When stripped down to its most basic definition, exhibiting is the act of showing or revealing something. But that "something" is rarely, if ever, a road-worn diesel engine pulled out of a big rig after a long haul and in front of a crowd of thousands — unless, of course, you're Chevron Lubricants, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc.

Heading into the 2014 Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) in March, the company, which makes engine oils, coolants/antifreeze, grease, gear lubricants, transmission fluids, and more, wanted to prove just how well its Delo XLE Synblend 10W-30 heavy-duty engine oil protects against wear and tear. Chevron also wanted to build on the success of its All-Star Award-winning campaign developed with Deckel & Moneypenny Exhibits in 2013, which focused on Delo's impact on fuel costs. "We figured out that the average annual fuel-cost savings amounted to about $900 for truckers that used 10W-30," says Steve Deckel, director of design at Deckel & Moneypenny Exhibits. "So our campaign asked attendees what they would do with an extra $900, and had them write their responses on a large white board in the middle of the exhibit."

The activity helped attendees make an emotional connection with the brand and the product — a key strategy at a show with more than 1.2 million square feet of exhibits and hordes of attendees permanently inscribed with tattoos bearing the names of their favorite trucking brands and products. "The activity was effective and engaging, but we observed that some booth visitors were uncertain about the protection delivered by the new, lower viscosity 10W-30 oil," Deckel says. "Some customers asked, 'What am I giving up to get these savings?'" In engine-oil world, higher viscosity (like that of the more traditional, heavier grade Delo 400 LE 15W-40 oil) generally means better protection and thus less engine wear and/or failure over time.

So while the 2013 campaign generated more than 1.2 million impressions, exceeded the goal for attendee dwell time by 33 percent, and lured 1,682 visitors into the booth to share their thoughts about a $900 surplus, it left attendees questioning the performance of 10W-30, and that didn't sit well with Deckel or Angi Schoolcraft, Chevron's event marketing specialist. Wondering just how well the 10W-30 compared to the 400 LE 15W-40 oil, they went back to the scientists that developed the oil. "Once we learned it offered the same degree of protection as the higher viscosity oil that customers know and trust, we put our heads together to come up with a way to convey that level of performance to MATS attendees," Deckel says.

Fortunately, it didn't take long for an idea to germinate. During the first planning meeting for the 2014 campaign, someone mentioned a Chevron event that had taken place 15 years prior at MATS — a live, in-booth engine teardown. Back then, diesel fuel had switched to lower sulfur content, and lubricants were reformulated to accommodate the change, which caused uncertainty among tractor-trailer owner operators. The teardown demonstrated the effectiveness of Chevron's reformulated lubricant and put attendees' worries to rest. "Almost everyone on the team immediately agreed that it would be a great way to demonstrate 10W-30 protection and should be resurrected at MATS," Deckel says.

That's all well and good, until you fully understand what a live teardown entails. An engine (in this case a DD15 diesel engine with more than 400,000 miles of service using 10W-30 and plucked straight out of an 18-wheeler) would be taken apart in the booth by a mechanic who would then lay all the pieces out on a table for onlookers to see. Picture greasy gaskets, grimy injection pumps, and filthy pistons — and no way of knowing what condition all those parts would be in prior to the dissection. "It was important to open up the engine for the first time in front of a crowd to prove our point," Deckel says. "This type of project is definitely high risk, high reward." It's also high drama, and Chevron hoped the theatrics would generate results.

Show-and-Tell Tactics
While Chevron's live in-booth teardown would certainly help create buzz and drive traffic to the exhibit, it wouldn't necessarily provide face-to-face engagement between staffers and attendees. It also wouldn't do much to extol the benefits of the two dozen or so other oils, lubricants, greases, and more that carry the Delo name. So Deckel and Schoolcraft conceived additional in-booth activities to extend face time and conversations with prospects.

Those ancillary components included an interactive presentation called the Delo Protection Challenge that compared parts from an engine using 10W-30 to those that used 15W-40 oil; a tour of the Delo Truck, an 80-foot tractor-trailer wheeled into the exhibit space and featuring more than a dozen product-info stations on board; a meet and greet with Chevron spokesman Edgar Hansen from "The Deadliest Catch;" and a photo op with the company's mascot, the Delo Parts Man. "We designed activities to appeal to everyone from the gear heads to the kids tagging along with their parents," Schoolcraft says.

A booth jampacked with activities is only as successful as the number of people that actually visit it. So to spread the word about the teardown, Chevron sent a pre-show email to past attendees inviting them to visit the booth and bought airtime on Red Eye Radio, a trucker-centric radio station, to spread the word about the teardown. The company also promoted the Delo Teardown Challenge on the company's Facebook page and Twitter account.

