MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The key to great service is treating each and every customer like they’re a VIP, and that’s something independent creative agency GIGIL perfectly captured with its latest campaign for Seaoil Philippines (SEAOIL).
With many businesses emphasizing excellent customer care, it can be hard to stand out and position your brand’s commitment to service in a new way. But GIGIL’s team came up with a unique take that will help get SEAOIL’s message across.
“Alagang SEAOIL was the main inspiration for the concept,” shared GIGIL Associate Creative Director Soleil Badenhop, the creative lead for the campaign. “This signature brand of care is not just felt through SEAOIL’s products and services, it’s also felt through their people. Although ‘care’ is over-communicated by other brands, we wanted to show it uniquely.”
The recent spot opens with Anne Curtis in a luxurious ride, pulling up at a SEAOIL station. A staff member politely greets her and proceeds to fill up the car’s tank and thoroughly cleans its windshield and hood. As she pays and drives away, it may seem like the end of your typical gas station ad embellished with an iconic celebrity spokesperson. But the spot continues and proves that it isn’t.
Another customer arrives on a motorcycle, but as they remove their helmet, it’s revealed that it’s also Anne Curtis playing the role of the rider. Despite the absence of the celebrity persona, the staff member still dutifully offers and executes the service to the customer, from filling up the bike’s tank to putting air in its tires. The same goes for the next customer. This time, Anne Curtis plays a jeepney driver and one of the commuters riding the jeepney.
At the end of the ad, when the staff member gets a tip for his excellent service and courteousness, it reveals the true face of the jeepney driver — just a regular Filipino — to emphasize that while the majority of SEAOIL’s customers may not be celebrities, each customer will be seen and treated like one.
Soleil expounded on how SEAOIL’s priority is to communicate its brand of care and to highlight how important it is in its brand identity, which is why it’s something it wanted to focus on for this campaign. “SEAOIL has been building trust and care through its products and services for years. While other gasoline brands communicate prices, promos, and environmental advocacy, SEAOIL wanted to reinforce their signature brand of care, ‘Alagang SEAOIL,’ that people come back to once they experience it firsthand. But the challenge was to make people aware of Alagang SEAOIL before they even drive to the station.”
“We wanted to represent the Filipino people as best as we can so we put careful thought into casting the characters usually seen every day at SEAOIL gas stations,” added Soleil. “You have a motorcycle driver, a jeepney driver, and commuters all given consistent celebrity treatment which shows that care is given equally to all customers from different walks of life.”
