The Shell carwash subscriptions come in several complex forms with various prices, timings and wash offerings – and we were dealing with a simultaneous launch of a service app from which the subscriptions can be handled. Moreover, we were faced with the challenge that even Shell’s most loyal customers didn’t find the idea of a carwash subscription relevant – just as they were not preferent of Shell’s carwash because of the carwash product’s generic stance in the market.

So, our task was to take the generic out of carwash and show the long-term value of buying a subscription. We carried out multiple surveys to get a better feel for Shell’s customers regarding this particular product. These revealed a surprising focus on the emotional aspect of a clean car – contradicting Shell’s traditionally tactical communication.

It became clear that we needed to unite Shell’s carwash offering with the emotional factors driving car owners to wash their cars – all the while giving Shell a unique position in the market away from its competitors. This led us to work with ‘the feeling of a clean car’, and a campaign concept that did not focus on price or services, as our competitors do, but – to paraphrase legendary creative Dave Trott – to “take the conversation upstream”.

We worked out a very thorough message hierarchy anchored in the tagline ‘Everything looks better in a freshly washed car’ (“Alt ser bedre ud i en nyvasket bil”). The resulting videos were devoid of voice-overs and titles, showing two sets of visuals (themed ‘City’ and ‘Country-road’) reflected in a shiny and spotless car.