The hydrogen car is the most sustainable zero-emission vehicle on Earth. However, because most hydrogen cars are B2B commercial vehicles, consumers are unable to access hydrogen cars in their everyday lives. Naturally, consumers could not sympathize with the necessity and benefits of hydrogen cars. To address this problem, Hyundai Motor Group, the No.1 global hydrogen market shareholder, executed a special campaign where consumers can experience hydrogen cars daily. How? With garbage truck!

Based on the previous hydrogen truck, the Hydrogen Garbage Truck was developed to only discharge water and minimize noise or heat emission, dramatically improving the work environment. The most important feature of the Hydrogen Garbage Truck is the portable sink using water, the only by-product of the hydrogen vehicle. Sanitation workers are exposed to a variety of pollutants while collecting garbage. (An average of 260,000 bacteria are detected in the body of a sanitation worker after their routine) However, they persistently suffer from infectious diseases because they cannot wash their hands while working. By allowing sanitation workers to wash their hands during work, the portable sinks reduced the risk of infection by 90%.

Despite being the ultimate sustainable vehicle, purifying the air while running, consumers are unaware of hydrogen cars’ benefits. Most hydrogen cars are B2B, rare to find. Employing traditional media to promote the strengths of hydrogen cars would be outdated, and challenging for consumers to experience their advantages. Here’s a bold strategy: let’s make people encounter hydrogen cars daily! How? With Garbage Trucks.

But why garbage trucks? 90% of garbage trucks use internal combustion engines, which threaten both the environment and sanitation workers’ health with gas, noise, and heat emission. If this problem is solved with hydrogen cars, wouldn’t their sustainable advantages be highlighted?

Consumers encounter loud, dirty, and dangerous garbage trucks daily. Resolving this with hydrogen technology, the Hydrogen Garbage Truck campaign’s strategy was to allow consumers to visibly experience the benefits of hydrogen cars and sincerely deliver Hyundai Motor Group’s message: hydrogen car technology can improve human lives.

For our strategy to be accepted by the public, the most crucial focus in the campaign execution was authenticity. During the campaign preparation, through in-depth interviews with sanitation workers, we investigated the previous garbage trucks’ problems with internal combustion engines and based on our results we developed the Hydrogen Garbage Truck, which doesn’t have to emit gas, noise, or heat that threaten the health of sanitation workers.

In particular, by utilizing water, the only product from hydrogen cars, we installed portable sinks on the garbage cars, more effectively conveying the Hydrogen Garbage Truck’s sustainable feat. The Hydrogen Garbage Trucks were manufactured based on the previous hydrogen trucks and were manufactured in one year. (Production period: 2019 January - 2021 December) The truck began operating on January 2021 and operates to this day. The campaign films were on-air for 2 months. (Media Execution period: December 30, 2021 - February 6, 2022)

1. Business Outcomes

Sales

: Through the Hydrogen Garbage Truck, people were able to directly experience the benefits and necessity of eco-friendly energy in their daily lives. This also raised consumers’ consideration of purchasing sustainable cars.

In big data analysis of consumer comments on social media, positive responses to hydrogen cars increased by 18.14% after the campaign, and positive responses to hydrogen trucks increased by 23.56%

29.3% increase in sales rate of Hyundai’s hydrogen vehicle NEXO in Korea during the campaign without any product launch campaigns.

2. Social Impacts

After receiving stellar reviews, the Korean government announced plans to replace all garbage trucks sequentially with Hydrogen Garbage Trucks in the future.

As a portable sink received great reviews from sanitation workers, Hyundai Motor Group announced to mass-produce the function as an option for *hydrogen trucks. (Announcement in March 2022)

*Applied Model: 43 PAVISE, launching in North America in 2023