The presentation covers an innovative approach taken up by S-oil corporation of Seoul to save oil. This approach not only solved a real world problem but also helped the company market itself by engaging with the public directly

1. Media Campaign by S-oil Corporation,
Seoul
“Here Balloons Campaign”
Harika Maruboyina

2. About the Company
S-oil Corporation is a petroleum and refinery company headquartered in Seoul,
Korea. It was setup in 1976 and it is one of the most profitable companies in
Korea (stands at no.441 on the Fortune 500 list) S-oil operates with a capacity
of 5, 80,000 barrels of oil per day. It is one of the top three oil companies of
Seoul
About Seoul – a city where one fourths of Koreans live. Korea stands 9th in the
top oil consuming countries in the world (according to Wikipedia, 2013) with a
daily consumption of 2,195,000 barrels per day. There’s one car owned per 2.5
people (according to the statistics given by S-oil Corporation)

3. Issue at hand:
With the growing number of cars in Seoul, parking had become a huge issue. It
was observed that an average Seoul resident drove an extra 500 meters each day
looking for a parking spot. This leads to an extra 15kms each month, i.e.1 litre
petrol per month is wasted owing to this time-consuming activity of finding a
parking spot. That is when S-oil Corporation decided to take charge and act upon
the issue.
Objective of the Campaign: To be known as the company that believed in saving
oil
Agency: Cheil Worldwide Inc., a marketing solutions company
Media Used: OOH media throughout the campaign, promoted it via social media
Name of the Campaign: “Here” Balloons campaign

4. What did S-oil do to solve the issue?
S-oil took up an initiative to save oil. They launched a campaign, wherein they put
up balloons that said “HERE” in parking spots. The balloons were placed in such
a way that when a car occupies a parking spot, the balloon goes down and when
the spot is empty, the balloon is seen in the air. So, it serves as an indicator of
free parking space. Now all that a car owner has to look for is a balloon in the air.

5. Impact of the campaign: This can be analyzed in two ways- from solving the
issue’s perspective and from the company’s advantage perspective
1. For Seoul public – As discussed earlier, an average Seoul citizen spent close to
1 litre petrol each month finding a parking spot. This was a lot of oil wastage; leave
alone the wastage of time and money.
Result of the campaign 
1 day = 700 cars X 23 litres X 365 days = Enormous success (for just one parking
lot)
One little solution just saved so many litres of oil for the public of Seoul

6. 2. For S-oil corporation – The oil company wanted to engage with the public
directly and it took the path of Marketing 3.0 to do so – meaning, they wanted
to market themselves whilst solving people’s issues real time. This not only did
good for the public by saving them a lot of oil, time and effort but also put the
brand in limelight. Post the campaign; they came to be known as an oil saving
company. Also they got the public to directly engage with them, which
otherwise is an immensely difficult-to-achieve process
The campaign won the Cannes Lions Bronze in 2012

7. Critical Evaluation of the Campaign:
Pros – The campaign was very simple to execute, yet extremely
effective. It was a successful brand building campaign that even solved
a real world problem of the people of Seoul
Cons – The maintenance of the balloons could be challenging
considering how people (especially children) could end up mishandling
them.

8. Campaign aftermath video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw9g9OVHdJI
Sources:
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130812065952-206580-big-ideasolves-parking-problem
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1085980_korean-oil-company-helpsdrivers-save-gas-with-parking-balloons
http://www.s-oil.com/