Celebrating everyday heroes

September 17, 2015

Everyone needs a friend who’s reliable and trustworthy — someone to depend on, no matter what. It’s time to start celebrating these unsung heroes, with the help of SDLG’s ‘Most Reliable Person’ campaign.

SDLG, China’s leading construction machinery manufacturer, is on a mission: to find Africa’s most reliable person. Through a unqiue social media campaign, SDLG is encouraging Facebook followers to help track down and celebrate the everyday, reliable heroes of Africa.

“It’s a completely original,” says Stefan Bach, SDLG business manager Africa. “SDLG is known as a reliable brand, especially within the African market — using its industry credentials and social media following, SDLG is helping reliable people in Africa to get the recognition they deserve.”

To promote its campaign online, SDLG has produced a 90-second video, designed to be distributed across its online channels — including Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. The footage shadows local hero and SDLG operator Linda as he lends a hand to members of his community.

“The message behind this video is simple,” says Bach. “The reliable man loves to help his community, he is trustworthy and always dependable. Just like an SDLG machine, which is designed to be reliable for its operator and a dependable and hardworking piece of construction machinery on any jobsite.”

SDLG’s Facebook followers are encouraged to watch the video before nominating someone who is as equally reliable as Linda — they can do this by liking and commenting on the video via Facebook.

The campaign, which launched across SDLG’s social media channels on September 1, has already received a positive response from the online community. In just seven days, the video was viewed on Facebook over 700,000 times, receiving over 1,000 shares and nearly 6,000 likes. SDLG Facebook followers have until November 30 to submit their vote. After all nominations are complete, a panel of judges will assess the suggestions and shortlist the five most worthy submissions, but only one nominee will be crowned ‘Africa’s most reliable person’. The prize for earning this title is yet to be revealed.

“SDLG has a strong social media presence, especially on Facebook. Launching a compelling online campaign that engaged that community was key to making this a success,” says Charlie Burgoyne, EMEA digitial marketing manager, SDLG. “We’ve already seen some excellent participation, with lots of people nominating their most reliable friend or family member. This concept has really pushed the boundaries of how SDLG engages with its 90,000-strong Facebook community — it’s encouraging to see how much online traction the campaign has already created.”

The campaign will be formally introduced to the industry at SDLG’s bauma Conexpo Africa press event, held at the Johannesburg Expo Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“Reliability is in SDLG’s DNA,” says Bach. “This is not a one-off campaign — it’s the start of a long-term strategy that will see SDLG firmly position itself as the top supplier of reliable construction equipment and aftermarket support in the value segment”

With the campaign running until the end of November, there is still plenty of time to nominate the unsung hero of your community. If you know someone who deserves the title of ‘Africa’s most reliable person, register your vote here.

Click here if you’re interested in seeing behind-the-scenes footage of the video, which explains the reasoning behind the campaign and the challenges the production team faced.

Ends.

For further information please contact:

Stefan Bach	Hannah Morris
SDLG business manager Africa	SDLG PR support
Tel: +49 680 698 7034	Tel: +44 207 923 5860
Email: stefan.bach.PFM@sdlg.com	Email: hannah.morris@se10.com