raben Group is planning another campaign together with the influencers; this time at the European level.