Advertising for Demag – a different approach for heavy industry

Heavy industry advertising campaigns often follow a predictable formula, with detailed shots of the equipment or machinery in question, placed above bullet points of information and specifications. As part of our work with the plastics molding machine brand Demag Plastic Group, WILDDESIGN is taking a different advertising approach, lending a more authentic, human tone to Demag’s marketing materials.

To start, WILDDESIGN sent our Senior Graphic Designer, Yingting Chen, down to the Demag factory in Ningbo to take a look at locations, lighting and employees interested in being featured in the ads. From there ad concepts were developed, ranging from basic design concerns like the timeless landscape-vs.-portrait debate to choosing the people and settings for the photos. Focusing on “the people behind the machines” is a challenge, Yingting explains, because heavy industry marketing materials tend to require a very careful, deliberate approach, and developing authentic advertisements that follow the vision set forth by the branding team isn’t a simple task. Ads need to stand out from the crowd, especially when they run primarily in trade magazines and at exhibitions, as WILDDESIGN’s Demag ads will.

The key, Romain Hostal, our Branding Director says, is to inject personality into the advertisements while still leaving space to show the specifics of the client and products – in this case, plastic injection molding machines assembled in China and sold globally. WILDDESIGN chose to feature real engineers in the ads to help with that sense of authenticity, and to communicate the fact that there are real, everyday people designing and building these high-tech machines. In fact, from May 20^th to 23^rd, at Asia’s largest plastics exhibition, Chinaplas 2013, the same engineers from the advertising campaign will be on hand to answer questions and talk about Demag’s products and values.

It’s this push for consistency and integration between advertising platforms that WILDDESIGN hopes will make the Demag campaign stand out from the average heavy industry advertising effort. Taking an authentic, personality-centered approach will help, as will the decision to feature four distinct ads for the four industry sectors Demag manufactures for: electronics, medical, automotive and packaging design. Organizing the campaign this way helps demonstrate the breadth of equipment Demag offers while also spicing up the ads and ensuring the ads themselves are versatile and able to run in a variety of areas and platforms.