Furthermore, to ensure all of the more than 70,000 MATS attendees saw Chevron's messaging once they arrived at the show, the company also purchased sponsorships that comprised door clings on the entrances to the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville, KY, as well as branded charging stations in the reception area and large banners with the phrase "Can You See the Difference? Take the Delo Teardown Challenge." With a potential audience that could fill the Kansas Speedway, one thing was certain — the live engine teardown had to go off without a hitch.

Seeing is Believing
When truckers, fleet managers, owner operators, and their family members arrived at MATS and made their way to the Chevron exhibit, they quickly discovered just how serious the company was about proving its product claims. Beneath an overhead banner with the "Can You See the Difference?" slogan, a 15-by-20 foot structure comprising clear acrylic panels was positioned near the aisle. The shelter surrounded the exhibit's pièce de résistance — the live engine teardown.

Though the enclosure prevented attendees from physically handling the various engine parts (a necessary safety precaution), it was entirely transparent save for minimal framing and one solid white panel along the back wall on which an 80-inch flatscreen monitor was mounted. Thus, the entire contents of the room were visible to attendees, a key design decision based on the audience. "This is a very traditional crowd," Deckel says. "People always assume there will be smoke and mirrors, and we didn't want to have a backstage area. Every portion of the teardown was visible so it was clear there was no trickery, and no hiding of things we didn't want attendees to see."

Inside the space, a mechanic in branded coveralls and wearing safety glasses and rubber gloves meticulously disassembled the 2,880-pound engine over the course of one-and-a-half days while curious attendees watched. As the components were removed one at a time, they were placed on various trays positioned on a tilted counter-height surface that ran along the structure's walls for better viewing by the crowd. While the mechanic worked, one of Chevron's technical experts narrated the process, and additional staffers made the rounds from inside the teardown area, answering attendee questions and examining the parts since this was also their first look at the end result.

The entire process was recorded by a video crew and live streamed onto the 80-inch monitor, complete with close-up shots of the engine and the mechanic's handiwork. "The idea was to show the public how confident we were in the product," Schoolcraft says. Everything was out in front, well lit, and magnified so booth visitors could see not only that Chevron wasn't pulling a fast one, but also that its claims about 10W-30's level of engine protection were true.

Upon watching the removal of the various components and seeing that they had suffered minimal wear and tear, attendees were then directed to participate in the Delo Protection Challenge. Here, staffers invited visitors to peruse two books, each featuring high-resolution images of real engine parts — one contained photos of parts from an engine using 15W-40 oil, the other book had pics from an engine running on 10W-30. After attendees flipped through the books, staffers asked them if they could identify which of the oils was used on each of the engines. "Almost no one could tell the difference, and those that thought they could guessed incorrectly more often than not," Deckel says. The side-by-side comparison, in addition to the live engine teardown happening just steps away, convinced the crowd of skeptics that the 10W-30 did, indeed, offer the same amount of protection as its predecessor while offering greater fuel economy.

Convinced of the oil's efficacy, attendees moved on to other activities in the booth, such as getting Edgar Hansen's autograph, posing with the Delo Parts Man, and/or touring the newly updated Delo Truck. To thank attendees for their time and attention, those that watched the teardown, participated in the challenge, and stepped aboard the truck received marks on a blue passport card that could be turned in to booth staffers in exchange for a branded T-shirt. What's more, staffers that spotted attendees wearing the shirts on the show floor gave them Wal-Mart gift cards.

The passports were more strategic than meets the eye. Because the engine teardown attracted such a huge crowd, Chevron needed a way to briefly engage nontargeted attendees without having to scan their badges and add them to its lead-management database. So the completed passports were tallied to track the number of booth visitors — and therefore the number of attendees that had been exposed to Chevron's key messages, all of which were relayed during the passport-qualifying activities.

Proof Positive
Much to the delight and relief of Deckel, Schoolcraft, and the booth staffers, the engine teardown proved exactly what they'd hoped — that 10W-30 offered excellent protection. It's a good thing, too, since the campaign generated more than 1.3 million impressions. In addition, engagement with key targets increased by 229 percent compared to 2013, thanks in part to the passport activity that provided staffers an escape from nontargeted attendees, thus freeing up more time for conversations with VIP clients and prospects.

In fact, key-target engagement topped out at 546, exceeding the pre-show goal by nearly 10 percent. The Delo Protection Challenge and Delo Truck Tour also surpassed pre-show engagement goals by a jaw-dropping 150 percent, with more than 1,761 attendees participating in each activity. All of this came at a relatively modest price tag of $270,000, as Deckel estimates the program's total promotional value to be $750,132.

By having the ball bearings to put it all out there on the table — literally — Chevron not only proved its product claims in front of thousands, but also put on a show for attendees that they won't soon forget. E